After everything that had happened, the school considered it reasonable to close for several days, both to repair their lost building and let the students have a mental health break. The latter wouldn't start for a while, as all of them had to deal with both an endless interrogation from the police, a longer one from the media, and, at least in Izuku's case, a far, far longer one from his parents.

In particular, he had to deal with his feelings on taking someone's quirk for the first time. As excited as both he and his father were to experiment with it and see what it could do, he couldn't get over the feeling that he had wronged the villain that he took it from.

"He was pretty much already beaten," Izuku noted once, melancholy at the thought. "I don't think that I had to do it…"

"Stop that line of thought right now," All-For-One chastised him. "You were in a chaotic situation that you weren't prepared for, and you made the most logical decision offered to you. That's not a crime, that's worth commending. I'm sure that this Sato kid will be angry, but he should be angrier about the ones that made him try to kill a bunch of teenagers. If he wasn't forced to, then his anger should still lie at the one who made that choice for him. This was his or their fault, not yours. Even if you can find a better way to have resolved it while looking back, well, you didn't have a future-sight quirk at the time. Looking back doesn't give you an accurate picture. Trust me, it took me a long time to figure that out in regards to some of the choices I've made."

A few wise words weren't going to immediately erase the crushing feeling in Izuku's chest, but they helped. He was eventually able to convince his mom to go shopping and use his newfound quirk as an excuse to try out a bunch of sugary baked goods. It was the most delicious training session he had ever been part of. A part of him wondered how that kid could possibly have turned to villainy in the first place; he literally got all the benefits of working out and eating healthy by doing the opposite of that. Making that joke to himself reminded him of the unresolved issues he had with having taken the quirk, so he tried not think it too often.

He considered talking to Toga about it, as she usually had a lot of worthwhile things to say, even if he highly suspected that in this case she would just repeat his dad's words, but that brought up his other major source of guilt.

One of the villains had been confirmed dead. Five were unaccounted for. Even with his obsessive tendencies, he didn't suffer the delusion that he alone could have saved all of them, and could understand if his classmates failed to as well. That would have just been a lesson on trying harder later. However, he learned that not all of them had tried.

Iguchi had fled to go find the teachers before the building collapsed, so he was off the hook, and Tenko was focused on making an exit for everyone (he insisted that not disintegrating enough of the roof to spare Tape-Strangler was a failure of his quirk-control, and Izuku saw no reason to disbelieve him), but the others had been right in front of the incapacitated villains when the man Izuku would later learn was in fact Kacchan blew up the USJ, and most didn't even try to save them.

Yu, Toya, and Toga, as far as he could tell, made the deliberate decision not to save them. While Soramitsu and Musatado had helped him, and Tsuda was apparently fanatical about getting as many out of there as possible (the primary reason that the villains had as few casualties as they did, actually), that still meant only four members of the class doing their heroic duty.

Geten was an oddball, as he refused to talk about what happened to him with the rest of the class; apparently the police had had a lot of difficulty getting information out of him also, only managing by asking what Re-Destro would have done in his shoes. Regardless of that particular oddity, he found himself disappointed in his classmates, especially Toga, considering their increasing closeness, but didn't know how to bring it up without being overly hostile.

Stain had said he would discuss their behavior when school was back in session, but let them go without another word. They had said they were sorry about Tape-Strangler's death, but they all said it in a tone that emphasized the boy was known as the 'Tape-Strangler.' The idea that they shouldn't feel guilty about effectively killing such a person was implied, even if they didn't dare say it.

Without knowing what his teacher planned to tell her, how could he bring up the subject? Would he risk their friendship over a fight about this? Should he stay friends with someone who apparently held such different values to himself? His mind was even more of a mess regarding this than over whether or not it was right to take another's quirk.

Izuku remained professionally distant from Toga, not brushing her off but not really contacting her either, at least not until he could figure out his own feelings.

That was the plan, until Tenko reminded everyone of that whole video-game introduction party he had been planning before the villains attacked. Once he used the 'we need some good times together' line everyone, with varying levels of reluctance, came on board, and so Class 1-A found a neutral venue to have fun together. It wasn't meant to be a place where they would air their grievances, but the fact that all of them were in earshot was not something anyone with grievances missed.

--

Toga, rather than listen to Tenko's lengthy explanation of the differences between 'Call of Duty' and 'Battlefield,' eyed Izuku and wondered why he had been effectively ignoring her. After what they just went through, this was the time to talk. To get their feelings out there. She had almost died. He had almost died. It made her appreciate life, made her a little concerned about how much time she was wasting when she could start doing the things she wanted. Like addressing whatever feelings she had developed for Izu.

She considered him a close friend, of course, but was there something more there? She had thought about it before, but always dismissed it, but after nearly getting strangled to death, then nearly getting drowned (and only escaping the latter thanks to Izu's advice), right before watching Izu come within seconds of being turned into a pancake (her gratitude to Tenko was the only reason she agreed to this stupid gaming party), she wanted to go down this rabbit-hole and see where it led. At the very least, she wanted to have a conversation about it.

But Izu had turned out to be frustratingly resistant to any serious conversation, and so she found herself grateful to Tenko once more as she had a captive audience to hunt down. Her prey had no escape.

--

Tsuda wasn't sure if he wanted to come to this get-together. While Tenko was right about them needing something to keep their minds off of recent events, gathering everyone together just reminded him of the difference between them and him. He only missed having a criminal record by a hair. He had had friends that were technically 'villains.' He…cared what happened to the men he was training to stop.

Oh sure, they had to be stopped, he had no issue with that, but they should also be shown mercy, helped, rehabilitated if possible. They shouldn't be tossed aside like they were nothing. But he wasn't sure if the others agreed, and that bothered him. Should they just let bygones be bygones? Accept each other, in spite of their philosophical differences?

Tsuda felt that that was the politest response he could expect if he brought up his concerns, and it didn't really sit right with him. His problem with them was about something that he really cared about, and about something that affected the world as a whole; he couldn't just ignore that on the basis that 'different folks' had 'different strokes.' It had to be dealt with. But how to do that? Bringing up how wrong someone was directly to their face was rarely productive, at least he doubted it would be. He admittedly did not have much experience.

Instead, he stewed on the issue as Tenko passed him a controller, deciding to take out his frustration on the pixelated forms that comprised his classmates. He could shoot these ones.

It was actually a fascinating exercise in situational awareness; the shooter they were playing didn't allow for much health but did allow for dealing a lot of damage, which ultimately meant that the first person to see another player was usually the winner of their encounter if they properly took advantage of said sight. There was, in fact, an element of skill in spite of that, as Iguchi continuously proved to anyone that thought to exploit the wall-walking mechanic against him (he was the only one who had no difficulty adjusting his perception, and no one knew if that was solely a product of his quirk or just the result of playing this game so much), but still figuring out where your enemies were before they did the same to you was primarily the name of the game. There was, arguably, a case for this being excellent Hero training.

Of course, the way the game was setup meant that there were many options available that wouldn't be in real life…"you dirty screen-seeker!" Iguchi shouted at Izuku, before calming himself and trying to apologize to Izuku when the boy turned into an apologetic mess.

"I'm sorry, it was out of the corner of my eye, I just saw a balcony that looked kind of familiar and I realized that it had the same bit broken off as the one I just passed and-"

"It's okay, dude, I just overreacted a bit. I was in the zone, you know?" Iguchi tried to stop Shigaraki's rant, to no avail whatsoever.

"Yeah," Tenko smirked, "Iguchi's just mad because he lost. He just needs to git gud."

Iguchi glared at Tenko. The two of them were tied, way ahead of the rest of the class. They already were in a rivalry of sorts. Tenko, however, just made it official.

"You're on," the lizard-boy snorted before choosing his set-up for the revival and leaving Izuku to settle down once he realized no one was paying attention to him.

"Why don't we make it a team game, so everyone else can get in on it?" Tenko brought up.

"You're just scared 'cause you know I'll beat you if we continue like this, but sure. The whole class is involved. I wouldn't want to hog the spotlight. What do you say guys, stop this little free-for-all and start a game where we have to watch each others' backs?"

"I'm not sure everyone here can be trusted to watch another's back, considering," Tsuda let slip out without thinking. The entire room grew quiet.

Geten suppressed a shudder, but said nothing. He hadn't said anything all day; he found the whole event kind of stupid. Video games were a waste of time, as far as he was concerned, but figured that getting together with the rest of the class might help him process some things…I let those villains escape….that he was having difficulty with.

Thus far, it had done the exact opposite of helping. Now that the elephant in the room was actually being addressed, he found himself wanting to go back to the silly games before someone demanded he weigh in on the issues surrounding them.

Toga noticed Geten acting oddly, and wondered what that was about. Dismissing it as irrelevant for now, she instead weighed in on whether to respond to Tsuda's comment or not. On one hand, this whole day was about fun (and apparently becoming inundated with what Tenko considered 'high culture'), and getting into this right now would change the mood. On the other, she really did not want to take his judgment lying down. She had grown up doing that more than enough.

"I don't think that there's a problem with any of us watching another's back. It's the enemy team that has to watch out." Maybe framing things in the context of the game would…

"I'm not concerned about how we fight alongside each other, just whether or not we'll be ready to drag each other out of there when the bullets are flying. I mean, medics are important, but so is saving yourself, isn't it?"

Toga's fangs started to show as she forced a smile while responding. "Of course saving yourself and your teammates is important. It's only the enemy that gets left behind. After all, the goal of the game is to shoot them."

One might have made a joke about Iguchi and Tenko being able to move through solid objects, as the tension in the room was practically a rock and yet they felt none of it.

"So, I take it you two don't want to be on the same team, then?" Both Tsuda and Toga glanced at the pair, then back toward one another.

"I don't know, do we?" Toga asked.

Tsuda grimaced in response. "That's the thing, I'm not sure about it right now."

Izuku had no idea what to say, but this had to be addressed. "What are you saying, Tsuda, of course we should all be working together! Even if what they did was wrong-" Izuku had already created a speech whole cloth about the value seeing the class as a class and accepting their differences as Heroes, but realized his own slip-up at 'what they did was wrong,' and shut himself up until he could think of a better way to phrase it.

The ones he just inadvertently accused of wrongdoing did not give him the time.

"We had to get out of there quickly, and they were villains," Yu Hojo shouted.

"So they had to die?" Tsuda stabbed back.

"Had to? No. But we didn't kill them. We left them to deal with the consequences of their own actions. We didn't bring that roof down on Tape-Strangler."

Toya spoke up in support of his friend. "Let's not pretend these were desperate crooks down on their luck. I saw them, they were excited about killing a bunch of teenagers. Did you know that one of them tried to rape Toga?"

None of them actually did know that, causing all of them to stare her way. She rolled her eyes, uncomfortable with how they looked at her. Like she was some fragile flower to be protected.

"He failed, I'm fine. But yeah, I wasn't inclined to go out of my way to save his life, but I still probably would have had I had more time. I had seconds to think on the decision, I would like to remind everyone."

Musatado piped up, "as someone who actually did help rescue some of the villains from the falling roof, I think that Toga has an important point We're students. We haven't been properly trained in rescue."

"That's why we were there in the first place," Soramitsu added. Tsuda was a little flustered by the two, who he thought would have been on his side considering their actions, defending the others. He might have been forced to concede the point, even if he thought it was wrong, had Izuku not interjected.

"I understand what all of you are saying, but we're UA students studying to be Heroes. We're supposed to save everyone, and go beyond. We all managed to get into this class by being the best of our peers during the Entrance Exams, and stayed in because Stain tested our hearts and found them in the right place. All of your reasons, they're perfectly logical, and they'd make sense for any normal person. I couldn't blame anyone for coming to the same conclusion that you did." He sighed, clearly uncomfortable with what he wanted to say next. "But you're not normal people, and I can't fault Tsuda for expecting better from you. I'm sorry, but I don't think he's wrong."

Everyone stared at one another, neither side backing down. Even with Izuku's words cutting more deeply than expected, there was no admission of wrongdoing, no compromise reached. Iguchi and Tenko looked to one another in despair, wondering how they could salvage this, until Geten finally spoke up.

"I let the villains escape."

They all stared at him.

"When the roof was collapsing, one was in front of me, still standing, still able to fight, and he…saw the situation just like I did, and told me to run for it rather than stopping him, or basically something like that, I don't remember, and I took him up on it. Some of them are going to be at large again, threatening other people just like they did us, because of my cowardice. So, if you guys plan to condemn someone, condemn me first. I'm not worthy of my quirk."

No one had an answer for him, until Tenko spoke up. "I thought the quirk-control exercises sensei had given me were stupid. They were the only reason I was able to save Izuku. Had I taken them more seriously, I might have been able to save that villain as well. Me dismissing my homework might have killed a man."

Iguchi scratched his head awkwardly. "I felt like all I did was run away while you guys did all the real work. I can't weigh in on this argument because I don't deserve to. I wasn't fighting alongside you."

Musatado stared around at the whole group. "Izuku's right, in that we should be better than other people." Ignoring Shigaraki's objection to his wording, Musatado continued, "but I was also right when I said we're still students. It's actually our job to get better. Look on what you think you did wrong, and be better. We are the superior people, and it's our duty to be superior in character as well as power. Eventually."

No one could find his bizarre reasoning inspiring, but it did get them to stop arguing amongst one another and get back to the game.

--

While Toga did find it amusing to watch her enemies bleed out when she shot them, the game was still a bit too repetitive for her, especially with her teammates getting annoyed by how often she died. Tenko and Iguchi were taking this competitive thing way too seriously. When Tenko barely eaked out the win and Iguchi insisted they try a strategy game next until everyone who wasn't already a hardcore gamer's eyes glazed over at the description of how to play (thus making them realize that Mario Kart would probably be a better second choice), she noted that it was rated 'E' and would thus hold no interest for her and tried to talk with Izuku alone.

"Hey, do you mind?" She asked him.

"What's up?" He responded.

"Well, it's about earlier, and don't worry I don't want to have that debate again, it's just that, even with how much I try to tell myself that I don't care how people think of me anymore, I do care what you think of me."

Izuku was very easy to make uncomfortable, so she wasn't shocked in the least by his stammering response, but he eventually forced out, "You're my friend, Toga. That's not going to change."

Toga wanted to jump in glee, but then narrowed her eyes as she considered the possibilities. "You're not just saying what I want to hear, are you?"

"No," Izuku held up his hands and shook them about as he vehemently denied it. "I'm not lying to you. Do I think what you did was right? No. Do I find it disturbing, and wish that you had made a different choice? Yes." Taking a gulp and then looking her straight in the eyes, he continued.

"But do I think you're a villain, or a monster, or a terrible person? Absolutely not. I've seen how you go about Hero class, I've seen you in training, how you work hard and give others pointers. I've heard you talk about why you want to be a Hero, and how your parents hurt you so much without meaning to, but how you stand up and stay strong anyways. I want to be the type of Hero that saves everyone, while you're a little more pragmatic. That's okay, and while I do hope to help you see my point of view, even if you don't you're a true Hero deep down, you don't make me uncomfortable no matter how you act, and you're my—"

he was going to say 'closest friend,' but she interrupted him with a kiss. She didn't fully know why she did it, just that she had gotten more into acting on her emotions since refusing to hide in her shell and feeling all sorts of those very emotions as he made his little speech. Had she thought about it for a second more, she certainly wouldn't have done it.

As it was, she suppressed her panic and Izu if that was okay. The boy didn't look okay. His face was redder than a tomato, and he was speaking incoherently.

"Izu? I was just asking if that was okay? If you didn't want me to, then I'm sorry. I can say that much, it was really forward of me."

He wasn't responding. Toga suddenly became aware of the others watching, which rather than prompt embarrassment got her to smirk. "What, do you guys want to say something?"

"Just that I think he tried to save money on the gems by hacking and the system apparently couldn't handle it," Tenko noted. "Good on him for going for the good ending. Still, you gotta pay the mobile designers."

--

All-For-One's excitement about talking his son through the boy's first quirk acquisition was enough to suppress quite a bit of his anger, so Giran wasn't getting the full riot act he might have otherwise. Instead, the God of Japan simply clasped his hands as he let the Vice-Principal explain how this lapse in security had happened. It didn't reassure him.

"Are you telling me that not only did you allow a class of children, including my son, to come under a direct villain attack, but that you allowed the girl that the Boss himself, one of our country's most respected Heroes, entrusted you with, the one he both cares for and has an extremely dangerous quirk that we needed to put special care into keeping safe, get kidnapped? Where was the staff at either of those incidents?"

His voice barely rose. Giran flinched as if screamed at, but quickly recovered himself.

"The men we had guarding Eri were taken out, and somehow they blocked our communications so no one knew until it was too late. The teachers that were supposed to be at the USJ were tasked with making sure that nothing happened to those guards, but, as I said, they never learned about it." Giran sighed before All-For-One could ask any follow-up questions.

"We're beefing up security, obviously, and we're already assembling a task force to look into Eri's whereabouts. I can assure you that nothing like this will happen again."

All-For-One glared at him. Giran refused to break eye-contact.

Eventually, the God of Japan made a simple proposition. "Gigantomachia will work for UA now. He will act as security, and may even aid in heroics lessons if the teachers have ideas about how to use him."

It was not a question, nor did Giran see it as such.

As much as his face made it clear that he wanted to protest, the Vice-Principal merely sighed and answered, "and where would we have the space to keep him?"

"He can sleep underground if need be, that won't be an issue."

"Fine. With the Sports Festival being delayed, I'm sure we'll have the time to…"

"You're delaying the Sports Festival? Why?"

Giran looked at him, dumbfounded. "With everything that's happened…"

"You want to show the villains that they succeeded in scaring us?"

"Hiring that overpowered giant will already show that."

All-For-One didn't have an answer to Giran's objection. That…was actually a new sensation for him. He knew that the man was competent, but he didn't always show a spine like this, at least not around the Number One Hero.

"Until after the federal elections," All-For-One ultimately spat out. "No longer. It's important for their development."

"It's important for your son to get promoted," Giran snarked back, once again to All-For-One's surprise, but shut down any objections that the God of Japan might have to that comment by agreeing to the timeline.

--

Kraken looked sheepish as the rest of the Pro-Heroes expected him to stand up and discuss what he had learned. Having tried and failed to apprehend the villains they were currently investigating before, they wanted to hear his testimony. Considering said failure, he wasn't particularly inclined to give it.

He glanced around the room as he suppressed a shudder; Overhaul, who had only just announced that he was leaving his Sidekick gig and debuting as a Pro-Hero last week, stood next to Sludge Hero. Two men with a lot to prove and a desire to move up the ranks quickly. Two men that could take his own spot if they succeeded where he failed.

One the other side, Magne and the Boss stared at him disapprovingly.

Getting such looks from two in the top ten disappointed him greatly, but he knew that the only redemption would come from putting a stop to this criminal ring, and so he shut down whatever nerves he might have and sputtered out, "their leader, or at least someone with a lot of influence in their gang, has a quirk that lets him create explosions. He is very skilled with it, able to launch deeply fine-tuned attacks. The other members that I have encountered are a teenage girl with a Frog mutation quirk that makes her very mobile; in my last confrontation I was impressed by her speed and quick thinking. The next is someone with a quirk that creates purple balls with a strong adhesive surface, strong enough that my tentacles were unable to overcome it," he felt his embarrassment rise at the mention, but soldiered on, "and is skilled with using it to lay traps. Testimony from a surviving civilian implies that he may be behind the urban legend of 'Date Grape,' and only recently joined up with whatever group they've founded. The third that I encountered had the ability to make objects float and then fall."

He suppressed a shudder at that memory.

"Little other intel could be gained on her, other than that she used to have contact with the evasive and infamous fixer Power Loader. The last one had the ability to make his skin as hard as stone."

After that, he struggled through his recollection of the time he spent chasing them and faced their glares as he admitted to his reasoning behind abandoning the trail.

"It looks like Akaguro-sensei was right," Overhaul muttered rather than respond to Kraken's failures. "The villains really are getting organized. Someone's finding exceptionally talented young criminals and putting them together. Maybe they realized that the old ways aren't cutting it anymore."

The new Hero spared a glance at the Boss as he said it, but the older man ignored it as he responded, "or they're embracing them. Yakuza and other organized crime outfits used to do this all the time before the Dawn of Quirks."

Magne interrupted before the pair could get into it. "Unfortunately, we still don't know their end-goals. Do they want power for power's sake? Money? To make a statement? Predicting their movements is going to be difficult until we can resolve this."

Kraken had…a little bit of insight on the matter. "From what little of their conversations I could gather, the boy with the explosive quirk had a goal of being the 'number one villain,' as if villains had a ranking system similar to Heroes. I think that he, at least, is searching for fame and recognition."

"But he hasn't done anything to get his name out there," Magne objected. "Even his famous crimes aren't associated with him specifically."

"He could be setting up for an explosive debut," Sludge Hero noted. "If he's trying to imitate the Hero ranking system, then he might want to go all the way."

Overhaul interjected, "it could just be a standard of behavior. He wants to be the best at what he does, even if what he does is crime."

"This is only bringing more attention to the fact that we don't know anything," the Boss tried not to sigh as he contributed. "I don't suppose that any of the ones in prison have talked?"

"Not the ones who know anything," Sludge Hero answered. "The one Kraken here mentioned that could harden his skin was caught, and he seems to know a bit, but he won't budge in interrogations. Something about it not being 'manly.' The few who will talk don't seem to have any worthwhile intel, other than that some other operation was supposed to go down while they attacked UA, which we're guessing was Eri's kidnapping. We've got descriptions on the ones who escaped's faces, but nothing about the higher-ups."