Chapter 19: Samsara
It was, to put it mildly, a very bad night for Nobu. The mosquitoes were trying to irritate him with their constant buzzing sound, sometimes biting his pale, tired body. At night, the sounds of predators making noise, fussing somewhere in the bushes, growling macaques. He thanked himself for deciding to sleep on the tree, otherwise he would not have been able to snatch even an hour of sleep while on the ground. "Damn mosquitoes! You got me." They irritated him, but as soon as he began to make sounds, someone in the darkness responded in kind and reined in the small man who thought too much of himself. Nobu felt like the darkness was trying to destroy him.
He was shaking from fear and cold. Late at night, when he could no longer sleep, even though he managed to carve out a couple of hours of sleep, he decided to stay here for now. Since going to an unknown place was also not an option, he could get lost or simply not have enough strength to move many kilometers through the jungle and thickets, but on the other hand, he could take a risk and go in one direction, hoping to find a settlement or a village. He realized that this was not Japan. Japanese nature was not at all like this jungle. "I hope not in South America. I'm here for a long time." He did not know how far the teleportation had thrown him.
There were many thoughts in his head during the night, he could not jerk anywhere, he knew that it would only get worse. Nobu realized that when he fought for his life, time after time, something changed inside him, he was always on the edge and could break under the pressure of the jungle, but the only thing that kept him afloat. He was still alive and wanted to return to his family. Thinking turned to his ability Rollback. It was too strong to exist, something that broke the balance. However, even such a strong quirk had a weakness, or rather "fatigue". Rollback fatigue could accumulate and then it would stop functioning effectively, sometimes even causing harm to its carrier.
Rollback seemed to work automatically and instantly rolls back critical damage to organs and the brain, leaving superficial damage untouched. It was precisely untouched damage, such as a snake bite, whose two fang wounds remained, that prompted Nobu to the "saving mode" of this ability, so as not to waste it on useless tissue scarring. This is logical, you can leave some damage to the body to heal, taking on the most deadly ones. "Autonomous saving of the ability, so that it does not get tired, interesting." These thoughts were a small distraction from the harsh reality for him. Rollback's weakness is that it could get tired and stop rolling back damage to the body for a certain time, at which point Nobu could well die, in other cases, he is essentially immortal, of course continuing to feel pain.
Nobu didn't know, no one knew, not even All For One. The ability Quirk Synthesis, which All For One possessed by combining a trio of super quirks: Rollback, Skeletal Muscle Spiral and Absorption - Release, works only three times. But even All For One didn't know that it only works three times on one person, and on another it is quite capable of continuing the unification. In general, Nobu received Quirk Synthesis from him, which will make itself known very soon. All For One did not even suspect that Nobu had ripped off a whole jackpot of abilities from his "hefty piggy bank of quirks", albeit trashy, but thanks to Quirk Synthesis they will create the strongest synergy in a single one. It turned out to be a real mix.
Why hasn't All For One found out about this yet? In a world where you feel a quirk almost at the level of internal sensations, where All For One has a huge number of quirks, the exact number is unknown and it is very difficult to know about all of them, to remember them. It is quite possible that he could have made a mistake when he lost his vigilance over All For One (quirk) and, in his opinion, garbage abilities that are not particularly worth attention passed from under his control to Nobu. The synthesis of quirks exhausted itself in his body, and he stopped feeling it, so he did not notice its loss, because he said goodbye to the possibility of using it again forever even before its loss. For him, very global abilities are significant, or the same trio, or the complementary bundles of attacking and defensive quirks that he uses everywhere.
While Nobu was sleeping, he was able to catch not one, but several quirks. He dreamed of them in the form of rubber balls. Inside them was some kind of readable concept, in them he figured out what they were. Nobu was horrified when he saw the number of quirks, he decided to give them a name while he remembered their concepts.
Along with the Rollback, he had: Enhancement Mark, Death Shell, Rage and the Synthesis of Quirks itself.
In total, he had 5 Quirks. If he used them all at once, he would most likely die from exhaustion. One of the balls was very unstable, ready to burst at any moment. Nobu felt that if he used the ball several times, it would burst and disappear. And so, when he woke up, he decided how to use the opportunity that had fallen to him to become stronger. The Rollback was definitely good, but it had a drawback and if he relied on it too much, it could play a cruel joke on him, as it once did with Ash. This power could become the foundation for something bigger. Sitting in the lotus position, he understood why this position is used in yoga, it helps to clear the mind better, focusing thoughts on spiritual and internal movements.
Nobu tried all of the possible Quirks in turn. The Enhancement Mark, oddly enough, strengthened the one it was on, gave him a little strength and endurance. Rage caused an adrenaline rush, which made it very difficult for him to sit still, slightly affecting emotions, slightly suppressing fear. As for the Death Shell, Nobu realized that it apparently left a projection of the user's will after death, and even after death he could act through this shell, he could not try this, so he did not know the exact nuances. Nobu concentrated and came up with the idea of combining the Rollback and the Enhancement Mark. After all, if you bind the Rollback to the Mark, you will get a more stable structure. So he thought.
He activated Synthesis and combined the two quirks into one. The new quirk was called the Dungeon of Life. Nobu got goosebumps, he liked the name he came up with. The feeling of fusion is very interesting. As if they take 50% of one and 50% of the other, make a solution and shake it, getting a slightly modified hybrid of both at the end. Thanks to this experience, his understanding of abilities increased. Nobu tried to activate the Prison of Life, his palm gave off a slight frost, and a seal appeared on it, he could set any shape of the seal. Be it a snowflake or the number zero. Now the Rollback was tied to the mark, and in theory, his damage rollback depends on this mark.
Next, he combined the Death Shell and Rage and called it the Last March. "Phew, it's not painful to try." The last improvement and synthesis is the Prison of Life and the Last March. Quirk Synthesis stopped being active, this time forever. It is unknown how many times he modified the quirks of past users, but this improvement cycle was the last, truly forever. What came out in the end forever changed Nobu's understanding of quirks. It was incredibly difficult to understand the concept of the released quirk. It was the most beautiful quirk he had ever seen. Oh, he has experience, he can imagine what quirks look like, but all the quirks he had before, each had its own part in it.
If you compare quirks to buildings, then everyday quirks looked like high-rise buildings, gray, ordinary. Strong, unique quirks would look like buildings of unique styles: Japanese, Renaissance, Gothic, European. The resulting quirk was like the Burj Khalifa. Refined, majestic, polished to the smallest detail. This is not a comparison of their strength, but rather sophistication and subtlety, majesty.
Having realized the concept of this quirk, he gave it the name most suitable for it from Buddhism - Samsara. An indelible black tattoo appeared on Nobu's back - Ouroboros in the form of a snake, and snowflakes on the pupils of both eyes.