My Hero Academia has given an official name to the quirk of One For All’s Second User, and it is “Gearshift”. It’s an appropriate name, as the previous chapter of My Hero Academia’s manga first revealed the quirk’s use, without naming it, and it was clearly a power based on being able to change levels (or “gears”) exponentially, on a whim. However, in My Hero Academia Chapter 369 we get not just the name for Gearshift, but a much deeper picture of how this unique power works! With Gearshift, we now complete the full arsenal of powers that reside within One For All, as My Hero Academia approaches its finale!
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One For All’s Gearshift Quirk Powers Explained
Gearshift is a power that lets the user change the speed at which objects move through space – without having to follow any laws of physics like inertia. Based on dialogue by All For One, the Second User could only use his quirk on small objects – such as a bullet he tries to blast into the back of All For One’s head, at the moment the villain killed him (seen in flashback). The Second User wore a costume that included bullet-filled gauntlets for his arms and developed the skill to use his quirk with precision and cunning.
How Deku is Evolving Gearshift with OFA
Like all of the quirks that lived on through One For All, Gearshift’s power and potency evolved in scope. Thanks to Izuku Midoriya being a “true inheritor” of One For All’s full power, he has also developed tactful ways for using Gearshift in coordination with the other quirks of OFA, as well as the main power itself.
In My Hero Academia Chapters 368 – 369, we get a taste of some of the Ultimate Moves that Deku has developed using Gearshift:
- Transmission – The “gears” that Izuku uses while attacking AFO-Shigaraki. Izuku uses Gearshift on his own body, to boost things like flurries of punches with increasing speed and power.
- Overdrive – Izuku combos Gearshift with the Third User’s “Fa Jin” kinetic energy stockpiling power to achieve sudden speed and power bursts that are too fast for even AFO-Shigaraki to perceive. Thanks to techniques like transmission, Izuku can also create a circuit of rapid repeated action (punches) to recharge Fa Jin and then release its speed and power boosts to attack or evade again. It’s said that Overdrive lets Izuku unleash 120% of OFA’s power.
- Detriot Smash: Quintuple – Izuku can use Gearshift to perform five quick-succession Detriot Smash attacks.
The downside is that Gearshift’s boosting powers have been ominously teased by the Second User’s “ghost” as being a massive power-drainer. Izuku is warned that if he cannot finish All For One in five minutes, the fight (and the war) will be lost. That hazardous effect is presumably the reason why the power has been held back from Deku until so very late in his mastery of OFA.
My Hero Academia releases new chapters free online.
