With the case over and done with and the head of the hero agency in charge of it now deceased, there was no longer anything stopping Izuku and the other students who participated in the Yakuza raid from disclosing the details of the raid itself and the circumstances leading up to the event. Finally at liberty to discuss the case that had weighed so heavily on his conscience for the past few weeks, Izuku proceeded to recount everything to the best of his ability in the Dungeons and Dragons group chat that Jirou had created. It was, unfortunately enough, the most that Izuku had contributed to the group chat at that point in time, a testament to how much his anticipation regarding the raid and saving Eri from Overhaul's clutches had taken up a lion's share of his time and energy. When the long winded explanation was finally done as Izuku settled down to sleep, the rest of the group was left to decide just how to respond to the situation.

Mina: Welp, he's finally asleep. Seemed to be doing better after getting all of that out, but still...he needs help.

Jirou: Agreed. Any ideas, y'all?

Koda: I could take him to my moms' cat cafe. That always cheers me up when I'm feeling down.

Mina: It's a nice idea, Koda, but I feel like we're a bit beyond "feeling down" at this point.

Mina: The boy almost died for, like, the sixth time now and has gone through a bunch of other stuff over the past few weeks that he couldn't even tell anybody about until tonight.

Mina: I'm sure your moms' cats are incredibly adorable, but I don't think they're adorable enough to bring him out of several weeks' worth of depression and guilt.

Toru: You could always just go ahead and, you know, do that thing that I'm not gonna specify here because he's gonna read through these messages later. ;)

Mina: Toru, no! It is literally the worst possible time for me to do that!

Toru: I mean, you're already at the point where you're spending the night in his dorm room. ;) ;)

Mina: Because I don't want him to be alone right now! I'm not gonna try anything!

Mina: Also, whatever happened to the table rule?!

Kaminari: She's got a point, Toru; is now really the best time to be teasing her about "we all know what?"

Toru: Yeah, fair. Sorry, Mina!

Toru: In more productive news, though, I do have an idea, lemme text you all individually real quick.

Mina: Apology accepted, I guess, and sure, lay it on us.

After a brief period of silence, responses began to pour in once more.

Mina: You know, that might just work.

Kaminari: We can all make it, though, right?

Momo: Yes, I should be able to, and I concur; excellent idea, Toru!

Jirou: I'm good too.

Koda: Same here!

Mina: Alright, I'll make sure he knows where to be and when without spoiling the surprise while y'all get everything ready for him. That sound like a plan to y'all?

Toru: Hell yeah, let's do this!

Kaminari: Yup, we'll be ready.

Mina: Alrighty then, cool! I'll see y'all tomorrow then.

Toru: Sure thing! You kids have fun tonight! ;)

Mina: Toru...

Toru: Okay, last one, I promise!

Mina: Mhm, sure. Anyway, good night, y'all!

Koda: Good night!

Momo: Good night, Mina.

Kaminari: Yeah, see you tomorrow evening, girl.

With that, Mina let out a quiet sigh before setting her phone aside and finally daring to get up from Izuku's bed, with Izuku's sleeping form still snoring slightly as he continued to sleep. Taking care not to disrupt his rest, she tiptoed over to the closet and pulled out the sleeping bag that Izuku had given her permission to use when she stubbornly insisted on spending the night to make sure he was okay. After setting it up by the side of Izuku's bed, Mina quickly slipped into the closet and closed the doors behind her in order to change into her pajamas, then prepared to settle into the sleeping bag and go to sleep before her eyes fell onto Izuku's sleeping form. She smiled softly at the sight of him sleeping so peacefully for once, and before she could really think too hard about what she was doing, she took a couple steps closer to Izuku until she was right beside his ear.

"Sweet dreams, Midori," she whispered to him before giving him a quick kiss on the forehead, then scrambling into the sleeping bag in the hopes that Izuku wouldn't see her if she happened to have woken him up. And if he indeed happened to have rather sweet dreams about a certain pink girl as a result, that was certainly nothing more than a simple coincidence.

To say that having to attend regular classes not long after coming home from a terrifying ordeal was especially jarring would be an understatement. Those who were particularly close to the students that had participated in the raid were quick to notice the subtle wear and tear that the experience had wrought upon their psyches. Ochaco and Tsuyu seemed to cling to each other and remained in each other's company at almost all times with a sense of urgency that went beyond their usual brand of, to quote Bakugo, "disgustingly adorable affection," suggesting a genuine fear that they had very nearly lost each other. Kirishima likewise stuck close to Bakugo, trying his best to immerse himself back into their usual routine of playful bantering and flirting in their uniquely bizarre way which stretched the definition of what flirting meant. And, of course, although Izuku seemed to be doing better over the course of their Monday classes than he had been before, it was clear to his friends and to Mina especially that he was putting up a front. A front that, based on the behavior they had all observed during the last time that Izuku DMed in the midst of the situation with Eri and Overhaul, he wouldn't be able to sustain for long.

It was for this reason that, as soon as classes ended, the members of the D&D group immediately set about making all of the necessary preparations for their plan to cheer him up. As Koda and Toru went back to his dorm room to go get his rabbit Yuki, Jirou and her partners left to make sure that they had enough snacks for the occasion. Mina was left with the simple task of coordinating everyone else's efforts via text and eventually bringing Izuku down from his dorm room just in time for their surprise. However, she had barely made it halfway to the dorm buildings from their classroom when she ran into an unexpected complication: a grappling hook that came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around her entire body, leaving her disoriented.

"What the hell-?" Mina managed to get out before she was abruptly pulled out of the hallway and into a dimly lit storage closet covered wall to wall in blueprints and various power tools. As Mina adjusted her eyes after the door to the closet was shut behind her, she quickly prepared to melt through her restraints with her acid, only to spot another figure scrambling towards one of the blueprints on the wall and realize that she was not alone in this closet.

"Ah, I love it when one of my babies functions as intended on the first test run. And it didn't even explode like the last three babies I tested! Wonderful!"

Mina recognized that voice, but that recognition unfortunately carried with it more questions than that one piece of information was able to answer on its own.

"Hatsume?" she asked, equal parts confused and exasperated as she realized just who had decided to kidnap her for whatever reason. As soon as she heard her name, the pink-haired girl in question pushed a button on the helmet that she was wearing, lighting up a lamp she installed into it which resembled that of a miner's helmet and allowing the two girls to lock eyes with each other.

"Oh, yes; Ashido, isn't it? Sorry for the unorthodox entrance, but I'd been meaning to talk with one of you anyway," Hatsume replied easily, continuing on with her train of thought before Mina could ask for clarification. "Not to mention, the situation provided me with a good chance to test out my latest invention: the Ranged Restraint and Retrieval Device, capable of restraining and retrieving a villain for easy capture from up to 150 feet away! So, what did you think? Is it effective or what?" Hatsume asked, pressing a button on the device which promptly retracted the cables back into it and released Mina from her restraints. Although she was still annoyed, the pure unbridled enthusiasm in Hatsume's expression made her reluctant to get too upset over Hatsume's actions.

"Yup, but uh, could you maybe explain just what you needed me here for?" Mina asked rather calmly, considering the circumstances, to which Hatsume simply grinned.

"Oh, well, that's simple enough! You see, I've recently become interested in a certain tabletop roleplaying game from the time before Quirks existed that made a comeback just a few months ago, but when I tried to gather a group of players from among my fellow support class students, my efforts were...unsuccessful." At this, Hatsume fell silent for a moment, rubbing her shoulders with a pensive expression that Mina took to indicate that the eccentric inventor hadn't had the best luck making friends in her own class. As Mina began to become more sympathetic to Hatsume's situation, she almost failed to notice Hatsume suddenly brightening back up as she made her proposition. "However, imagine my surprise when I overheard that guy I used as a walking billboard one time talking about the Dungeons and Dragons game he had just played with a handful of friends...including you." By the end of Hatsume's little speech, it had become pretty clear just what the pink-haired girl wanted from Mina.

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble there, but that was just a one time thing I did. Although..." Mina paused, an idea coming into her head, before she remarked, "I think I know a way that we can both get something we want. Do you have a character set up already?"

"Ah, well...no, actually. Probably should have done that in advance, huh?" Hatsume said sheepishly, prompting a sympathetic smile from Mina. "But I have some ideas, at least!"

"Great. I know it's kinda short notice, but could you come by the common area of our dorm building at six? That's where we usually hold the sessions for our main game."

Hatsume thought for a moment before answering Mina's question. "Yeah, I think so."

"Cool! It'd be a bit unexpected, but I don't think anyone would object to you joining the game, including Midori. You and him know each other, right?"

Hatsume brightened up at the mention of Izuku. "Ah, yes, he's been tremendously helpful when it comes to advertising and testing my babies!" In response to Mina's confused and vaguely disturbed expression, Hatsume clarified by saying, "My inventions," causing Mina to sigh in relief.

"Well, in that case...eh, I could probably get Toru to do my job, she doesn't have anything else to do for the plan anyway," Mina thought aloud, confusing Hatsume for a bit before Mina turned back to her and made an offer of her own. "Do you mind if I help you whip up a character before the session? I think I have a blank character sheet from our first session somewhere in here," Mina remarked, already moving to rifle through her backpack in search of the sheet before she even registered Hatsume's nod of agreement.

"Certainly! I admittedly don't have much in the way of a backstory in mind, but my first idea was to play as a gnome inventor..."

Before long, the majority of the Dungeons and Dragons group were back at Heights Alliance and making the final preparations for their surprise. As Mina took the liberty of setting up the Dungeon Master's screen and miscellaneous materials that she had carefully pilfered from Izuku's dorm room earlier that morning, Hatsume passed the time by getting caught up on the events of the campaign thanks to Koda and absentmindedly petting his adorable bunny rabbit Yuki. As for Toru, she had made her way to the elevator leading into the boys' wing of the dorms, intent upon the second floor and a certain unsuspecting student. However, a text from Jirou would unfortunately throw a wrench in the group's carefully laid plans.

Jirou: Sorry y'all, the train back has been delayed, so we probably aren't gonna make it back there by 6.

Mina: Ah, crap. Toru, since you're already heading up there, could you do me a favor and stall Midori for a while? I'd prefer if we had everyone here, particularly since they're the ones with the snacks.

Toru: No problem, bestie! I'm on it!

With that, the doors to the second floor of the boys' wing opened, and Toru was left with the task of figuring out how to keep Izuku occupied until Jirou and her partners made it back with the snacks. Fortunately for her and the rest of the group, this would turn out to be rather easy, as the situation created an opportunity for her to get answers regarding the questions she was really hoping for answers to. Thus, with determination and a not inconsiderable amount of nervousness behind her strides, she promptly made her way to Izuku's door and gently rapped upon it until he opened it, looking somewhat confused at her appearance.

"Uh, hey, Haga-uh, Toru," Izuku remarked, quickly correcting himself after remembering that she had said it was alright for him to use her first name. "Did you need something?"

"Uh, a couple things, yeah. Could we, ah, take this inside?" she asked, not yet having noticed a particularly embarrassing detail about her appearance which Izuku had noticed as soon as he had opened the door. Deciding not to mention it for now, he simply opened the door even wider, allowing her time to walk into his dorm room before closing the door behind him. Toru looked around briefly, taking note of the somewhat disorganized state of the dorm room and the noticeable addition of the sleeping bag still lying on the floor, which Izuku quickly noticed as well and hurried to put away like he had been meaning to for the past few hours.

"Sorry about the mess," Izuku remarked apologetically, to which Toru simply dismissed the apology with a wave of her hand.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Honestly, considering who you had over last night, I was kinda expecting it to be a bit messier, if you catch my drift~," Toru replied in a way that meant Izuku could tell she was smirking in spite of the fact that he couldn't see her face. He groaned audibly.

"I take it everyone in the group knows at this point?" Izuku said, already anticipating Toru's answer before she even had a chance to confirm it.

"Mhm; you two really aren't that subtle," Toru remarked before squeaking slightly upon noticing her slip of the tongue and deciding to simply roll with it. "Honestly, you gotta get on that at some point, dude; as fun as it is to tease Mina about you, it's getting a little tiring watching you two dance around each other, not gonna lie."

Izuku groaned again, rubbing his face with his hands before taking a deep breath and replying to Toru's comments. "Yeah, I know. I was going to do...something, at least, I just have had...other things on my mind for a while." After falling silent for a moment, he decided to change tack and bring them both back to the purpose of Toru's visit. "I'm assuming you came here for another reason than to butt into my love life?"

"Ah, right, the other thing," Toru remarked, her pink coloration brightening up even further as she stumbled over what to say next. "Listen, I know you're not exactly an expert on these things, but in this case, I think I could really use your advice."

Izuku blinked in confusion, seeking to make sure he had heard her correctly. "You want relationship advice from me?" Izuku asked, to which Toru nodded. "The guy you just teased for not doing anything about his crush, like, ten seconds ago?" Izuku followed up, to which Toru nodded again, causing him to simply sigh as he accepted the fact that Toru was seriously asking him of all people for help when it comes to asking someone else. "Well, if you want advice on asking out Mina, I think you just proved pretty conclusively that you came to the wrong place."

"What?" Toru responded, confusion written on her barely-visible face as she turned as bright pink as she possibly could. "I'm not...I mean, we've kinda jokingly flirted with each other sometimes, but I never thought it meant anything, I..." Toru paused and fell silent for a moment, her invisible eyes widening as she suddenly put together a lot of things about her life that had never quite made sense until that point. "Oh, crap, am I bi?" she asked aloud in a stunned whisper, prompting Izuku to place a comforting hand on her shoulder as he nodded along sagely in response to Toru's emerging sexuality crisis.

"Ah, the moment of realizing that both girls and guys are cute, actually. I know it well," Izuku said, speaking as though he were a wise elder dispensing earthly wisdom before he sensed Toru rolling her eyes at him and became somewhat more awkward. "I mean, I-I don't know for sure, obviously, but like, it definitely sounds like that might be the case. And look, if you want to ask Mina out too, I wouldn't mind a situation like what Jirou has with her partners-"

"Nononononono!" Toru said, rapidly waving her arms in front of her face as if that alone would stop the mental image of that scenario from playing out in her head. "I, uh, appreciate it, but she's never made an actual move towards me in all the time we've known each other, so I don't think she's interested, and I, uh...I'm pretty sure I'm not? I'll, uh...I'll have to do some soul searching on that," Toru remarked, not sounding particularly excited at the prospect of having to figure out her sexuality all over again. "But, ah, it wasn't actually Mina I came to ask you about."

"Ah, gotcha, sorry for assuming," Izuku replied before thinking about it further. "Is it Kaminari? I've noticed you and him get along pretty well at the table, and I don't think Jirou would mind if he started dating someone else-"

"Uh, no, it's not Kaminari, either," Toru said, awkwardly rubbing her shoulder. "Had a crush on him for a hot second when school started, but it faded fast."

"Huh, but it is someone in our D&D group, yeah?" Izuku asked, to which Toru nodded in affirmation. "Then who else could it...oh. Huh, okay, now I see why you wanted my advice."

"Yeah, it's just, you and Koda seem to be pretty similar in a lot of ways, so I figured if anybody knew how best to approach him, it'd be you," Toru admitted, causing Izuku to nod slowly.

"Hm, that's fair, I guess, but I don't really see why you couldn't just, you know, go and flirt with him like you would do for anyone else you're interested in," Izuku countered, to which Toru responded by groaning and flopping down dramatically onto Izuku's bed.

"Ugh, I've tried being as obviously flirty with him as I can possibly be, but he either hasn't picked up on it yet or has picked up on it and was just too uncomfortable to say anything!" Toru whined from Izuku's bed, prompting Izuku to hum in thought before responding.

"Well, I haven't really talked to Koda much outside of D&D related things, but based on what I do know of him, he might not have picked up on it yet, although I'm not sure whether or not that's the case here," Izuku remarked, causing Toru to turn around so that she could look up at him from her position on the bed. "I don't think the problem is that he's too dense to pick up on your advances, and I somehow doubt that the problem is that he has such low self-esteem that he wouldn't ever imagine that you'd be interested. As quiet and introverted as he is, he generally seems to be pretty comfortable with himself, at least as far as I can tell."

Toru mumbled something to herself as she contemplated what Izuku had told her. "So do you think I made him uncomfortable, or is he just not interested?" she asked in an unusually timid manner which showed Izuku just how this crush of hers had been affecting her.

"Well, obviously I don't know for sure whether or not he's interested in you, or anyone at all for that matter," Izuku began, unsure how to respond to her first question before an idea occurred to him. "When you were flirting with him, was it always during one of your D&D sessions?" Izuku asked, to which Toru paused as she thought back on all of her previous attempts.

"Uh...generally, yeah, ever since I figured out how I feel about him during Jirou's first session. We don't really interact much outside of D&D every Friday, plus it, uh...gives me a bit of cover, what with how our roleplaying tends to go," Toru explained somewhat sheepishly, bristling under the skeptical look Izuku sent her way in response. "Hey, Jirou and Momo spent half of the first two sessions flirting with each other! And don't think I didn't notice Joy flirting with Fernis, like, two separate times during the second session!"

Izuku began to muster up a retort, but paused as he found himself struggling to find any way to respond to Toru's assertion without making a fool of himself, eventually conceding the point. "Fair. But anyway, perhaps that's the problem here: you keep catching him off-guard by flirting with him in a kind of public setting," Izuku remarked, leaving Toru to consider his point before awkwardly amending his comment. "At least, that's my best guess; it would probably be easier to just be direct with him like I was saying earlier." The two of them fell silent for a moment as Toru thought over everything that Izuku had told her.

"...Thanks, Midori," Toru remarked, giggling slightly as Izuku visibly winced upon hearing the familiar nickname. "Aw, what, is Mina the only one allowed to call you that?" Toru asked teasingly, causing Izuku to avert his eyes in embarrassment.

"...Maybe," Izuku admitted sheepishly, earning him a full on laugh from Toru before the somewhat visible girl's laughter was interrupted by another text.

Kaminari: Party Rockers in the house tonight!

Jirou: It's "Party Rock is." =/

Kaminari: ...

Mina: And they're making out xD

Momo: Yes, I suggest you bring Midoriya down here with utmost haste, Toru.

Making sure to hide her phone from Izuku, whose attention was now drawn to it, Toru quickly did her best to pivot from their earlier conversation.

"So, uh, moving on to the other thing...you got anywhere you need to be right now?"

And so it returns! Again.

This was originally going to be a much longer chapter (about 37 pages between the start and finish according to my Google Doc), but I figured it'd be a much smoother read to divide it into two parts: the lead-up to the cheer-up D&D session, and the session itself after that. Both chapters are more or less finished now, but I figured I'd give it a week before dropping the next one, rather than dropping one immediately after the other purely for the sake of more reviews at a faster rate. ;)

Of course, on the subject of reviews, although I typically don't respond to the ones on here (although if y'all would like me to change that and include a review response section like I do with my DBZ fics, let me know!), but this entirely anonymous one just stood out too much for me to not poke fun of just a bit:

"holy crap, keep the virtue signaling down a tad"

Although I know it's somewhere in the first chapter, I'm not entirely positive what this is referring to, but my guess is it has something to do with the inclusion of a nonbinary character in the form of Jirou's first character Alision. Now, I initially had no plans to take that particular plot point much further now that that character is dead, save perhaps including one or more sessions devoted to the players finding a way to resurrect them, but you know what, anon? You just gave me an idea:

Why not make Jirou nonbinary? =D

If MHA Twitter is any indication, maybe 5-10% of the fanbase headcanon her as that already, plus using D&D or other TTRPGs as a means of figuring out shit about yourself in real life is a well-documented phenomenon that I'm sure many of the fans in the reviews can attest to. Certain people are always whining about LGBT+ characters needing to have a "sufficient" explanation for why they are the way they are, and I'd say that's a pretty solid explanation, wouldn't you? Well, regardless, I'm doing it anyway, so thanks for giving me the idea, anon! Hope you like seeing it addressed at some point in the upcoming chapters!

Anyway, returning to the subject of the fic as a whole, I've got some additional good news: although I don't have every chapter meticulously planned out and honestly wasn't really planning on doing so, I do have an idea of how far I'd like to take this story! When I began this story, it was a simple one-shot I wrote for the final day of a ship week and left on an open note in case I wanted to expand on it later. Once I decided that I did want to keep going, I mostly just played it by ear, writing when the mood to write struck and leaving it alone for months when it didn't. Chapter 6 was around when this fic became one of several stories that I've used to fulfill a personal goal of writing roughly 2,000 words a week, allowing me to get out several more chapters of this fic while also finishing some other MHA fics I have that had long sat dormant. Once I started working on this more regularly than I had in the past, I had a fleeting idea of finishing the fic once I hit twenty chapters, with each chapter accounting for each side of a twenty-sided die, but I'd originally been unsure of whether or not I could stretch out the premise of this fic for that long. After all, there's only so many times you can do "The U.A. kids gather 'round for a game of D&D, and also some of them might want to smooch" before it gets stale, you know? With that in mind, I'd then thought about condensing it down to half that number, finishing the fic at the ten chapter mark. Now that I've split this chapter in two, though, and after thinking some more about where else I can take the story both with and without D&D as a major component...I think I can do it. No idea when I'll actually manage to get to that point, but I know I'll get to it eventually, so y'all stay tuned for the chapters to come!

In the meantime, as always, let me know what you think in the reviews below. Thank you all for reading, stay safe, wear a mask and get vaccinated if possible, have yourselves a fantastic night, and take care. See y'all in a week!