History Fanfic / ChangingGears

* SoreLoser: 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.

* EvilIsPetty:
** Overhaul is not only evil, 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.

** Overhaul is not only evil, he's also incredibly petty. When he returns from seeing Eri being taken away by Midnight, he's so angru 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.

* AwesomeByAnalysis: 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.

* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: 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.

* InsaneTrollLogic: 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.

*** Izuku gets more than three thousand offers, among them Endeavor (which Izuku eventually picks) and Sir Nighteye. Bakugo, meanwhile, gets only one.

* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: 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, 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.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: 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.

** Within 1-A, Bakugo has become this to his dismay. 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.

* AdaptationalBadass:
** Even without the [[SuperStrength 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 a 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 [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower probably the most powerful Quirk in the hero course and second in utility to Creation]].
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: 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.
* AdaptationalLateAppearance: As a consequence of the above, Midoriya does not currently have access to the SuperStrength aspect of One For All.

** Within 1-A, Bakugo has become this to his dismay. 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.
--> It was like he was a pariah. Like he was Deku!
*** Izuku is later stunned to realise that his own cold attitude towards Bakugo likely contributed to it given how popular he is in comparison.

* ClusterFBomb: All for One lets out a string of expletives when he realises ''who's'' Quirk Izuku is using.

* ClusterFBomb: All for One lets out a string of expletives when he realises what Quirk Izuku is using.

* DifficultButAwesome: Gearshift has numerous applications beyond the obvious SuperSpeed, 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 SuperSpeed, 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. But, when used carefully, Gearshift's utility is second only to Creation.

*** 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 and Kendo picks Gunhead.

* WorfHadTheFlu: 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.

* MeaningfulName: The Second and Third Torchbearers get names like the ones they have in ''Fanfic/OneForAllAndEightForTheNinth'' - 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".

* NotSoDifferent: 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.

* ChekhovsGun: 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 in the air to increase or decrease temperature.

* DramaticIrony: 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 SuperStrength, 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.

** Todoroki's behavior when he comes in second at the Obstacle Race leaves Ochako convinced he is another bully like Bakugo.

* WorfHadTheFlu: 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.

** Todoroki's behavior when he comes in second at the Sports Festival leaves Ochako convinced he is another bully like Bakugo.

** 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.

* OhCrap: 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.

* BeyondTheImpossible: Izuku is shocked when he realizes the Nomu is still alive even though he was in "Park" for several minutes.

* PhraseCatcher: When Nezu starts his CatchPhrase, Izuku completes it for him.

* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: Izuku beats Todoroki in the Sports Festival by trapping him in ice.

* EnlightenedSelfInterest: Togeike outright tells Izuku she's helping him because being on the same team as him for the Sports Festival Calvary 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 can to help their team win.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
** Within 1-A, Bakugo has become this to his dismay. 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.
--> It was like he was a pariah. Like he was Deku!
** Todoroki's behavior when he comes in second at the Sports Festival 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.

** As 1-A is formed by 19 people after Mineta's expulsion, Togeike Chikuchi picks up the 42nd slot for the Cavalry Battle, joining Izuku's team.
** 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.

* WorfHadTheFlue: 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.

** Aoyama is convinced that Izuku is also one of All For One's agents, and a much higher ranked one. Therefore, the poor mole is desperate to gain his 'superior's' good favor, and thus is working to ingratiate himself with him.

* AdaptationalBadass: Thanks to the tips Izuku gave him, Kaminari has a greater control over his Quirk, allowing him to hold Izuku off during their fight at the tournament.

* AlwaysSecondBest: 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 were 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.
* AmazonChaser: 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.

** 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 15 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.

** 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 traps the latter in ice!

* InsaneTrollLogic: 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.
* IronicEcho: When Bakugo demands to know how Izuku got a Quirk, he fires back that he got it by "taking a swan dive".

* SoreLoser: 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.

** 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 wins the fight against Todoroki.

* LGBTAwakening: Ochako realises she is attracted to girls in addition to guys during the Sports Festival.