"Hell."
Haki uttered with a strange calmness as he locked eyes with this imposing entity carrying an ear-splitting grin and slit eyes, like he had always known him.
'Of course,' he thought. 'You'd look like this.'
Hell's grin stretched even wider, his slit-eyes narrowing further in amusement and quiet madness, as if Haki's reaction had satisfied him.
From below, Instinct quietly watched the scene above his head with those glaring red glows for eyes, while still ever submerged in his own mysterious aura, like mere mortals weren't worthy of seeing his true form. He stared for a while; at Haki, then at Hell, at the way the two of them simply… accepted each other's existence like it was nothing new.
They were one and the same, after all.
After some time, he didn't mutter anything as he turned away, moving to 'his own corner' of the Internal World. As he went about his "business," one could have sworn they heard a voice coming out from that divinely colorful fog;
'Continue.'
"Hmph. It looks like I already have roommates," Hell stated as he observed Instinct's shenanigans from above. The two of them slowly descended from the sky afterwards.
"So," Hell vocalized, his tone half-angry, half-curious, "what was that about cutting off a portion of my pride?"
Haki simply looked at him with those piercing red eyes, then turned around and started walking in the direction Instinct had gone.
"I said that so you would come out," he replied. "However, if I had known that was all it would take to drag your meathead out, I might have done it sooner."
There was a brief pause in the atmosphere, as if even the silence in this place had been sucked out for a moment.
Then—
"BWAAHAHHAHAAHAHAHA!"
Hell burst out into boisterous laughter, holding his stomach and bending backwards as tears almost welled up at the corners of his eyes. The sound echoed through the Internal World in waves, wild and unrestrained, like something that hadn't been allowed to laugh in a very, very long time.
*SWISH*
In the next instant, he rushed forward, closing the distance between himself and Haki in a single step. He now walked along with him in steady steps.
"Trillions of years have passed," Hell said, and this time his expression was as calm as the bottom of a lake, "and you've remained the same through all of it."
Haki met his gaze evenly.
"We have remained the same, Hell," he corrected quietly.
It was a rare moment of peace as the three of them; Haki, Hell and Instinct, simply existed together in that Inner World, like pieces of a weapon finally being slotted back into place…
***
[Day 1 - Chest and Neck]
[Day 2 - Core]
[Day 3 - Basic Martial Arts + Basic Calisthenics]
[Day 4 - Arms]
[Day 5 - Shoulders and Back]
[Day 6 - Lower Body and Runs]
[Day 7 - Basic Martial Arts + Basic Calisthenics]
[Haki]
[Trait: Immortality]
[Stats]
Strength: 6.0
Speed: 3.4
Agility: 10.5
Defense: 22.0
Spirit: 110.1
[Skill]
[Archimedean Series – Water Breathing (Adept: 94,087/100,000)]
'…'
'…'
"What the hell is this shit?" Hell looked in disgust at the panel in front of his eyes.
The three of them were gathered in a circle, sitting cross-legged on platforms raised from the ground. Haki called it his… Inner Council.
Both Haki and Instinct remained in silence as they watched Hell almost retch in disgust, looking at the… pathetic panel in front of him.
'I leave you guys for…' Hell started, his expression twisting further and further, '…just a brief period, and this is what you bring me back to?'
*JAB* *JAB*
He jabbed a finger at the panel like it had insulted him.
"What is this? Strength; 6.0? Speed; 3.4? What exactly is going on, malnourishment?"
Before either of them could answer, Hell suddenly went still. His expression smoothed out and the mockery vanished from his eyes.
Without warning, his form blurred into black smoke and vanished from the Internal World, leaving only Haki and Instinct sitting cross-legged in the silence.
Instinct blinked once.
***
Outside, in the real valley—
*SNAP*
Haki's eyes snapped open from where he sat cross-legged, but this time around, there seemed to be a different gleam in them.
He remained in that position for a while, observing his surroundings; the trees, the stone, the pond, the sky.
After a moment, he found them uninteresting. He had seen better after all—
'Wait.'
He realized, upon trying to, visualize, the "better places" he had seen, he couldn't. He remembered that they existed, that he had walked worlds beyond this, that he had stood in labs and on dead stars and inside hells… but the details; the layouts, the colors, the equations, the laws, were blurred, as if smeared with fog.
He could only feel the weight of those memories, knowing they existed. But he couldn't read them
'It's restricted,' he concluded.
He raised his arms toward his eyes, observing his current features one more time, every nook and cranny, then came to an obvious conclusion.
'Hmph,' he harrumphed in dissatisfaction. 'I am a child,' he said in defeat.
After some time, seeing as he had no other choice, he focused his observation internally, toward a different part of his body; his brain.
Flashes of faint light shone in his eyes, visible to any keen-enough observer.
It looked like he was currently updating his memories and syncing them with this current vessel, but as he probed deeper, he felt it clearly; the larger portion of his memories was…'Locked away.'
Locked away behind something like a barrier. He reached his spirit outwards but it just brushed against the barrier and slid off every time.
'So that's the limit,' he thought. 'This vessel can only hold so much at once.'
Haki's eyes closed once more and, at that same exact moment, in his Internal World—
*POOF*
Hell appeared again at the Inner Council, in a cloud of black smoke. He sat cross-legged once again, looking at the panels hovering in midair, but this time around, his gaze was different.
He had just tried to break through that locked wall of memory, through his senses and had felt the weight on the other side, the near-infinite lives and paths… and the very real risk of snapping this small brain like a twig if they forced it all in.
He understood the story now, including the inclusion of the 'Consequence of Time'.
He glanced at Haki and Instinct with something akin to… reluctant approval.
"Hmph. This is still pathetic," Hell said after pondering for a while.
Two black lines appeared on both Haki's and Instinct's faces, like they were giving up on this blockhead.
"But even at that," Hell went on, "from what I saw, the way you trained was… acceptable. Still slow and ugly, but acceptable."
He tapped his horn once in thinking;
"Considering the fact that I was fused with Instinct a while back, that must have explained the occasional brutality in some of your actions toward yourself," he added.
Then a wide grin appeared on Hell's face as he said; "Still not brutal enough though."
SHINGGG—
At that moment, he stretched his finger toward the floating panel, and as he did so, a few more lines appeared under each one in blood red.
[Day 1 - Chest and Neck] […Train till death…]
[Day 2 - Core] […Train till death…]
[Day 3 - Basic Martial Arts + Basic Calisthenics] […Train till death…]
[Day 4 - Arms] […Train till death…]
[Day 5 - Shoulders and Back] […Train till death…]
[Day 6 - Lower Body and Runs] […Train till death…]
[Day 7 - Basic Martial Arts + Basic Calisthenics] […Train till death…]
"Now that," Hell said, looking at the panel and grinning widely like it was a delicious candy bar, "looks beautiful."
A sweat drop appeared on both Instinct's and Haki's faces as they watched this maniac rampage about.
Instinct glanced at Haki, his gaze softly saying; 'Why did you decide to bring this thing out now?'
Haki's mouth twitched.
Hell clapped his hands once, the sound echoing through the Inner Council.
"Enough talk," he declared. "We have a weak body, a quiet valley, and no excuses. Let's see how fast we can improve ourselves."
***
Outside, in the real world, Haki's eyes twitched and his fingers curled slightly.
Day one was waiting… and so was a minor, but very real, problem.
He looked down.
'Ah. Right.'
He was still naked.
'Hmph! I told you,' Hell said immediately. 'Dingle meets dirt at the bottom of every pushup. Very un-optimal… and unsanitary! Keep my pride clean! BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!'
Hell's laughter echoed faintly from the Inner Council.
Haki ignored as him as he just walked a little further down the slope. His body's adaptability was out of the question at this point, if he couldn't even remember how to walk, he should just bury himself underwater again.
'Hmph! At least you can walk.' Hell snarled from within…