Fanfic / Changing Gears

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When Midoriya Izuku received All Might's Quirk, he wasn't expecting it to make his hands glow blue. Or allow him to use Super-Speed. Or let him launch objects at high speed. Or let him heal people. Or let him stop an object's speed, bypassing inertia in the process. Or for All Might to not know what this new Quirk is, or how to use it. Needless to say, Midoriya has some Quirk Experimenting to do, with All Might ready to do what he can to help!

Changing Gears is a My Hero Academia fanfic written by griffinguy24, who also wrote One for All and Eight for the Ninth and "We have One for All at home", with the premise that Izuku initially unlocks Gearshift instead of Stockpile. It can be found here on Archive of Our Own.

Tropes that feature are:

• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • Shiozaki gives a small snort when Izuku jokes about promising Recovery Girl he wouldn't give all he had.
  • Endeavor lets out a snort when, in a moment of exhaustion, Izuku responds to Endeavor's words of "Put up a good fight for my son," with "Well I wasn't going to go out there to dance."
  • While discussing Tenya's desire for revenge on Stain, Todoroki remarks that as far as he knows, anger doesn't make Tenya's quirk stronger, "Though if you do come up with a way to hate someone so hard it kills them, let me know." Even in his grief and fury, Tenya has to chuckle.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Midoriya ultimately decides to stop trying to become Bakugou's friend again or treat him as such.
  • Momo and Izuku quickly bond over similar intellectual interests and both being the class reps (with Izuku maintaining this position), quickly becoming close friends.
  • Recovery Girl is thrilled with the healing applications of Izuku's new power and gives him lessons to improve its healing abilities. Due to her threats, Aizawa is also careful in his interactions with Izuku.
  • Izuku earns the respect of his classmates much faster, including for his intellectual abilities, and remains their class president. This is further heightened when he openly admits to being a late bloomer, a very late bloomer, which leaves them all very impressed he has made such progress as it is.
  • Kirishima was Bakugou's biggest friend in canon. Here, due to Izuku openly telling the class he was Quirkless until the Entance Exam, Kirishima spots a lot of red flags in Bakugou's behaviour and distances himself from the latter. Further, because they are sent to different spots during the USJ incident, they don't form any connection under fire to smooth over the building issues.
  • Aoyama is convinced that Izuku is also one of All For One's agents, and a significantly higher ranked one at that. Therefore, the poor mole is desperate to gain his 'superior's' good favor, and thus is working to ingratiate himself with him.
  • As Izuku's Quirk doesn't seem to resemble All Might's and Todoroki never used his fire in the Cavalry Battle, Todoroki never reveals his Dark and Troubled Past, meaning there's no connection between them.
  • Shinsou's behaviour is taken as unsportsmanlike by the Hero Course students (and General Course), and his failure to reach the third round prevents him from sharing his perspective of things. So no one in 1-A holds him in any positive regard.
  • 1-A and 1-B meet up at Momo's mansion to discuss their internship offers; with the exceptions of Bakugo, Todoroki, and Monoma. This heals any lingering issues between the classes and brings them closer together to boot.
  • Tomura genuinely is intended to be All For One's successor, or at least the instrument of his revenge, rather than his new body as the villain has already pulled off Grand Theft Me multiple times, only to have it fail.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Even without the Stockpile Quirk, by the time of the Sports Festival Izuku is already far more powerful than he was by that point in canon. He is also using Gearshift in far more powerful and versatile ways than merely speeding himself up.
  • Thanks to the tips Izuku gave him, Kaminari has greater control over his Quirk, allowing him to hold Izuku off during their fight at the tournament.
  • Gearshift in canon seems to be only useful for launching small objects at an opponent and very briefly letting Izuku bypass his limits in using One For All, contrast this story where it's probably the most powerful Quirk in the hero course and second in utility to Creation.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Midoriya gets access to the Second User of One For All's Quirk to start, much earlier than its appearance in canon during the final arc of the story.
  • Eri and Chisaki first appear shortly before the first internships rather than during the second internships.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: As a consequence of the above, Midoriya does not currently have access to the Super-Strength aspect of One For All.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: The author has been fairly clear that the Third Torchbearer will have a different Quirk than Fa Jin, because griffinguy24 is not impressed by the canonical Quirk.
• Adapted Out:
  • Mineta is expelled after the Quirk Apprehension Test since Aizawa didn't want to deal with his perverted tendencies.
  • As Ochako learns Izuku's name from the video with the notes and learns what "Deku" actually means before the first day of class, she never calls him that way.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Izuku immobilises Bakugo during a training exercise by putting him into "Neutral", so he can't move himself but can still be moved by others. Izuku doesn't go as far as using "Park", however, which is total stasis, since he suspects it could be harmful. When detailed testing later confirms that putting cells into "Park" is rapidly lethal, Izuku runs to a bin and throws up.
• Always Second Best: Shouto is frustrated by constantly being one of the better students but not the best student, due to both Momo and especially Izuku constantly outperforming him. While initially he could accept this given how he was aware the best of the best was coming to U.A., for it to continue consistently is quickly undermining his patience (particularly as he notices Izuku getting apparent preferential treatment). He actually briefly empathizes with his father's own frustrations of always failing to measure up to All Might. The crushing and outright traumatic defeat at the Sports Festival hardly helping.
• Amazon Chaser:
  • Izuku was already crushing on her, but the moment Ochako makes her intense declaration of wanting to crush the Sports Festival is when he falls in love with her.
  • Ochako is particularly intrigued by the muscular aspects of Kendo.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Upon being complimented by Iida about understanding the Entrance Exam better than him, Midoriya notes that he didn't know about the Rescue Points. He then asks Iida if he wouldn't have saved anyone unless he thought he would be rewarded for it. Iida notes Midoriya's point and takes it as more proof that Midoriya is the better Hero student.
  • When Tetsutetsu comes to 1-A and states they were lucky to face some villains, Izuku has a retort:
    Tetsutetsu: Don’t underestimate us just because you got lucky to face some villains! Don’t you go making the rest of us look bad!
    Izuku: Oh, and if one of us died, or was seriously injured? Would that have made you look bad?
  • After hearing just why Bakugo hates Death Arms so much^note The man left him to die because he "didn't have a suitable quirk", Sato asks if Bakugo told the teachers at U.A. that story as they probably would have let him take a different internship if they had known about his history with the man.
  • When Izuku realizes Iida is at Hosu to hunt down Stain, he asks a triple-punch of questions that get through Iida and make him realize his idiocy.
    Izuku: Iida, do you think Ingenium is a mediocre Hero? Someone who isn't skilled?
    Iida: Of course not! Tensei is a fabulous Hero! He's trained extensively with his Quirk for years and he regularly apprehends Villains and saves civilians in seconds! He would have set records if not for All Might's career bests!
    Izuku: So you think he's better than a high school student in the middle of his first semester?
    Iida: Of course he is!
    Izuku: Then why the hell do you think you could succeed against the Hero Killer when Ingenium failed?
• Ascended Extra: Chikuchi Tokeige, a minor named student in canon, takes Mineta's lost spot in 1-A after the Sports Festival.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Midoriya quickly demonstrates his talent for Quirk Analysis, and several of his 1-A classmates are eager to ask for his advice on exploring their Quirks.
• Bad Liar: After Izuku cottons on to Iida's intent to find Stain and fight him and points it out to him, Iida tries to hide it by expressing his surprise that Izuku would think such a thing. Izuku's reaction tells Iida he was unsuccessful.
• Badass Teacher: Like in Canon, pre-Character Development Endeavor might have dozens of utterly horrid points, but nobody can deny he's both an exemplary hero and and absolutely superb teacher/mentor. During his time with Izuku, he helps the younger boy master his frankly Difficult, but Awesome quirk in incredible ways and not once does he show any confusion about it when talking about the quirk and and thier potential applications, showing that he's just as much a Genius Bruiser as he is in Canon.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Endeavor wanted to see his son use his flames for once, and Izuku told him to be careful about the things he wants. Shoto ends up using his flames during his fight with Izuku... because Izuku used his Quirk to trap Shoto in ice and Shoto started to panic, leaving Endeavor sick in the stomach.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Izuku beats Todoroki in the Sports Festival by trapping him in ice. Kinoko, who was trapped by Todoroki in ice during their match, finds it cathartic.
• Beyond the Impossible: Izuku is shocked when he realizes the Nomu is still alive even though he was in "Park" for several minutes, which meant it was neither breathing nor was its heart beating.
• Blatant Lies: Shinso insists he "tried everything he could" to get into the Hero Course, but Chikuchi fires back that he didn't make friends or even exercise, both of which would have helped far more than sabotaging others.
• Break the Haughty: Downplayed. Bakugou's enrollment at UA has been a complete flip on his Big Jerk on Campus middle school experience, leaving him an average Hero Course student set apart only by his significant behavioral issues and frequently being outshone by his former victim, Izuku. Because Bakugou based so much of his ego around the validation he received when others treated him as better than Izuku, this seriously takes a toll on Bakugou's self-esteem.
• Chekhov's Gun: During Chapter 3, Izuku mentions having come up with a way to counter Todoroki's Quirk. He demonstrates it in Chapter 7 - by changing the speed of atoms and molecules in the air to increase or decrease temperature.
• Closet Key: Ochako realises she is attracted to girls in addition to guys during the Sports Festival when she finds herself fantasizing about Kendo.
• Cluster F-Bomb: All for One lets out a string of expletives when he realises whose Quirk Izuku is using.
• Combat Breakdown: Over the course of the Sports Festival tournament, several characters have their Quirks start weakening due to injury or overuse, such as Tetsutetsu no longer being able to keep up his armor and Setsuna being slower to split apart.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Sato points out to Bakugou that had he told the teachers about his history with Death Arms instead of just complaining about having to go with him, they might have allowed him to go intern with another Hero.
• Crazy-Prepared: UA has a massive book detailing every possible situation in which someone could earn Rescue Points in their entrance exam, with the Zero Pointer alone having two entire pages dedicated to it. Aizawa complains about Izuku getting 60 points for rescuing Uraraka, until Nezu is able to point to the exact passage that outlines that exact scenario and the points gained by it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Midoriya and Uraraka's fight with Bakugou and Iida in the Battle Trial is hilariously one-sided. Midoriya exploits Bakugou's Leeroy Jenkins tendencies, along with using his new power, to let Uraraka capture him in less than two minutes. And that is mostly travel time, with the actual 'fight' being seconds. Facing both of them at once means Iida follows not long after. All told, the battle appears to have taken about five minutes from start to end.
  • Izuku handily wins the Obstacle Race by commandeering a Zero Pointer and throwing it so fast he clears the Fall and half of the minefield, and then rides the subsequent explosion to reach the goal before anyone manages to cross the Fall.
  • He, along with his team of Ochako, Hatsume, and Togeike, win the Cavalry Battle by Parking a platform made by the latter high enough that few can reach up to them, and shooting down any attempts to reach them.
  • Izuku's final match of the Sports Festival is over in a heartbeat as he grabs Setsuna's hands and throws them out of bounds, instantly securing him the victory.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Aizawa is skeptical at first about Izuku's rough performance in the entrance exam, but Recovery Girl points out, among other things, that his Quirk can heal people, which is ridiculously valuable, and if Aizawa jeopardises Izuku's position at UA, then she might decide not to carefully monitor Aizawa's stamina the next time he needs healing.
  Recovery Girl: But I’m sure a chronic insomniac who subsists on coffee and jelly packs will be sure to have enough energy and fuel to endure one of my serious healing sessions, no?
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Downplayed as most people with healing Quirks charge massive fees for their services. Recovery Girl is the only one providing aid for free and deeply resents the others.
• Death Glare: Tomura initially has no idea who the Shie Hassaikai are, and is not impressed by their request to ally with the League of Villains. When All for One informs him that they're a Yakuza organisation, he whistles and questions why they aren't stuffed and placed in a museum, which Overhaul isn't impressed by.
  Well, it was obvious the masked idiot didn't have a Quirk that made his glare deadly, or Tomura wouldn't have survived it.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Gearshift has numerous applications beyond the obvious Super-Speed, including freezing opponents in place, healing, and even killing cancer cells. However, the effects it has on a person's body if not carefully monitored start at "possibly dangerous" and quickly go to outright lethal. If Izuku overuses his Super-Speed, his body becomes starved of oxygen. If he freezes someone in place via "Park" rather than "Neutral", their heart stops beating and they can't breathe. If he doesn't make certain he only targets the cancerous cells, he'll kill healthy parts of a person. And if he heals someone too carelessly, he can actually give them cancer or simply age them to death. Against Shouto he demonstrated temperature control surpassing his opponent's own, but messed up his hands so badly in the process he was nearly disqualified from participating further. But, when used carefully, Gearshift's utility is second only to Creation.
  • This makes Izuku's progress all the more impressive to others because he has been achieving masterful progress in only two months.
• Double Standard: Discussed as the reason why Midnight vetoes Alien Queen for Mina while approving Aoyama's Can't Stop Twinkling. Midnight says it is an unfortunate fact women are judged more harshly than men and a name with bad connotations for women hurts their career more than an equivalent name for men would hurt theirs.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • All Might notes that not knowing how Midoriya's new power works could be a blessing in disguise. He notes the hypothetical of Midoriya getting Super-Strength but not being able to use it like All Might. All Might notes that his advice in this potential scenario might be unhelpful or even harmful. Anyone familiar with canon knows that All Might isn't too far off.
  • When Bakugo sees Izuku getting the gold medal with bandaged hands and crying, he assures himself that he would have received it with grace. In canon, he had to be tied up to a post during the ceremony because he was completely feral over Todoroki not using his fire during the final bout.
• Elemental Powers: Through very complex physics, Izuku has managed to use Gearshift to manipulate four different elements:
  • An Ice Person: During his battle with Shouto in the semi-finals, he slows down the molecules in the air, forming his own ice walls to block Shouto’s ice attacks. However, owing to his body lacking Required Secondary Powers of ice resistance, he ends up giving his hands a bad case of frostbite. Endeavor’s temperature control training allows him to use this technique, which he dubs Thermostat, without injuring himself.
  • Blow You Away: Thanks to training with Endeavor and Kido, Izuku figures out how to manipulate the air into shockwaves and air barriers.
  • Making a Splash: When he’s dropped into the flood zone in the USJ, he alters the speed of the water in the lake to send pressurised bursts of water at the villains.
  • Playing with Fire: Along with the aforementioned ice, he also figures out how to generate blazing heatwaves by speeding up air molecules. This also injures him at first, as he burns his hands. Endeavor helps him use this technique without burning himself.
• Enlightened Self-Interest: Togeike outright tells Izuku she's helping him because being on the same team as him for the Sports Festival Cavalry Battle would improve her chances of transferring to the Hero Course. Izuku's fine with her acting in self-interest since she promised to do the best she could to help their team win. And when she does transfer in, she fits in well with everyone else, even befriending Eri.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • After Izuku admits that he "thought he was Quirkless" until the entrance exam, Aoyama comes to the conclusion that Izuku must be another spy for All For One. And since Izuku's Quirk is visibly far stronger than his own with far fewer drawbacks, despite the Aoyama family's wealth and influence, it means Izuku is much higher ranked.
  • Katsuki is right on the money in believing that Izuku manifesting a Quirk at all, much less one that is as strong as Gear Shift, during the Entrance Exam is suspicious, given how they would've been fifteen at the time. That said, he mistakenly believes that he was faking his Quirklessness to create a sympathetic backstory for when he became a Pro.
  • When All for One sees that Aoyama is referring to himself in plural in his reports, the former attributes it to issues with dual fluency, not knowing that Aoyama believes Izuku is also a spy.
• "Eureka!" Moment: When he learned that he was being sent to Death Arms for Internship, Bakugo's demands to be under a real hero were ignored. But when he later told Sato his reason for hating Death Arms, which meant Bakugo sharing one of the worst days of his life, Sato actually agreed with Bakugo's opinion. That made Bakugo have an epiphany.
  Maybe...maybe he didn't need to appear strong all the time?
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: More like "self-absorbed jackass cannot comprehend good", but still - Bakugo asked his parents to enroll him at Aldera despite it being a Sucky School, because it would make his ascendance to Pro Hero more impactful than coming from a good school with Hero support programs, and comes to the conclusion that Izuku was doing the same thing, except also pretending to be an extremely late bloomer the whole time, pretending to be Quirkless and hiding his real Quirk until the U.A exam. He's furious when he realizes Izuku's "backstory" trumps his own.
  Bakugo: That was better. That was Number One material.
• Evil Is Petty: Overhaul is not only evil but he's also incredibly petty. When he returns from seeing Eri being taken away by Midnight, he's so angry that, when one of the Yakuza asks him what's wrong, he answers by making it so his bladder and intestines empty in his lungs.
• Explosive Leash: All for One takes Overhaul, experiments with it, then gives it back to its original owner — along with a "Deadly Leash" Quirk that lets All for One engrave orders into his skin that must be obeyed.
  All for One: If you attempt to willfully disobey those commands, you will be paralyzed. The severity increases each time. It stops most people's hearts the third time. Even the healthiest person I gave it to died after five attempts at disobedience.
• Fake–Real Turn: Mineta Minoru scores the lowest overall in Aizawa's assessment tests, and is told to pack his bags. Unbeknownst to him, it's just a ploy to make the students take their education seriously, and he'll be reinstated before he gets home. Until, that is, Aizawa notices how relieved several of the girls are by the news, and then Mineta reacts to the expulsion by loudly lamenting the lost opportunity to get his hands on all the pretty girls around him.
  Aizawa sighed. Well, it appeared this was one of the few times where the expulsion was permanent.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During the Battle Trials, Izuku mentions the ability to put objects in "Park", which leaves them completely immobile even by outside forces. During the attack on the USJ, he uses it on the Nomu which not only leaves it paralyzed but also means it can't escape through Kurogiri's portals, even when one is opened directly beneath it.
  • Even though the Third Torchbearer has a different Quirk, he keeps the same name he has in One for All and Eight for the Ninth, which the author implies is important.
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • Within 1-A, Bakugo has become this to his dismay due to his abrasive personality driving his classmates away. During the second round of the Sports Festival, none of the "extras" flocked up to him to beg to join his team. And when he swallowed his pride enough to go up to other teams to demand they let him join, they refused. Izuku is later stunned to realise that his own cold attitude towards Bakugo likely contributed to it given how popular he is in comparison.
    (crossed out) It was like he was a pariah. Like he was Deku!
  • Todoroki's behavior when he comes in second at the Cavalry Battle leaves Ochako convinced he is another bully like Bakugo.
  • Shinso shows signs of this for the General Ed students, as he got through the first round of the Sports Festival by forcing his fellow General Ed students to literally carry him to victory, and then abandoned them to cross the finishing line. Because of this, Togeike is perfectly happy with sharing the details of his Quirk, which leads to his ultimate defeat.
• Friendship Moment: While on an internship under Death Arms, Sato convinces Bakugo to share why he hates the hero so much over a cup of hot chocolate. Afterwards, Sato remarks on what a "piece of shit" Death Arms is while Bakugo considers he hadn't actually spent time with any of his classmates before.
• Friend to All Children: Midnight commends Chikuchi for her sensitive and compassionate handling of Eri's Power Incontinence episode, confirming that comforting scared children is a big part of their job as heroes.
• Grand Theft Me: Chapter twelve reveals that All For One is on his fourth body and has attempted to take over five others, only for his wounds to reappear each time.
• Green Thumb: Chikuchi Togeike’s Quirk, Foliage, allows her to manipulate and crossbreed plants, and speed up their growth. However, she can’t create plants, and needs to start with a seed. When paired with Gearshift, the Quirk supercharges the growth.
• Grew a Spine: Midoriya becomes more assertive towards Bakugou, ultimately deciding to no longer consider him a friend. Granted, it is initially due to sleep deprivation, but once he gets rolling, he commits to it. Although he does have a one-sided conversation with the Vestiges to let him sleep before he ends up being like Bakugo.
• Harmful Healing: Gearshift can be used to heal much like Recovery Girl's Quirk, but if it's not properly controlled it can actually be lethal.
• Heel Realization: Between the panic Shoto displayed at being trapped in ice and the injuries Izuku received from manipulating thermodynamics without the Required Secondary Powers, Enji realized how poorly he treated his family earlier than in canon.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When Izuku realizes that using "Park" is lethal if used on living beings, he vomits.
  • Learning about One for All's story and All for One leaves Izuku so numb that it takes two days to shake him out of it.
  • Todoroki falls in one after Izuku traps him in ice during their fight in the tournament.
• Hidden Depths: All Might has an undergraduate degree in human physiology, and Recovery Girl acknowledges his skill in training the human body.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • When Hatsume tries to do her "infomercial" thing during her fight with Awase, Awase tries to stop her by welding two of her babies with the arena ground. Instead, Mei's jetpack and stabilizers overcompensate, and she accidentally pushes Awase out of bounds.
  • Kendo manages to grab Ochako's hand with a giant one. Ochako turns it on her by using her Quirk on Kendo through that same hand.
  • Izuku manages to use Gearshift to change the temperature in the air and create either fire or ice - in short, almost the same thing as Todoroki's Quirk. And he uses this trick against Todoroki. He even uses all the moisture from Shouto's melted attacks to trap the latter in ice!
• Humiliation Conga:
  • For all his bravado and boasting, Bakugo finds himself with no friends in U.A., closer to the middle of the pack rather than solidly dominating everyone, doesn't make it past the second event at the Sports Festival, and his sole internship offer is from Death Arms, the hero who nearly let him die a year prior. Worse, he learns that Death Arms is one of the agencies for people who don't get any offers, meaning he got one of the "offers for rejects" in his words.
  • Discussed; Monoma feels Awase was dealt this during his battle with Hatsume Mei. Monoma, upset about class 1-A, was eager to see a member of class 1-B easily defeat a member of the support course. But as Awase refused to agree to Hatsume Mei's plans of cooperation, seeing it as an insulting handout, Hatsume instead uses the former as a crash dummy. After spending the entire "fight" being easily managed and played with to Hatsume's ends, Awase's one successful subversion of her will ends up knocking himself out of the ring unintentionally, making Hatsume the winner — prompting Hatsume to angrily reveal she hadn't been trying to win, which everyone hears. Awase was beaten by someone not in Heroics and not trying to win, which Monoma finds utterly humiliating.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Minor example when Izuku finds out that All Might used to be Quirkless himself, and asks All Might why he said Izuku couldn't be a Hero without a Quirk. All Might admits he had been at the end of a particularly bad day after years of bad days. He also acknowledges that, regardless of how everything had gone, it was wrong of him to tell Izuku that, and that he was glad to be proven wrong when he saw for himself that Izuku could be heroic without a Quirk.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Due to the premise of the fic being Izuku getting Gearshift first, the title of every chapter has something to do with driving (Coming Out of Neutral, Carpool Lane) or racing (Zooming Past the Finish Line).
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Izuku still wins the Obstacle Race by propelling himself with a massive minefield explosion, even though he didn't need to due to his massive lead over everybody else.
  • In spite of the exact events not happening to lead to it in canon, Todoroki still wins his first tournament fight by creating a large glacier, and his next fight is against Izuku.
  • While under very different circumstances, Izuku still gets Shoto to use his fire and significantly messes up his hands to do so.
  • In spite of the different circumstances, Todoroki ends up sharing the truth of his father's efforts to create a Superior Successor, and Izuku gets him to accept both sides of his Quirk by pointing out that neither side belongs to his parents.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex:
  • Bakugou, who rages and proclaims himself superior mostly to cover up his own deep insecurities that others, especially Izuku, are "better" than him. Izuku, after several nights of poor sleep, is even blunt enough to describe Bakugou as "terrified of the possibility that he peaked in middle school so he’s overcompensating." After losing in the second round of the Sports Festival, it's shown that Bakugou's battling with internal thoughts of worthlessness and this fear is agitated by his classmates not wanting to work with him, which he describes as treating him "like he was a Pariah. Like he was Deku!"
  • Monoma is obsessed with proving 1-B's greatness and labeling 1-A as glory hounds because he secretly fears 1-B is a "runner-up" class.
• Internal Reveal: Bakugo reveals the Sludge Villain incident to Sato when he asks why he hates Death Arms.
• Ironic Echo: When Bakugo demands to know how Izuku got a Quirk, he fires back that he got it by "taking a swan dive."
• Insane Troll Logic: Bakugo comes to the conclusion that Izuku spent years pretending to be Quirkless, causing him to be bullied, for the sole purpose of giving himself the perfect origin story to be the next Number 1 Hero. There is absolutely nothing to support such a theory.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After Izuku reveals he is a "late bloomer", Kaminari quickly begs him to analyze his Quirk. Just as Jiro tells him he shouldn't consider Izuku some sort of "Quirk genius", Izuku delivers a thorough analysis of Kaminari's Quirk and offers suggestions he can use to improve his power usage. Jiro promptly stands corrected.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Shinsou screwing over Togeike's friends during the Obstacle Course prompts her to share intel on his Quirk to Izuku, who passes it on to Setsuna. Knowing he screwed over one of her classmates too, Setsuna is inspired to take Shinsou's team's headbands at the last possible moment to deny Shinsou advancement.
  • Called out by Komori Kinoko regarding Shouto. Shouto freezes her in ice in their match during the Sports Festival. Shouto's signature tactic inspires Izuku to try something similar against him. When Izuku returns the favor to Shouto by burying him in ice in their following match, Endeavor can hear Komori stand up and yell "YES! SEE?! THAT’S WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!”
• Loophole Abuse: Izuku can have problems if he uses Gearshift on himself for too long. Nothing keeps him from using it on something else and then ride that.
• Love Epiphany: Ochako realises she is in love with Izuku during the Sports Festival.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Second and Third Torchbearers get names like the ones they have in One for All and Eight for the Ninth - the only difference is that the Second's first name is Soujirou (銃赦), with 銃 = "gun" and 赦 = "forgiveness", with "jirou" being a homophone for "second son".
  • Izuku's choice of Hero name is Kyūshin (急進), meaning "rapid progress", and also inserting a pun related to the number nine.
• Meaningful Rename: Upon learning about Endeavor's mistreatment of Shouto, Izuku continues dutifully training, but starts to nonverbally protest and undermine Endeavor by actively imitating All Might.
  He'd decided to rename his Air Cannon technique. Now, precision shots were "Delaware Smash - Air Force", while more widespread blasts of wind were "Texas Smash - Air Force".
  The look on Endeavor's face was one Shouto would cherish.
• Mirror Match: Izuku's match against Todoroki involves the former using a jury-rigged version of the latter's quirk by speeding up or slowing down the vibration of air molecules around him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • During the Sports Festival, one of the tournament fights is between a boy and a girl, with the boy being stronger, and going on for long enough that one of the spectators complains that the boy is toying with the girl, only for the latter to almost win with an unexpected move. Only, instead of Bakugo and Ochako, here it's Tetsutetsu and Togeike.
  • Izuku still messes up his hands in his fight with Todoroki.
  • Ochako uses her Quirk on the ring's stone floor to send it into the air before dropping it on Tokage, similar to what she did against Bakugo in her canon match.
  • When Ochako gets a message from Izuku, Gunhead asks if it's her boyfriend.
  • Todoroki asks Izuku if All Might is his father.
• Nerd Gasm: Mei's reaction (a) when Izuku develops a plan that contains her firing a railgun, and (b) when she learns what Momo's Quirk does.
• Never Mess with Granny: Recovery Girl (happy at finding another person - Izuku - with a healing Quirk) makes it perfectly clear to Aizawa that she will make his life a living hell if he so much as thinks of treating Izuku Midoriya with his customary attitude and/or tries to expel the kid. Aizawa definitively refuses to try his luck with her.
• NO INDOOR VOICE: The Support students ask if everyone is like Bakugo, and Izuku speaks up to deny it, telling them that Bakugo was born without volume control.
  Izuku: That, and he's terrified of the possibility that he peaked in middle school so he's overcompensating. Feel free to ignore him, the rest of us do.
• No-Sell:
  • During the USJ attack, Izuku puts the Nomu in Park, which does stop it in place. He was expecting the Nomu to die as a consequence of leaving it like that for so long. However, once Park is undone, the Nomu shows no signs of having been harmed at all.
  • Monoma tricks Izuku into shaking hands so he can try to copy his Quirk. He gets a blank.
  • Yanagi tries to throw dirt into Iida's face - which fails to do anything thanks to his glasses.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Shiozaki complains about Mei's attitude during the tournament (treating it as a platform to show off her skills), Izuku points out that it's the same thing they are trying to do as Hero students.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Overhaul asserts that he'd rather die than help make Nomus full of "contagion" (ie multiple Quirks).
  All for One's left hand grew into a sword blade, and he held it to Kai's throat, "Well, that is your other option."
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Izuku realizes the USJ Nomu is completely unharmed after he undoes Park, he quickly tells Tsukauchi to make sure it can't see him because its last order was to kill him and it might still attempt to follow through.
  • Setsuna realizes she's in trouble when Ochako releases her Quirk, which she had been using to fling parts of the arena at her, meaning all that rubble was going to come crashing down.
• One-Hit Kill: The nomu designed to kill All Might at the USJ is immensely resilient to kinetic force — but putting it into Park bypasses all its defences and incapacitates it.
• Out-of-Character Alert: When Togeike starts to tell Izuku about Shinso's Quirk, Izuku already knows that it's some kind of mind control - because there's no way Bakugo would be willing to not just team up with Shinso, but actually be one of the back horses. He does rely upon her telling him about the mechanics of it.
• Parental Substitute: After Eri is rescued by Izuku and Ochako, Midnight takes custody of Eri, and is proving to be a good presence in the little girl's life.
• Phrase Catcher: When Nezu starts his catchphrase, Izuku completes it for him.
• Psychological Projection: Bakugo tells himself that Izuku has been planning out his "backstory" to make himself look better because that's what he himself is doing.
• A Rare Sentence: Tsuyu's thoughts on Shigaraki during the USJ attack.
  Which was when the Villain placed his father’s severed hand back on his forehead (And that was a sentence she never expected to conjure up).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Izuku realizes the reason Bakugo's angry is that he believes Izuku hid his Quirk for a decade just for a cheap prank, he acknowledges Bakugo's not worth the effort and lets him have it with both barrels.
  Izuku: No, I don't care anymore, Katsuki-kun. I'm done. Honestly, I should've been done long ago. But no, you were the closest thing I had to a friend for so long that I thought you deserved an explanation... but no. I'm out.
  Katsuki: (grabbing him) No! You DO owe me an explanation! How the fuck did you do that?! Were you hiding that Quirk this whole time?! Were you laughing behind my back?!
  Izuku: (Eye Twitches before speaking flatly) Really. That's what you think. I just let you and everyone else in the Aldera school district treat me like absolute trash for ten years just so that I could show you up now. I let you think I was Quirkless, let you mock me, blow up my stuff, blow up me, I let every horrible thing happen to me... for what? For a prank? (Mirthless Laughter) For years, I dreamed that one day I'd get a Quirk, and that'd fix everything. That you'd stop doing this. That we'd be friends again. But that's clearly never going to happen. You know, it's kind of a relief, knowing that. I wasn't the problem.
  Katsuki: Of course you were the problem! You were always following me around! Looking down on me! Like I was weak!
  Izuku: I never looked down on you before. Now? Yeah, I guess I do. But not because I think you're weak. I look down on you because I think you're an asshole.
  Katsuki: Fuck you, jackass! Weren't you going to tell me how you got a fucking Quirk?
  Izuku: I got it by taking a swan dive off the school roof, Bakugou-san.
• Reconstruction: Shinsou using his Quirk on others between rounds in canon without punishment is given an explanation here. For General Course students wishing to transfer, U.A. lets them do that sort of thing, considering it a sign of creativity, and Shinsou confirmed beforehand hand whether he could do that.
• The Resenter: Todoroki resents Izuku for several reasons. The two major ones are always being ahead of him no matter how hard Todoroki tries to surpass him, and (seemingly) lucking into the fire and ice superpower that took Endeavour four broken childhoods to achieve. However, his dislike of Izuku has all but disappeared by the time of the Internship Arc.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Aoyama concludes that Izuku was actually Quirkless before the entrance exam rather than merely believing himself to be so, which is completely accurate. But his logic is based on the idea that Izuku must be a spy for All For One who was given a Quirk, much like himself.
• Rocket Jump: Shouto can't believe that Izuku won the Sports Festival race by riding a Zero Pointer robot through the air and landing on the minefield, setting off so many explosives that they propelled him straight to the finish line.
• Scare 'Em Straight: After Shinso uses his Quirk on Chikuchi, Nezu "puts the fear of god (read: himself)" into the boy, such that he apologizes to his classmates that he sabotaged in the Sports Festival.
• Shout-Out:
  • Izuku's plan during the Cavalry Battle involves creating a platform via Togeike's Quirk, floating it with Uraraka's, then freezing it in midair with Park. Or as Present Mic puts it:
    Present Mic: Team Midoriya is just floating there! Menacingly!
  • Togeike Chikuchi's Quirk is inspired by Haigha.
• Sore Loser: Shinso does not take his loss at the end of the second round of the Sports Festival well at all. He storms out of the arena while still leaving his teammates under mind control. Granted, this saves him from Bakugo assaulting him in retaliation. After the Sports Festival, he gets into an argument with Chikuchi due to her getting into the Hero Course while he didn't.
• Stating the Simple Solution: When Bakugo tells Sato about why he hates Death Arms, Sato points out that he could have shared that with the teachers if he didn't want to intern with the man.
• Stunned Silence:
  • Bakugou, when he witnesses Izuku's Quirk during the Quirk Assessment Test, and again after Izuku easily beats him during the Heroes vs. Villains exercise.
  • Shigaraki's reaction when he sees that "Park" prevents the Nomu from even falling down a portal. Jaw Drop included.
• Sucky School: Invoked by Bakugou. He intentionally picked Aldera Middle School because it was a below-average school in order to build up a backstory that makes him look like an underdog for his supposed rise to Number 1 Hero. He assumes Izuku was doing this too, with the added "bonus" of doing all that and being Quirkless too, to make an even better backstory.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Bakugo shivers after Todoroki uses his glacier move for the first time, his narration states he's only shivering because of the cold, and no other reason.
• Swapped Roles: It occurs to Izuku after the Sports Festival that he and Bakugou have done this. At Aldera, Izuku was a social outcast with a nickname that roughly meant "useless" and Bakugou was a popular Jerk Jock widely supported by students and staff who seemed to have everything going for him. At UA, Izuku realizes he's actually popular; everyone in class sans Bakugou likes him, the staff support him, and he has many friends. Meanwhile, Bakugou, since he never actually had to work at being liked or praised before, doesn't change how he interacts with people in accordance with his new environment and winds up a "loner" due to his unpleasant behavior. This reverse of fortune seriously messes with Bakugou's insecurities, as his unquestioned acceptance at Aldera where Izuku was alienated is implied to have been a major reinforcement for his belief that he had worth and Izuku didn't; without that acceptance, Bakugou begins questioning whether he's worthless. Izuku even lampshades that Bakugo fears that he peaked in middle school.
• Switching P.O.V.: This story constantly switches the P.O.V. character when describing events, to the point that there tend to be at least 3 different P.O.V.s per chapter. As Izuku is the main character, his P.O.V. is shown the most often, but Bakugou, Ochako, Iida, Momo, and All Might are also fairly common.
• Taught by Experience: In the Obstacle Race, all of 1-A knows that Todoroki will try to use his ice to block the others from advancing, so they quickly act to avoid it.
• The Tease: When Setsuna flirts with Izuku and Ochako tells her to cut it out, Setsuna starts to flirt with her. And when Izuku and Ochako start dating, she simply resolves to double down on the seduction.
• This Cannot Be!: Bakugo is shocked when he realizes that "Deku's creepy stalker notes" (a.k.a. Izuku's Quirk analysis diaries) actually helped Kaminari use his Quirk better.
• Trauma Button: Shoto visibly panics when Izuku manages to encase him in ice during their match at the Sports Festival, something Endeavor spots as the boy starts flinging both sides of his quirk around at random.
• Vetinari Job Security: Recovery Girl makes it crystal clear to Aizawa that Izuku is not to be expelled, because she is not giving up on the chance to have at last a fellow healing hero around. Including strongly implying that, if anything happens to Izuku that can be blamed on Aizawa, then for his own good he better never come to her for healing ever again.
• Villain Team-Up: Overhaul decides to team up with the League of Villains after Izuku and Ochako rescue Eri. It ends with All For One essentially enslaving Overhaul with the Deadly Leash Quirk.
• Villainous Breakdown: All for One has one when he realises Izuku is using the Second's Quirk.
• What If?: Izuku getting the Second One for All User's Quirk instead of the strength enhancement Quirk leads to some changes.
  • Izuku gets first place at the Entrance Exam due to using his new power to stop objects, destroy robots, protect others, and even heal injuries. This nets him a sizeable number of Villain Points in addition to his canon 60 Rescue points.
  • Second, the Vestige, is furious at Izuku having his Quirk and keeps trying to angrily communicate with Izuku in his sleep. This means Izuku keeps going to school with less sleep than he is used to, meaning his patience is shorter, as is his control over his verbal filter. While Izuku later talks Second down so he can get some sleep, it still leaves an impact.
  • Izuku gets first place at the Quirk Apprehension Test due to working on mastering his new power in the few weeks before U.A. starts.
  • Because Izuku wins the fight between him and Bakugo during the battle trial so quickly, Bakugo doesn’t get a chance to fire off his gauntlets, leaving everyone clueless about how destructive they are.
  • Izuku gets five votes instead of his canon three while Momo gets three instead of two, as Kaminari, Kirishima, and Aoyama voted for Izuku while Izuku voted for Momo.
  • Izuku's improved confidence means that he keeps the title of Class President instead of giving it to Iida.
  • Due to the red flags he keeps seeing with Bakugo's behaviour, as well as realizing that his usual Leeroy Jenkins tendencies don't always work, Kirishima doesn't join him in attacking Kurogiri, so he ends up in the Ruins Zone with Ojiro.
  • While Kaminari, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu still end up in the Mountain Zone, instead of knocking out the villains with Kaminari's Indiscriminate Shock, it's Jiro who does it with an absurdly loud Brown Note which also affects the guy that had buried himself (incidentally saving Kaminari from being taken hostage).
  • Izuku using "Park" on the Nomu means All Might doesn't have to fight him, which leads to Shigaraki and Kurogiri running away the moment the Number One Hero arrives.
  • Nezu points out to Izuku that, given that he's using a previous Torchbearer's Quirk, there is a high probability he will also eventually be able to use the other One for All's wielders' Quirks.
  • Due to the different dynamics within Class 1-A, some of the Cavalry Battle teams are different. The most notable example being no one wanting to team up with Bakugo, who ends up a (brainwashed) member of Shinso's team.
  • As there is one less Hero student due to Mineta's expulsion, Togeike Chikuchi picks up the 42nd slot for the Cavalry Battle, joining Izuku's team.
  • Because Izuku and his team stay in the air during the entire Cavalry Battle thanks to Park, Todoroki never uses his fire against Izuku. Izuku's Quirk is also sufficiently different from All Might that there are no indications of a familial connection between them. Both of these together mean that he never reveals his tragic past to Izuku.
  • Setsuna steals all of Shinso's team's headbands in the last second, which prevents him, Bakugo, and Aoyama from moving on to the final event. Others that are also left out are Kirishima, Ashido, Sero, and Tokoyami. They are replaced by Togeike, Komori, Awase, Yanagi, Kendo, Tokage, and Honenuki.
  • Izuku's first fight is with Kaminari instead of Shinso, while Todoroki fights Komori.
  • Izuku wins the fight against Todoroki, while also traumatizing the latter.
  • Izuku wins the Sports Festival after defeating Shiozaki in the semi-finals and Tokage (who defeated Ochako) in the final match.
  • Togeike Chikuchi is elected to fill 1-A's empty seat.
  • The internships see a lot of changes.
    • Izuku gets more than three thousand offers, among them Endeavor (which Izuku eventually picks) and Sir Nighteye. Bakugo, meanwhile, gets only one from Death Arms.
    • Most of the first years (save for Bakugo, Todoroki, and Monoma) meet at Yaoyorozu's home to work together on their most fitting picks. Due to this, Yaoyorozu chooses Mr. Brave to become a better combatant, and Kendo picks Gunhead.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Izuku calls out Bakugo for being so self-centered that he believed Izuku faked being Quirkless just to pull a prank on him.
  • Izuku calls out Tetsutetsu for his words about 1-A being lucky to be attacked by villains, which the other student bitterly regrets once he stops to think about it, and quickly apologizes for it.
  • Izuku gives a mild one to the Second User (even though they have yet to fully meet) to call him out for making it harder for him by interrupting his sleep with his screams. Especially as the sheer impact was making Izuku act increasingly like Bakugo. The Second User acknowledges his point and lets him have a peaceful rest.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Izuku is so prepared for Ochako to reject his date offer that he acts on that assumption for half a sentence until it sinks in she accepted.
• Worf Had the Flu: Momo could have won her match in the Sports Festival, but the only ways she could think of would have been viewed as too unsportsmanlike for, well, the Sports Festival, especially in front of an audience. So, beating Shiozaki with means like fire, chemical pesticide, chainsaws, etc., were out, leaving her to rely upon more difficult measures. Despite this, Shiozaki still praised Momo for her performance later.
• Worthy Opponent: Tetsutetsu wholeheartedly views Togeike as this. In their match at the Sports Festival, their fight was long and drawn-out, but the Steel user eventually triumphed over the Foliage user. Togeike, believing she had humiliated herself in front of the entire country, fell into a brief Heroic BSoD, until Tetsutetsu praised her for being one of the best fighters he’d ever seen. It was in large part due to this that Togeike got given Mineta’s empty spot in the Hero Course.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: All For One's injuries inflicted on him by All Might have apparently reached the point of Anti-Regeneration where even giving himself an entirely new body only buys him a brief period (implied to be less than a day) before they return.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • Upon finding out that his offer came from Death Arms, the hero who a year ago nearly let him die at the hands of the Sludge Villain, who was one of forty picks for those who got no offers, Bakugou ended up with massive cognitive dissonance for the rest of the day. He mentally notes that getting nothing would've been better, because he would've had the option to at least pick his choice.
  • Izuku's reaction when he realizes Iida's trying to hunt down Stain. Complete with muffled Cathartic Scream.