Faith Reborn [Kizuna, Safira]

"I do not need you to crawl onto the ground and kiss my toes, as you put it, such displays do nothing besides humiliate you. I could have done that in the past before now but it has never been about degrading you, Kizuna."

Her hand extended outwards and the black-green mist was pulled into her palm until it settled into the form of an blackened fruit. This required nothing less than a brand and it was one she would make Kizuna give herself willingly as her first display of true devotion. She should rejoice as being the first to be given such a privilege that was bestowed with a gentle flick of her wrist to have it hover towards the arrancar where it waited patiently in front of her.

A forbidden fruit and covenant between two hollows.

"You may put your concerns aside. I think you will find that you will enjoy many of the same freedoms you have until now, and more. One's relationship with a higher power is unique to the individual and a personal experience. Accept my Mark, and I will show you miracles of my apotheosis. Give yourself to Me, and I will show you what beyond evolution can look like."

Kizuna could only bite her lip in frustration at such a thing being offered to her. She hated to be subservient to anyone. But, at the same time, she only cared so much about her own progress. It was vital, that much was true, and this was an avenue toward it. But maybe just as important was understanding what it was that Safira had gone through.

She could put herself in no small danger for that, she supposed. After all, at the end of the day, what else mattered? When she plateaued, she would still be eaten by something else. Her nature would carry on.

Reaching out, Kizuna simply grabbed the fruit, crushing it in one hand and allowing the pulp created by such an act to fall into her mouth. She would eat it, but she would do so on her own terms.

How she chose to eat it did not matter to Safira. If her method was supposed to be a limp display at rebellion for her own identity, it was undermined by submitting.

For once the fruit entered her body, Safira shaped the energy into the form of a Mark - styled on the lower back for Kizuna's benefit so she did not have to see it every time she looked in a mirror. Painless, pleasurable even like a faint narcotic for the sake of associating a feeling of relaxation towards Safira.

"How delightful."

She stood up from her throne and took a step towards Kizuna. Crossing over the misty floor in a blink to cut a line through it and place a hand on her head.

"Now that you bear my Mark, would you offer your body to me?"

It was the kind of comment that she knew would receive a crass response. Even if Kizuna knew that is not what she meant, Safira expected it, but she meant in a far more literal sense.

"What, you want me to eat you out or something?"

The hand on her head was certainly not something Kizuna liked, but she'd already had to accept her role here if it was the path to growth. Instead, she just shrugged at the question, trying not to think too hard about the feeling of the mark that had formed itself on her flesh. It was a little too pleasant for her liking. She understood what that meant for her in the longterm.

"Do whatever you want. If this is for the sake of growth, I'm along for the ride."

Of course, maybe she'd just been tricked. Maybe it was all over now. But even if she'd just let herself be consumed, that was fine. She didn't think anyone, even this woman, could just ignore Evolution if that happened.

"It would accomplish the same as you kissing my toes. Only if you wanted to would it have any value — or you truly deserved such treatment."

Making her do it for the sake of it though? How empty and unsatisfying that felt when she wasted time thinking about it. Instead there were more pressing interests and Safira's hand moved from head to hollow hole to trace its circumference.

"For the moment, you and I are going to become one hollow. I told you I would show you beyond Evolution."

Safira explained while shifting her Olamot to Beri'ah. Her soul lost its form and quickly became a torrential flood of black and green that entered through the hole in her chest and mixed with the many souls that made up her the other hollow like water in a bucket of stones.

Oh, this was something new. Something very unusual, and something neither pleasant nor unpleasant. She had to take a moment to fully process the aftermath of such a sudden shift in her being, the hole that defined her being suddenly filled up by something completely different.

Her heart, not her own. Curious. If such a thing were permanent, this would likely be the biggest victory she could have managed. Or, arguably, the worst failing. Maybe both, depending on her perspective. Instead, she simply rubbed her temple in a moment of disappointed thought, ruminating on her current existence.

"Well, this is good, but it's not what we're looking for, huh?"

We was the correct wording, even for a singular individual at the moment. She could tell this was far from a permanent ordeal; if anything, it was probably going to end any second now. Still, the premise had been seen through. The actual concept was, quite transparently, possible.

Split. The change was on a very strict timer. Safira had no intention of whatever entity they became to stand in the empty room and have to talk to herself. Once Kizura split into two, Safira spent a moment to look at her hand and ensure that it was completely formed. It would be a problem if she left pieces of her inside of Kizuna, not that she couldn't snatch them back.

Once she was satisfied in her form being stable, she regarded her subject with a warm smile.

"I have not damaged you, have I? "

She inquired without focusing on Kizuna, she was reflecting on the one that they had became. There was too much of the other woman in her personality for her liking. That entity was not the ideal she had been seeking with this venture but perhaps she could be useful at some stage.

"Damaged? Nah. Still just as fine as ever."

Just because she'd been ostensibly humbled and put beneath Safira, she wasn't going to act any differently than always. A cocksure grin reinforced the notion that she was doing perfectly alright, and she put a hand on her hip as she studied the woman that was, whether she liked it or not, now her boss.

"So, take it that's not what you were looking for. I ain't stupid, that was more me than you. Gonna try again?"

"At least you're enthusiastic. If I didn't know any better, you like the idea of fusing to become part of a stronger being? I suppose it makes sense given your inclinations."

She commented but Kizuna was correct. She was going to try again and this time be more forceful. The last time she had held some of herself back in case it had some complications, better to let Kizuna bear the brunt of those consequences. Right?

Once more she repeated the process and fused into Kizuna.

The resulting entity looked around the empty room. She stood alone in the space and brushed aside a stray hair with her clawed hand. With a rueful grin she addressed the two hollows that created her so that the memory of her words was fresh in their memory.

"Listen well, my two pieces. Safina is my name and all of creation will undergo destruction and rebirth at my whim until it becomes its most perfect form. There is nothing here that interests me so let's end this farce."

She established to herself and set the terms of everything. Her name, her intentions, even the time in which she split. Without using the extent of the time allocated to the fused hollow, Safina split herself apart.

When she'd once again split, taking a moment to ensure she was indeed just herself, Kizuna couldn't help but laugh aloud at what she'd been told by their shared form. It was the sort of thing she couldn't imagine herself ever saying, at least not with that wording. But hey, it was respectable enough.

"I guess that's more what we're looking for, eh? Though I don't think it's gonna last long if we can't make it a little more tied together."

But, then again, who knew if they could even actually make it last longer? All things considered, that sort of dismissal of even its own parts was something Kizuna couldn't imagine Safira being willing to take lying down. If that was the case, who knows, they might be here a while.