Artificial Vocal Cords

The Artificial Vocal Cords are a piece of support equipment built into the hero costume worn by Hitoshi Shinso. The mask arrives in Chapter 194 of the manga and Episode 91 of the anime, and it serves one narrow purpose: giving Shinso a way to sound like somebody he is not. Since his Quirk only takes hold when a target replies to him, being able to pass as a trusted voice turns a conversation into a weapon.

Instead of routing sound through circuitry, the mask uses a series of plates that reshape and resonate whatever Shinso says, then release the reworked sound directly into the space around him. That construction is deliberate rather than cosmetic. Ordinary amplifying gear, megaphones and loudspeakers included, turns speech into electrical signals, and Brainwashing stops working the moment that conversion occurs. Plates sidestep the problem, preserving the quality his Quirk depends on while still letting the output imitate a different speaker.

The equipment also underpins his Ultimate Move, Persona Chords, which cannot be performed without it.

Shinso is the sole character shown wearing the device, which was tailored to compensate for a Quirk that offers him nothing physical in a fight. In the English dub of the anime he calls the gear his Vocal Modulator rather than by its Japanese-derived name. The underlying idea echoes the Voice-Changing Bowtie from Case Closed, another gadget that hands its owner somebody else's voice.