Fushi

Fushi (フシ, Fushi), or Immo in Kodansha's simulpub version, is an immortal being created by The Beholder and placed on Earth to preserve the world.

His name can be written with the kanji 不死 literally meaning immortality. March, his mother figure, gave him this name, while it was simply called "the Orb" in its original form.

Background
Long ago, the Beholder dropped the orb onto the world, observing it as it sat motionless and nearly unchanging for an unknown amount of time. One day, it took on the form of a living creature, and so began its journey to experience the world and all it has to offer.

Appearance
Fushi is an immortal being that can mimic the form of anything that has provided him sufficient stimuli. Early on, his forms were exact copies of how he last saw them, taking on any injuries or deformities he was aware of, while his initial clothing had an adhesive property to them.

When it was first dropped onto the Earth, Fushi was merely a featureless white sphere. Without consciousness, it copied the first thing it came into contact with, a rock. Soon afterwards, when the rock grew moss, it too would become moss and remain so for a long time. Eventually, a wounded wolf wandered close to it in the middle of winter and died, allowing it to take on its form.

After the death of The Nameless Boy, it mimicked the boy's appearance, taking on the form of a young boy with white hair, pale complexion, and green eyes, wearing a short, brown fur cloak, light blue shirt and pants with fur boots. For some time, Fushi would retain the rope leash that the boy wore on his right wrist as well as the infected wound on his left leg.

While Fushi defaults to the Nameless Boy for his usual appearance, he can take the form of countless people, animals, and objects, if he so chooses. Of the humans he can turn into, he often utilizes March, a little girl with long black hair wearing a simple white dress, Gugu, a young man with defined muscles who hid his deformed face behind a salamander mask, and Parona, a beautiful young woman with black hair and a slender body.

Personality
Before achieving a sense of self, Fushi would simply mimic the actions of others and act based on instinct. Over time, as his ego develops, he grows to become a caring and kind individual driven by his curiosity and desire to create a peaceful world.

As an immortal entity unlike any other, Fushi bears many human traits that sometimes clash with his undying nature. Having experienced the pain of others and pain beyond human comprehension due to his immortality, Fushi greatly dislikes the feeling in all its forms, causing him to do whatever it takes to prevent it. He avoids conflict whenever possible, and is mortified at the very thought of killing a living creature, while in contrast, as they are an antithesis to him, he shows contempt and little mercy towards the Nokkers. His ideals on this are challenged particularly while on Jananda, as he finds himself fighting people deliberately risking their lives in a community that encourages murder as a means to an end. This happens again in modern day Yanome, where the Nokkers claim to desire coexistence, and their ability to experience pain and express emotions cause Fushi to hesitate.

Fushi appears to be a quick learner with excellent, if not perfect, memory. His multitude of forms and wide variety of things to replicate at his disposal allow him to solve most problems without issue.

While Fushi's kindness and ability to adapt carries him through most of his adventures, his lack of tact and difficulty in understanding others are a constant source of friction for him, and is most prominently seen in the modern era. From laughing at Tonari's new dress, trying to convince Tonari to be friends with Mizuha, to desperately asking his companions to not leave him, Fushi's blunt way of speaking can be off-putting, and he struggles to comprehend the deeper complexities of mortals. Eventually, he learns that even his friends still desire things beyond an everlasting peace, and that he cannot always give them what they want.

Abilities

 * Immortality

Fushi is a true immortal in that even if he were to lose all his forms, he would simply revert back to an inert white orb.


 * Rapid Regeneration

Fushi recovers quickly from any injury he receives, no matter how gruesome or persistent, and his revival speed becomes faster with every death. It initially took him five days to revive, decreasing to six hours, and then eventually to mere minutes. He also resurrects more quickly as his body adapts to whatever kills him.

After bathing in molten iron for a significant time, Fushi's regeneration speed can now outpace even that, returning to his senses in just nine seconds.


 * Shapeshifting

Fushi can take on the shape and abilities of anything that gave him stimuli, and includes even extrasensory abilities like Bon's. The stronger the stimuli, whether physical or emotional, the better he can shift into said form. However, he can only shift into a living being after said being is dead, and he cannot shift into someone he has never seen alive. When he tries to mimic a corpse, he will simply become a corpse and nothing more.

When Fushi acquires a body from a living being, it it exactly how he last saw them, which includes any wounds that remained. March's form has a bloodstain on her abdomen, The Nameless Boy's leg has a wound, and whenever he shifted into The Boy's body, he would feel hungry as The Boy likely ate very little before his death.

When shifting into another living being, his personality, habits, and voice can change accordingly, depending on how Fushi knew them. He takes on their abilities and appearance, save for any forms with eyes, which remain yellow while he is conscious.

Fushi can only transform into someone that he has seen. Strictly speaking, if he is not present at the time of their death, he can only transform into them as he last saw them. This includes Parona, Rean, and Shin, who all died without Fushi present, so he does not mimic their injuries or old age. In contrast, Fushi could likely transform into both the younger and older versions of Tonari, as he knew her well in those stages of her life and succeeded in resurrecting Tonari in her youthful body.


 * Empathy Sense

Fushi has the supernatural ability to sense the emotions and pain of other living beings, even if he cannot see them. As a result, he doesn't need to extensively interact with individuals directly in order to take their form.


 * Replication

When it comes to non-living things, Fushi only needs to receive stimuli from them once before being able to recreate them perfectly at essentially no cost. The greater the stimulus, the deeper it is imprinted in Fushi's memory and the easier it is to replicate it. As such, he consumes a wide variety of food, and rubs books and other objects on his arm in order to expand the number of objects he can create.

So far, he can create corpses of the people he's seen, the shell of a crab, various books and weapons (including explosive arrows), money, a doll, and many kinds of food which seem to be perfectly safe for consumption.

Though he could not replicate a torch's fire, after he was imprisoned by the Church of Bennett in an iron box that had molten iron poured into it, Fushi gained the ability to replicate the molten iron and its extraordinarily high temperature, using it to escape from his prison after a few days.


 * Resurrection

After being asked to revive a lord's daughter, Fushi unknowingly demonstrated his ability to revive the dead, needing only to recreate their body for their Fye to return to. However, Fushi can only revive someone whose Fye remains in the world, and he can't revive someone he hasn't seen alive, as their recreated body would be dead already. Fushi can circumvent this restriction if he is able to interact with the soul directly, such as using Bon's body and his ability to see them. This ability also doesn't seem to work if a Nokker is possessing the spirit's body, in spite of Fushi being able to create separate bodies.


 * Territory Domination

After Fushi expresses his desire to sense the Nokkers, the Beholder teaches him the ability to expand his senses throughout objects using his ability to create. Fushi utilizes plant roots to expand the territory he effectively "controls", allowing him to create whatever he needs to destroy Nokkers that enter it.

As this allows him to create anything where his roots exist, he can also create other bodies and transfer his consciousness to them and back again to his main body.

Eventually, after spreading his roots around the entire planet and supposedly wiping out all the Nokkers, the Beholder grants him the ability to reconnect to any part of him that he has severed, allowing him to roam the world freely, without needing to be attached to his network.

Quotes

 * "You must be the one to choose how you live!" - Fushi echoing Parona's words to Gugu (Chapter 27)
 * "A friend to me is someone who remains beyond death." (Chapter 61)

Trivia

 * Fushi can grow older despite being immortal. However, if he dies or changes his form, he goes back to the original age of the person he took the appearance from.
 * Due to feeling the pain of dying creatures, Fushi would leave the cooking of crayfish and other sea animals to Gugu.
 * Fushi's dream for the future is to become strong enough to defeat the Nokkers.
 * Fushi has shown several times to be interested in cooking and sewing.
 * After living as both fish and lobsters for a few years, Fushi can no longer eat them.
 * While in the appropriate forms, Fushi's reproductive organs are technically functional, and has even given birth to turtles while living as one.
 * Fushi was originally going to be female, but a colleague suggested a male protagonist in order to create a different appeal. Ōima wanted to make the protagonist neutral, and said she prefers neutral female characters. undefined

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