Every Evolution Of Deku & His Quirk (So Far) In My Hero Academia

In the long timeline of My Hero Academia, the protagonist and future number 1 hero, Deku has made a number of strides along his difficult journey. When fans first met Deku, he was a shy, helpless child with no quirk and no hopes of becoming a pro hero.

Now, the Deku that stands in front of audiences has successfully earned his Hero License and is well on his way to becoming a successor All Might can be proud of. Deku often gets heavily criticized for being weak and it’s about time critics take a step back to appreciate exactly how much Deku has grown during his journey.

Updated on January 7, 2025 by Rhenn Taguiam: With My Hero Academia Season 7 teasing quite a build-up towards the climactic final episodes of the Final War Arc in Season 8, fans of the series might be wondering just what other surprises Deku has up his sleeve that can turn the tide of his fight against Tomura Shigaraki. As All For One’s apprentice seems to be growing even more powerful in each passing episode, Deku is seemingly driven to a corner in their showdown. Fans who love theorycrafting who’d love to analyze just how Deku might get out of this tough spot should revisit the way Deku’s powers evolved so far, especially when this might hold the clue as to how he can turn the tide to his advantage.

This list includes Deku’s development up to Season 7 Episode 13 of the anime, and will feature Spoilers for the events leading up to and during this point in the story.

19

Middle School: Quirkless And Ostracized

Episode: S1, Ep1

At the very beginning of the series, the audience is introduced to a very insecure, shy protagonist. After a young aspiring Deku finds out that he is Quirkless, the series fast-forwards to his middle-school days – where his dream to be a hero despite being Quirkless, something he can achieve by enrolling at the prestigious U.A. High, ended up with him being bullied by his classmates. At this point in Deku’s life, he had no one but his kind mother behind him to support his dream.

However, this isn’t to say Deku is totally useless. Despite knowing his dreams are almost becoming delusions, Deku’s “obsession” with superheroics are reflected not just in his superhero journal but his commentary on superhero activities he sees. While often shown as funny “ramblings” throughout the series, Deku’s skill of analyzing Quirks will be an important part of his growth.

18

Meeting All Might: Beginning The 10-Month Training Program

Episode: S1, Ep3

Early into Deku’s story, he serendipitously has a run-in with his idol – All Might, the number one pro hero in the world. Realizing his difficult position, Deku takes the opportunity to confide in All Might, asking him if it’s possible for someone Quirkless like him can still be a hero. At first, All Might reluctantly tells Deku his dreams are unrealistic. However, after witnessing Deku rush in to try and save his classmate Bakugo from a villain, All Might has a change of heart. It is then that he tells Deku he has what it takes to be his successor and begins Deku’s training period.

Deku begins as an average student with no real physical aptitude – making this more challenging for the youngster, as All Might warned Deku he wouldn’t be able to handle his Quirk at that stage. The gruelling 10-Month Training Program might have just transformed Deku into the peak of human physicality, but this reveals something else about the youngster: his indomitable will. Where others would easily give up, Deku will strive to succeed – even if he fails. In the end, All Might will see Deku clean their training area all by himself.

17

Training Completed: Deku Inherits All For One

Episode: S1, Ep3

Deku finally completes the rigorous training plan All Might devised for him. After all his hard work and strict dieting (thanks to the helpful hand of his kind mother), Deku is finally deemed ready to have All Might’s Quirk transferred to him.

However, to Deku’s surprise, this process included the bizarre ritual of eating a strand of All Might’s hair. This is also where the audience learns the means of how All Might’s Quirk passage works: via the willing exchange of any kind of item that holds the previous user’s DNA.

16

U.A. Entrance Exams: Deku Uses OFA For The First Time

Episode: S1, Ep4

During the entrance exams for U.A. High, Deku is forced to put his Quirk to the test for the first time. During this examination, he finds himself at a loss, overwhelmed by all his fellow applicants showing off their skills and expertise. In a serious bind while trying to save Uraraka, Deku finally successfully summons the power of One For All out of his intense need to save and protect others.

The audience witnesses not only the first time Deku uses his powers, but also its cost: as someone Quirkless, One For All is too overwhelming even for his peak human physique. This causes almost all of his bones to break, adding a caveat to his new gift: if he uses One For All too much, his body might not be able to handle it.

15

Sports Festival: First Encounter With Previous OFA Users

Episode: S2, Ep7

After his successful entry into U.A. High, Deku participates in the school’s televised Sports Festival. In the face-offs, Deku is matched up with schoolmate Shinso Hitoshi who has the eerie ability to brainwash anyone he talks to as soon as they reply to a word he says while his Quirk is activated.

In a panicked frenzy after getting brainwashed by Shinso, Deku sees strange shadowy figures outside of the arena and manages to activate his Quirk, breaking free of Shinso’s control. When he explains this to All Might, even his mentor is surprised as he hasn’t encountered this before. They speculate these are the Vestiges of One For All’s previous owners, implying that the presences of multiple people inside Deku was able to overpower Shinso’s Quirk.

14

Fight Against Muscular: First Usage Of OFA At 100 And 100,000,000%

Episode: S3, Ep4

When the League of Villains attack U.A. High during the U.S.J. Incident, the school decided to have the students go to a training camp – an event that goes awry when even the villains manage to track them down to their location. Unfortunately for Deku, he becomes the target of the powerful villain Muscular, whose Quirk allows him to contend even against Izuku’s usage of One For All in terms of sheer strength. With the youngster Kota in danger of being killed, Deku is forced to use One For All in their fight.

This is extremely dangerous, as Izuku has already been warned of not overusing the Quirk. While Deku unleashes a punch of One For All at 100%, he is horrified to see Muscular just tank the hit. Out of sheer desperation, and in his willingness to make sure Kota isn’t killed, Deku ignores all warnings from before and unleashes One For All at 1,000,000%, finally rendering Muscular unconscious at the cost of breaking both his arms. He manages to still carry Kota through the pain and escape to find the rest of his comrades.

13

Full Cowling: Deku Develops A New Style & New Armor

Episode: S3, Ep 14

During his recovery from the training camp incident, Deku is met with the unfortunate news that he can no longer use One For All with his arms or he will risk rendering them unusable. Deku, ever the determined youth, uses his analysis of his Quirk so far and comes to terms with the fact that even the shockwave of One For All’s abilities alone can’t be supported by his arms. Instead of looking once again to All Might for advice, he opts out of All Might’s usage of OFA for pure strength.

In order to develop his own style, he seeks help from a classmate who can also withstand intense pressures from his Quirk: the speedster Tenya Iida. When Iida explains that he trains his legs constantly to absorb the shock of his Quirk and release it for high-speed bursts, Deku gets an epiphany. Instead of relying on OFA for strength, Deku begins channeling the energy of his Quirk outwards through kicks to release powerful blasts – something he calls Full Cowling Shoot Style. Thanks to new gear from Mei Hatsume’s leg-support armor, Deku can also do this safely.

12

Fight Against Overhaul: Aided By Eri, Deku Freely Uses OFA At 100%

Episode: S4, Ep13

Despite learning how to use his Quirk more effectively, Deku still struggled to fight the powerful Overhaul’s assembly-and-disassembly Quirk. While at some point on the verge of defeat, Deku tells Eri he has no intention of giving her back to the abusive villain. It’s at this point that Eri reveals the full extent of her Rewind Quirk, where she can “rewind” Deku to a state before unleashing his full strength.

Realizing how Eri can help him use his powers without any repercussions, Deku begins channeling One For All with no regard for the effects on his body. He instructs Eri to keep “Rewinding” what she could while Deku sustained his attacks – something that finally allowed them to subdue Overhaul.

11

Heroes Rising: Deku Transfers Half Of OFA To Bakugo

Film: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising

In what can be considered one of the most intense fights in My Hero Academia, Deku and his classmates are tested to their limits in their fight against Nine. Unlike other villains they faced, Nine can use multiple Quirks, something they thought only All For One possessed. After seemingly being defeated and at the risk of total annihilation, Deku makes the decision of doing the Power Transfer to Bakugo through his DNA – something that All Might did to Deku in their own Power Transfer.

With One For All now having two vessels, Bakugo and Deku join forces to finally defeat Nine. Like Deku, Bakugo’s body also suffers the full repercussions of using One For All. However, the both of them also now contain the full powers of OFA – allowing them to deal twice as damage to the villain.

10

Nine Aftermath: OFA Users Transfer Quirk Back To Deku

Film: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising

After defeating Nine, Deku realizes that he’s just made the irreversible decision of giving up One For All to Bakugo – making his dream a worthwhile price if it meant saving Nabu Island. All Might finds the weakened Deku and Bakugo and discovers that although the embers of Deku’s Quirk went out, One For All still managed to find its way back to Deku, leaving Bakugo with no recollection of what happened.

All Might interprets this as the Vestiges of One For All returning the Quirk to Deku, as though wishing him to continue being the chosen vessel. (Sorry, Bakugo!) The Vestiges being more active in this manner is a tease of more of their activities throughout the series as things get even more complicated for Deku and the Quirk community.

9

Joint Training Battle: Deku Manifests Blackwhip

Episode: S5, Ep 10

With the threat from the League of Villains ramping up, U.A. High decided to hold a Joint Training Battle between Class 1-A and 1-B, with Deku and his friends about to lose their fight against Monoma Neito and his team. At this point, Deku is already experiencing visions of the previous users of One For All. Initially dismissing them as nightmares, Deku realizes it’s the Vestiges trying to talk to him.

During the exercise, a panicked Deku suddenly summons black tentacle-like entities that are on a frenzy. It took Ochaco calming him down for Deku to finally settle down, with the class eventually realizing that Deku’s Quirk is somehow evolving outside being a strength-based Quirk. Deku discovers that these black tendrils, known as Blackwhip, is the Quirk of a previous One For All user – a manifestation of a growing One For All core inside of him. Deku begins training the Blackwhip, eventually becoming proficient in summoning multiple tendrils at once to manipulate his environment.

8

Encounter With A Reborn Shigaraki: Deku Activates Float For The First Time

Episode: S6, Ep 9

During Shigaraki’s terrifying awakening, it’s soon learned that even the likes of Endeavor – now the number one Pro Hero – cannot contain him as the former’s Decay Quirk has grown to affect even things he doesn’t necessarily touch. Now desperate to neutralize and capture Shigaraki before he harms people around him, Deku awakens another Quirk: Float.

Yet another Quirk of a previous One For All owner, Nana Shimura – ironically Shigaraki’s late grandmother – Float allows Deku to levitate in mid-air. This gives Deku an unprecedented advantage, as he can fly away from Shigaraki’s spreading Decay.

7

Paranormal Liberation War: Deku Creates His Own Usage Of Blackwhip

Episode: S6, Ep 13

While Season Six demonstrates how Izuku has begun using Blackwhip more comfortably, the events of the Paranormal Liberation War forced Deku’s arms to be out of commission after using One For All multiple times. This is proving disadvantageous for him, as he needs to try and capture Dabi at all costs. Unfortunately for Deku, he’s used to using Blackwhip with his arms – something he can no longer do at this point.

However, Deku soon realizes that he doesn’t necessarily have to use his arms to release Blackwhip. Remembering his analysis of his classmates’ Quirks, he decides to take a page off Froppy’s book. As someone with a frog’s abilities, Froppy uses her tongue as another appendage in worst-case scenarios. Deku uses this as inspiration, summoning Blackwhip from his tongue in order to traverse the environment.

6

Bakugo Injured: Danger Sense Manifests For The First Time

Episode: S6, Ep 13

With Shigaraki and the League of Villains hellbent on killing Deku, who at this point is revealed as their primary target for being the One For All’s vessel, Bakugo takes a head-on attack from the villain in a bid to protect Deku. Seeing his friend injured and the chaos around him enrages Deku, awakening a completely new Quirk in desperation: Danger Sense. Initially manifesting as a sharp pain in his head, Deku struggles using this new ability that had come in a moment of epiphany. It’s only toward the end of the battle that Deku realizes the true extent of Danger Sense’s powers, which had been the Quirk of a previous One For All user, Hikage Shinomori.

5

Overpowered By All For One: Deku Is Paralyzed By The Overusage Of His OFA Quirks

Episode: S6, Ep 18

In Deku’s pain and anger from seeing his friends and idols being rendered helpless and afraid, he overstimulates his newfound powers. In this fight against Dabi and Shigaraki, Deku had manifested two completely new quirks from previous OFA users, as well as utilizing a new technique with Blackwhip (a Quirk fairly new to him) he had created on his own. In his haste and sheer anger towards the havoc and damage Shigaraki had caused, Deku finds himself completely frozen.

It is then that Deku realizes that overuse of his new Quirks will lead him to be temporarily paralyzed. Just like his journey to train his body to handle OFA, Deku learns that he must also slowly work to get his body accustomed to all the previous OFA users’ quirks as well.

4

Reunion With Muscular: Deku Uses Smokescreen

Episode: S6, Ep 19

After the events of Shigaraki’s assault, the League of Villains are successful in their attempt to ruin the public’s trust towards superheroes. Coupled with the fact that the League of Villains still have Deku as their primary target, Deku decides to go into hiding in order to dissuade the evildoers from attacking his community. However, the height of villain activity throughout a panicked Japan forces Deku to still fight crime – this time as a masked vigilante – without catching the attention of his peers.

In an effort to save his fellow hero in training, Shindo, against the powerful Muscular, Deku intervenes in their fight and manifests a purple cloud of smoke. It’s revealed that Deku had already awakened and trained in this new Quirk, known as Smokescreen. Unlike his other Quirks, Smokescreen is rather straightforward: Deku can release a purple smoke cloud, which he can use to distract foes or sneak up on them.

3

Meeting Lady Nagant: Deku Awakens Fa Jin

Episode: S6, Ep 21

When Deku realizes that a former pro hero, Lady Nagant, is hired to kill him, their confrontation has placed the student at a disadvantage. Despite his multiple Quirks, Deku struggled dodging Nagant’s sniper bullets, which at this point are still too fast for him. It’s at this point that Deku decides to use a Quirk he’s still been training in: Fa Jin.

Named after the principle in Chinese martial arts of storing and generating explosive power, Deku releases Smokescreen to distract Lady Nagant before crouching multiple times. It’s revealed that Fa Jin can release built-up kinetic energy, allowing him to spring himself to incredible speeds. Deku’s advanced knowledge of his Quirks allowed him to achieve incredible feats with Fa Jin, such as replicating One For All at 100% by combining Fa Jin with 45% of OFA (Faux 100 Percent) and releasing a Manchester Smash safely from this vantage point.

2

Confronting Shigaraki: Deku Uses Gearshift For The First Time

Episode: S7, Ep13

During Deku’s “reunion” with Shigaraki, Deku is initially overwhelmed after seeing so many of his comrades injured. Thanks to Mirio’s help, Deku is immediately reacquainted to combat and returns to the fight. It’s here that Deku reveals he can use Gearshift, a Quirk belonging to the second One For All user, Kudo. With this power, Deku can technically change the speed at which things accelerate through space, allowing him to land multiple hits on Shigaraki.

As Gearshift ignores the speed of objects, Deku can use this Quirk to bypass the laws of inertia, letting him move in supersonic speeds to initially overwhelm a confused Shigaraki. Unfortunately, Deku couldn’t use Gearshift continuously as his body won’t receive enough oxygen to function. It’s estimated that Deku can only use Gearshift for five minutes at a time – beyond which he’s going to be rendered paralyzed.

1

Confronting Shigaraki: Deku Uses Gearshift To Amplify His Ultimate Moves

Episode: S7, Ep13

When Deku starts to use Gearshift, he immediately uses its five-minute window to maximize his arsenal of Quirks. Thanks to Izuku’s in-depth knowledge of One For All’s powers, he quickly realizes Gearshift’s potential in enhancing his strongest attacks – something he desperately needs to gain the upper hand against Shigaraki’s own arsenal of Quirks. With Gearshift activated, Deku immediately uses it to create upgraded Ultimate Moves.

Thanks to Gearshift’s enhanced speed, Deku can pull off Transmission – Gearshift-empowered punches that increase in speed after every punch, catching even Shigaraki by surprise. Next, he uses Gearshift on the kinetic energy generated by Fa Jin to release Overdrive, a move comparable to the energy output of 120% One For All. Lastly, Gearshift allowed Deku to do Detroit Smash: Quintuple, or five Detroit Smashes in succession.