He rolled one of his shoulders experimentally and watched as his reflection followed suit. Then his torso pulled his attention next.
His chest was flat, but each breath he took made the faint outline of his ribs visible and on his abdomen lied definition, as clean, vertical lines ran from his ribs down toward his hips.
He tried flexing it and a soft grid appeared, only clearly visible when he tensed.
'In this life, genetics gave you an eight pack,' Instinct said, but Haki ignored him as he just kept observing in detail.
His waist was narrow, his hips were compact and his thighs and calves, though still on the slim side, looked like coiled springs ready to explode at any moment. Now, on all parts of his body, there were zero soft spots, those years spent underwater had made sure of that.
If someone had seen him from afar, they would have easily dismissed him as a child playing by the water, but someone with more intuition would pause and come to a conclusion; a blade that hasn't been sheathed yet.
He looked further down his body, towards his slightly pale feet. His soles had roughened a bit from constant contact with the cold stone floor, his toes spread naturally, gripping the rock with a surety that even some undisciplined adults lacked.
'My toes,' he observed. His toenails had grown a little long due to lack of trimming, and so had his fingernails. The edges were clean and rounded, with slightly translucent white tips due to the endless friction against stone and water, preventing them from growing into grotesque claws.
'You forgot to look at your pee-pee,' Instinct quipped from the sidelines.
Haki ignored as usual, lowering his eyes again, then looked back to his reflected face.
The boy looking back at him carried sharp red eyes and a calm, distant expression, as if he were already bored of what he was seeing.
'At least you're human,' Instinct commented with a flat tone.
Haki snorted softly, and a small bubble of air left his nose unintentionally.
'Dude, you can breathe now,' his instinct said. 'Like a normal human being,' he continued.
'Oh, that's true,' Haki seconded. He had been so used to holding his breath underwater that even now, while on land, he kept the same habit.
He took in a breath of fresh air, feeling as his lungs greedily swallowed the air around.
His Spirit made quick work of helping him adapt faster by feeding him micro-information and matching it with his existing memories;
He looked around and saw the thin, twisted trees scattered around the rocky bowl, their dark bark and dull jade leaves; the patches of stubborn grass and low shrubs clinging to cracks in the ground; the rough grey stone of the basin walls behind him and the shallow valley sloping away below, quiet and almost empty of life.
Even the sky above, wider than anything he'd bothered to look at till now, with its pale blue and distant sun, was quickly catalogued and compared to countless skies he had once seen.
'So, I am currently in a small valley with some sparse vegetation and a waterfall. Not too shabby, this will do.'
'Hmm, I wonder, what if I was born as something else…' he murmured, while Instinct replied, 'At least it'd be more interesting for me to watch.'
'What do you mean,' Haki indulged him this time, thinking; 'If I am reborn as an ant, wouldn't you also be an ant?'
'Hmmm…' Instinct hummed with a smile, which, strangely, Haki saw in his mind as a brief glimpse, and at that moment, he realized;
'Did you just use my Spirit to give yourself imaginative form?' Haki said, feigning surprise while watching as his face displayed various emotions in the water.
'Yeah, currently, I can reveal my conceptual form, making use of our 'Internal World' aided by a tiny portion of our Spirit.'
'Okay,' Haki said, as if he got tired, then he continued watching his reflection.
He tilted his head slightly to one side, studying himself from another angle. From here, due to his hair half-falling over one eye, the red pupil of the other eye stood out more, giving him an uneven, almost dangerous look.
He could already imagine how others would see him later, but he didn't care.
'So this is your vessel,' he thought. 'Fine.'
He straightened up his spine and tore his eyes away from the water, he didn't come out here to admire himself, after all. That was just confirmation.
His body had passed his little inspection test. It was lean and efficient with no wasted mass nor soft weakness. His nails and hair were slightly long, but they weren't really hindrances.
In fact, the hair was perfect for him, as when it fell over his face it gave him one more excuse to ignore people later, like in his previous life.
'Running away from social interactions already?' Instinct teased. No reply came for him though.
Haki turned his back fully on the pond and faced the shallow valley below.
Instinct yawned lazily in his mind. 'Then, old man, what now?'
'Now,' Haki thought, 'we train…'
'Continue.'
'Continue.' They said simultaneously.
***
While standing there, with his back fully on the pond while he faced the shallow valley below, his body automatically wanted to roam free, to run around randomly and explore the new geography, it was built for land, after all.
But he refused to throw himself into random movements, so he simply… sat down.
Right there on the still rocky ground, just past the basin's edge, he sat down, folded his legs and rested his hands on his knees. His spine stayed straight as usual.
He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, then his eyes became half-lidded, not closed fully.
'Let's not be stupid about this,' he thought. 'One more iteration first.'
A normal person might imagine how they would slip on a wet floor, or how they might get sick if they ate something rotten. Their brain would run a tiny, blurry simulation and give them a warning feeling.
Haki did the same thing here, but with his-
'Yeah whatever, Big Spirit Boy, just get to it.'
He breathed out slowly and let his attention sink inward. The valley around him disappeared in his perception as a new one appeared in his mind, same with the pond, the rock lip, the sloping ground, crooked trees, and finally, himself. He saw himself, as a small, black-haired figure in the middle of all that.
Then he began to create a structure.
'Seven days, seven iterations' he thought.
During this whole mental construction, his increasingly complex mind packaged it into a more definitive format.
[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]
He watched himself from a third person POV as he moved through the valley floor in his mind, completing each set of iteration for all seven days as he had intended, and after each, his… mental avatar didn't forget to stretch.
He watched the entire cycle once.
Then again.
And again.
Some time passed, time that many wouldn't have the patience to endure as he ran the whole iteration hundreds of times in his imagination until it burnt itself into his brain… literally, as a single line of blood traced from both his closed eyes.
'Ugh, you're just a masochist.' Instinct vocalized.
Only then did Haki open his eyes, the real valley appeared once again, the rocks, trees, all that.
'Done,' Instinct said in approval. 'We have our script.'
'Now we act,' Haki replied.
He stood up and walked to a clear area between two trees where the earth was bare, with only a few stones scattered around.
He didn't even look for or try to improvise for any clothing. His body was simply a tool, and tools didn't need to feel shy, besides, there was no one around. This was his train of thought.
'I'm here, stop flashing me. Besides, for this iteration, pushups, unless you want your dingle to kiss the ground every time, you would have to tie it up or something,' Instinct voiced, 'but then again, it may not even reach the ground.'
Twitch.
He tried suppressing it but his eye eventually twitched at that self-roast.
'Hmm, you've got a point. Although looking for clothing may be inefficient, the unexpected factor, our Penis, is certainly in the way. ' He stated matter-of-factly.
'What do you mean our penis? What have I got to do with the physical realm?'
'Ok. Maybe I should just cut it off then?' Haki probed.
At that moment…
SWISH—
'WAIT WAIT WAIT-' Instinct's calm tone shattered instantly. 'Don't joke with that, are we-, I mean, are you insane?!'
Haki's expression didn't change, but strangely, his eyes seemed to watch more closely now, at himself.
'I was joking, alright? I take it back, one hundred percent retracted. You have a perfectly respectable pee-pee, okay? Don't touch it. Don't even think about it.' He continued in a rush, as his words tripped over themselves.
A little smile hung on Haki's face, partly due to finally getting one up on this version of himself, but mostly because of a different reason…
He had long noticed the strange behavior Instinct had been exhibiting. He could mildly guess the reason, but for now, he would seek to be a hundred percent sure this was actually the case.
He closed his eyes, as he reviewed one portion of his past life's memory with a different part of his mind called 'subconscious', while ignoring Instinct's pleas for his pride to not be cut off.
As he absorbed this portion of memory, from the immensely large memories he hadn't integrated into this vessel yet, many scenes flashed across his mind, just enough to not flood his brain like last time.
Time passed…
***