Erasure

Erasure
Quirk Information
Japanese Name	抹 (まっ) 消 (しょう)
Rōmaji Name	Masshō
Quirk Description
User	Shota Aizawa
Quirk Type	Emitter
Quirk Range	Long Range
First Appearance
Manga Debut	Chapter 6
Anime Debut	Episode 5

Erasure (抹 (まっ) 消 (しょう) , Masshō^?) is the Quirk used by Shota Aizawa.

Description

Erasure allows Shota to cancel other Quirk powers and abilities simply by looking at the target.

Shota's appearance while using his Quirk.

When Erasure is activated, Shota is able to disable a person's "Quirk Factor" for as long as he concentrates on his target, rendering any Quirk affected unusable. Shota only needs one part of the target's body to be within his sights for Erasure to take effect. Since most people in the world rely on Quirks for combat purposes, this makes Shota an extremely bothersome opponent for anyone to deal with.

Shota's hair stands upwards and his eyes glow in a bright red color whenever Erasure is in use. Its effects wear off if Shota shuts his eyes (which includes the act of blinking) or looks away from the person he's targeting.

Weaknesses

Despite of how powerful and useful this Quirk can be in a fight, it is not exempt from several inconveniences that greatly limited its effectiveness:

• Aizawa must keep his eyes open for his Quirk effect to persist. This means forcing him to stare at a single person for an extended period of time will make his eyes tired and thus reduce the effectiveness of his Quirk. Blinding or binding up makes impossible for Shota to use his Quirk. Blinking dispels the effect of his Quirk.

• Shota suffers from dry eye syndrome, which limits the amount of time he can keep Erasure active. Because of this, he carries a small bottle of eye drops with him at all times.

• Erasure works on Emitter and Transformation Quirks with no problem, but does not affect appendages originated from Mutant-type Quirks, as they mutate the physical body structure and thus are permanently active, but it can impair their function as the Quirk Factor incorporates all the mechanisms necessary for a Quirk to work properly. His power is obviously useless against well trained foes, since their physical strength and/or combat abilities not derived from Quirks.

• If he wants his Quirk to work properly, Shota needs to actually see the person directly, so avoiding the effects of Erasure is possible by covering one's entire body with clothing or some other material, or by hiding oneself from view through a solid, opaque structure.

• Since Shota’s eyes glow when his Quirk is active, an opponent can anticipate the use of Erasure. This is one of the reasons why Aizawa wears opaque one-way goggles. Similarly, Shota's hair floats and falls every time he activates and deactivates his Quirk. In a fight, he is scampering around constantly, so this is hard to tell, but a smart foe can note when he is using his Quirk, even if he does not know against whom.

• The Quirk is not good in long, group battles, since every time Shota finish a given move, and Erasure max duration's getting shorter and shorter.

The after-effects of the injuries he sustained during the U.S.J. Incident had negative consequences to Shota's Quirk. There is now a recharge interval between Erasure's deactivation and a new activation, with Shota requiring said interval to pass before he is allowed to use his Quirk again.

Usage

Shota's usual battle tactic consists of cancelling an opponent's Quirk and then using his Capturing Weapon in conjunction with his high agility to easily defeat or restrain his adversaries.

Shota wears a pair of goggles that hides his eyes from view. With this, enemies are left wondering if they are being affected by Erasure in situations where Shota's vastly outnumbered, as they become unable to notice the movement of his eyes. Whenever Shota's Quirk gets interrupted, his hair falls down to its original position, which an observant enemy can take advantage of by predicting a potential opening for an attack.

External Links

• Dry eye syndrome - Wikipedia article about the medical condition that manifests on Shota when he overuses his Quirk.