"Package for Midoriya Izuku?"

An elderly man with kind, yet piercing blue eyes who spoke in a slight Boston accent stood just inside the doors of the U.A. Heights Alliance dorm building. He smiled at the green haired boy who stood across from him, trembling a little from nervousness.

"Y-yeah, Mr. X-Ray," the boy in question replied in a small voice. The old man chuckled a little. This wasn't the first U.A. kid who addressed him by his old hero name, and he highly doubted it would be the last.

"Ah, c'mon, son, I've been retired for years. 'Mr. Keene' will do perfectly fine."

The boy nodded a couple times. "R-right, of course. Thank you, sir."

"Happy to help. Just need you to sign here," he said, prompting Midoriya to take the pen provided and sign his name on the paper Mr. Keene held out for him. "And that'll do it. Here ya go, kiddo."

Izuku took the package gingerly, as if he was afraid it would fall and break as soon as it was put into his hands. Given the sweat that was beginning to accumulate on his palms, that was a remote, yet noteworthy possibility. Mr. Keene, meanwhile, began to turn away, intent upon the other destinations he needed to deliver packages to. Before he left, however, he couldn't help but tease the polite hero-in-training just a little bit.

"You got good taste, Midoriya," he said, causing the boy to stand stock-still in an instant. "Have fun."

With that, he walked away, leaving Izuku muttering under his breath, trying to come up with a response.

"S-sure thing!" he eventually blurted out before facepalming. "'Sure thing,' what are you doing, Izuku?" he muttered before sighing and looking down at the package. He couldn't get mad at Mr. Keene for peeking inside; he couldn't turn off his Quirk, after all, and that very Quirk is exactly why he was hired to run the U.A. mail room. There were plenty of ways that a villain could attempt to harm the students and faculty through packages, and seeing any package coming in as if it was partially transparent was an incredibly effective security measure. Still, he could have refrained from commenting on what he had ordered, at least. Who knew who might be listening at that particular moment?

"Whatcha got there, Midori?"

Case in point.

Izuku scrambled to turn around as he heard Mina Ashido's voice inches behind him, stammering wildly as he did so. "I, uh, hey, Ashido!" he eventually managed. "W-what, what brings you here?"

Mina couldn't help but smirk a little. "You mean besides the fact that I live here?" she asked playfully, to which Izuku began to sweat a bit. He'd gotten better, but having girls be this close to him still set him off-balance. As he attempted to steady his nerves, she continued. "Well, at the moment, I'm wondering why exactly you tried to dodge my question."

Izuku felt himself sweating even more. "Ah. Hm. Well, uh, it's, you know, a package. That I got. Just now."

Mina's smirk grew a little wider. Izuku was incredibly easy to mess with. "I saw," she said simply. "What is it?"

"Nothing!" Izuku replied instantly, cursing himself as he did so. Everyone knows that when you insist something is nothing, it rarely turns out to be nothing.

"Oh? Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I opened it for you, would you?" As she spoke, a weak, sticky acid solution began to pool on her fingertips, one she knew from personal experience would be just strong enough to eat through the packaging without damaging the contents inside.

"T-that's a kind offer, but I can manage it just fine with the scissors in my room," Izuku said, already beginning to walk towards the elevator. Mina immediately fell into step alongside him.

"You sure? Your mitts are looking a little too sweaty for safe scissor usage, Midori," she pointed out, only making him sweat more. She couldn't help but giggle a bit at his reaction, causing him to turn to look at her just as he reached the elevator to the boys' wing.

"...Y-you're going to ask me about this package over and over again for days, aren't you?" he asked. He didn't know the pink girl too well, but he'd gotten to know her well enough.

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to, silly," she replied in that same playful tone. Izuku let out a defeated sigh.

"C-can we go somewhere more private?" he asked, to which Mina nodded before smirking a bit.

"Your room, or mine?" she asked, causing Izuku to blush. He stammered out a response, which only made her more amused. "Midori, trust me, nobody cares. I've hung out with Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero in all of their rooms, and I haven't gotten in trouble yet."

Izuku managed to calm down enough to respond properly, albeit still stuttering a lot. "S-still, t-they made separate wings for a reason, didn't they? T-they wouldn't have done that arbitrarily."

Mina shrugged. "I guess, but I'm telling you right now, nothing bad is going to happen." After a couple seconds, she thought about it some more. "Well, knowing the creepy little grapefruit, if he hears about it...eh, you'll probably be fine."

Izuku gulped somewhat, a part of him wondering just what Mineta would do if he learned of this. He remembered vividly how he had reacted after the incident with the psychotic girl from the license exam. He learned that day never to underestimate the strength of his lecherous classmate's tiny fists.

"I-if it's really okay, then...I guess we can meet in my room," he said, still blushing a fair bit. Mina nodded, following behind him as he stepped into the elevator. Once the doors shut, he took a deep breath and provided an answer to Mina's question.

"This is...this is just some stuff for a super-old game I'm interested in playing, that's all."

This piqued Mina's interest. "Oh? What game is it?"

Izuku hesitated for a couple seconds before he replied. "It, uh, it's called Dungeons and Dragons. It's a tabletop roleplaying game from before Quirks existed. It was pretty popular back then, but once Quirks came around, it kinda stagnated and hadn't really been updated much."

Mina followed along, fascinated. "Whoa, seriously? Even after, like, what, two hundred years?" She knew that a lot of aspects of global society were put on pause by the emergence of Quirks, including all kinds of popular media, but it was still strange to think about.

Izuku nodded. "Yeah, uh, apparently a lot of companies kinda collapsed in the decades immediately after Quirks started popping up, including the one which published the game. Without them, no new official material was being made, so, you know, anyone still playing it had to either work with what content existed or make their own. As, uh, you can imagine, between that and real-life superheroes becoming a thing, the game's popularity took a pretty big hit."

Mina nodded. "Ah, gotcha," she said as the doors opened, prompting the two of them to begin walking out. "How'd you find out about it?"

"Well, I, uh, I stumbled on an article about it a couple months ago. Nobody owns the copyright anymore, so a couple of hardcore enthusiasts took every bit of official content they could find and came up with a new edition they called 5.5. The, uh, the previous one was 5th edition, so it's 5.5 because-"

"I gotcha, I gotcha," Mina said as the two of them came to Izuku's dorm room. He glanced at the door, then at Mina, then back at the door, his hesitation especially evident. Mina laughed a little to herself, causing Izuku to look at her questioningly. "I just find it funny, that's all," she said, which only left Izuku more confused.

"Find what funny?" he asked, a little defensively.

Mina laughed a little more. "You literally broke the law to go rescue Bakugo from the League of Villains, and yet you're worried about getting in trouble for bringing a cute girl into your dorm room. It's honestly kind of adorable."

Izuku found himself blushing profusely at Mina's remarks. As he struggled to form a coherent response, Mina sighed and crossed her arms, regarding him with a patient smile. He looked at Mina one last time, then finally opened the door, allowing her to walk in before he closed it behind them. Mina giggled to herself at all of the All Might merchandise lining every wall and bookshelf in the room, leaving Izuku feeling some residual embarrassment, even though everyone had already seen his room before.

"Y-you can sit in my desk chair if you-oh, you're...sitting on my bed. Okay, that, that's cool. That's fine, everything's fine."

Mina giggled some more. "If it really bothers you, I can move," she said kindly, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"No, no, it, uh, it's really fine. I just...I'm sorry, I honestly have no idea what to do here," he admitted rather sheepishly, sitting down next to her with the package in his hands.

"Have you seriously never had a girl alone in your room? Not even when you were little?" She kinda knew the answer to her question already, based on how Izuku acted around her and all the other girls he knew, but she felt like she should ask anyway.

Izuku nodded. "I...I haven't really had anyone alone in my room before," he said, remembering the story that he had told everyone else about his Quirk. "I was already a weird kid who got bullied a lot, but since my Quirk emerged late, everyone thought I was Quirkless. Between those two things...the people at this school have pretty much been the only friends I've ever had. Or, at least, the only ones who haven't started bullying me yet."

For once, Mina wasn't entirely sure what to say, and the two sat in silence for several seconds. Upon looking at the package, however, she got an idea. "You mind if I open this up?" she asked, gesturing towards it. Izuku nodded, handing it off to her as he became lost in thought. In no time, Mina's weak acid solution ate through the bindings on the box, allowing her to open it up and reveal a smaller box with, rather fittingly, a fierce red dragon on the lid. After lifting that up, she began to look through the various contents of the box, including a set of curious looking dice and a rulebook which rivaled the size of their own textbooks. "How, uh, how do you play this game, exactly?" Mina asked, finding herself intimidated by all the words and tables on the pages as she flipped through them.

Izuku brought his mind back to the present in order to answer her question. "Well, uh, like I said, it's a roleplaying game, so you make a character that's a certain class and a certain race, and you have different stats that determine, uh, how hard you can hit with your weapons, or how many hit points you have, how smart you are, and some other stuff. The game's usually played in a group, with one player acting as the 'dungeon master' who plans out and manages all the stuff that the other players will do. It, uh, it's a lot for a person to wrap their head around at first." Izuku paused for a moment. "To be honest, that's partly why I was kinda hesitant to talk about it."

Mina nodded along, still flipping through the rulebook. "Does it have to be a group?" she asked.

"No, it can work as a solo adventure between one player and the dungeon master. It's just...well, the game's mechanics are largely balanced around players being in a group of four to five, although you could potentially have more. I couldn't imagine running a game of more than maybe six players, though. That'd be a lot."

Mina nodded. "I gotcha. Well, why not ask the Midorisquad if they'd like to play?"

Izuku cocked his head. "...The Midorisquad?" he asked, making sure he'd heard her right. To his surprise, she actually blushed a bit, her cheeks turning lilac.

"Uh, y-yeah. You know, uh, you, Ochaco, Iida, Todoroki, Tsu. They're always hanging out with you. So...they're the Midorisquad! Yeah!" By the end of it, Mina looked like she wanted to die. Izuku simply nodded slowly, not quite sure what to make of Mina's invention, while Mina looked down bashfully. "Ochaco liked it," she muttered. Izuku decided to get back on track.

"Well, I was going to ask them when I first ordered that starter set. As I was waiting for it, I thought things over some more, and...for one thing, I'm not sure I'd be a very good dungeon master. I'm still wrapping my head around some of the rules, and I'm not the best at acting or improvising dialogue or anything like that. Plus, I figured that everyone would be way too busy. This game is a pretty big time commitment, after all. Sessions tend to go on for hours, so...yeah."

Izuku looked down at his shoes for a bit, while Mina looked at him sympathetically. She was already working out a scheme in her head, and idly glanced at the All Might Silver Age calendar placed onto the wall by Izuku's desk. It was Thursday currently, and from the looks of things, Izuku had the whole rest of the week free. With this information in mind, she began to enact her plan.

"I'm free tomorrow night," she said, catching Izuku's attention. He began to blush slightly as he looked into her eyes, then promptly looked away.

"Ah, uh, well...t-the adventure this starter set comes with has suggestions for running the game with only one player, so I can look over that and figure out how to run it from there. We'll probably need a fair amount of space, so the dorm rooms wouldn't really work. We, uh, we can meet in the common area, provided that, you know, nobody's using it. Say, uh, starting at 6? Maybe going until 9 or 10?"

Mina nodded. "Sure, sounds great!" she said, legitimately starting to get a little excited. She easily hoisted herself off of the bed and onto her feet. As she began to move towards the door, Izuku interjected.

"Uh, Ashido, did you want to go over everything you'll need for making a character first? I've got the time, I could explain all of it to you before we get started."

Mina shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, Midori, but I've got some homework I've been severely procrastinating on. You should probably focus on that too. You have my number, though, yeah?" Izuku blushed a bit before nodding. "I'll let you know if I need any help."

Izuku nodded again. "Got it. You, uh, you should probably take one of these, though," he said, pulling out one of the character sheet packages that came with the starter set. "I don't know if you have access to a printer or anything, so..."

Mina's eyes widened slightly as she looked at all the various boxes for things she needed to note down. Ability scores, saving throws, skills, armor class, hit points, features, equipment...there were a lot of boxes. Still, she took the character sheet with a simple, yet genuine "Thanks."

Izuku nodded, not quite sure what to say. "Well, um...I-I'll see you tomorrow!" he eventually got out, speaking a little too quickly. Mina chuckled.

"See you tomorrow," she replied back before letting herself out, leaving Izuku to process what had just transpired. He could overhear her giggling as she walked away, and for some reason that made him feel...really warm and fuzzy. Before he could ponder just what that meant, however, he swiftly began to feel something else as he heard a pair of small, yet incredibly determined fists banging on his door.

"MIDORIYA!" Mineta screamed through the door at the top of his lungs, his sheer fury extremely evident and drawing the attention of everyone else on that floor. Izuku's blood ran cold as he contemplated Mina's words earlier, wondering just what Mineta was prepared to do before hesitatingly opening the door.

This, as Izuku would come to realize, was an ill-calculated, grievous mistake.

With barely over a day to prepare, Mina set to work immediately on the next stages of her brilliant plan. The first step, of course, was reading up on the basics of the game online as soon as she was done with her homework. She didn't need to understand everything, but she wanted to be able to make her character and manage the rest of the plan on her own. To her surprise, despite how complicated it looked on the surface, the game was actually easier to wrap her head around than she was expecting. She was especially relieved to find that there was much less complicated math at the heart of the game than she had feared, which would have doomed an otherwise doable plan. Thus, with the help of a good deal of research and some online tools, by the end of that Thursday Izuku's game had a party of one player ready and raring to go.

As it turned out, however, getting more would actually be the hard part.

It was already far too late to go knock on everyone's doors by the time Mina's character was done, so after texting Izuku everything she had about her character, she resolved to text some of their classmates in an effort to scoop up more players. When she awoke the next morning to check on those texts, however, the results were disappointing. As Izuku had predicted, none of the "Midorisquad" could make it: Ochaco and Tsuyu were going on a date at 6:30, Iida had resolved to spend that night studying for their upcoming English test, and Todoroki was busy with his remedial courses. She had texted a couple other people she knew Midoriya was well acquainted with, but that came up empty too. Tokoyami wasn't interested, Kirishima was planning to hang out at the gym with Bakugo, and Aoyama had a popular American tv show he always watched at 7 on Fridays. Thus, her only option was to turn to her own circle of friends. This, however, came with its own pitfalls, as Mina found out a couple hours after she woke up.

Toru: Are you sure you want me there? Wouldn't you prefer, what was it, a "solo adventure?" ;)

Mina groaned as she read her best friend's text. Not a day went by where she didn't regret sharing that particular secret with her. She knew Toru would never tell anyone else, obviously, but by God, would she tease Mina about it at every possible opportunity when it was just the two of them.

Mina: No, Toru, jeez.

Toru: You sure?

Mina: Yes!

Toru: But are you sure?

Mina: ...Okay, fine, maybe a little. :/

Toru: Ha! Knew it!

Mina: But seriously, he said the game's more fun with a group of people, and I want him to have as much fun as possible!

Mina: Just, please come. For me? I promise, I'll do whatever you want.

Toru: Aw, come on, you don't gotta ask. I'm always willing to help a friend find love~.

Toru: Although...now that you mention it-

Mina: Todoroki can't make it, Toru.

Toru: Drat.

Toru: I'll still go, though, dw.

Mina: Thanks, lol.

Mina: We should probably meet up somewhere to get your character sheet ready. You good to meet at one of the tables outside the cafeteria after classes are done?

Toru: Yeah, that works. See you later!

Mina sighed. It had been awkward, but she had managed to get an additional party member. Whenever she had the chance over the course of that school day, she worked to get the rest that she needed, which quickly became much easier than it had been before.

Kaminari: 6 tonight, huh? Yeah, I can make that. It sounds like it'll be fun!

Mina: Great! We're meeting outside the cafeteria after classes let out so you guys can make your characters.

Mina: Don't let Midori know you're playing yet-I want it to be a surprise. :)

Kaminari: Cool. I'll be there.

Mina: Also, could you maybe bring snacks to the actual game? I was going to get some, but alas, I am broke.

Kaminari: Lol. Don't worry, girl, I got you.

Mina: Tysm!

Momo: Oh, that sounds like great fun! I'd love to join, if you'll have me.

Mina: Awesome! We'll be meeting after class outside the cafeteria so everyone can make their characters.

Momo: Understood.

Mina: Oh, actually, if it isn't too much trouble, can I ask a favor?

Momo: You need materials for everyone else who's showing up.

Mina: ...Yeah. ={

Momo: Say no more. I'm happy to be of service.

Mina: Thanks, Momoyao! =]

Momo: Don't mention it. I shall see you in a few hours.

Jirou: A roleplaying game, huh? Didn't think high fantasy was your style.

Mina: Ah, well, sometimes you gotta branch out, you know? Try new things.

Jirou: Yeah, I hear you. I dunno, it sounds like it might be fun, but I was planning to study for English tonight. Haven't been doing too hot there recently.

Mina: You sure? I happen to have it on good authority that both Kaminari and Momo will be there. I imagine they'd be very happy to have you playing with them.

Jirou: ...

Mina: =]

Jirou: ...

Jirou: You know what, screw you.

Mina: Love ya too, Yo-Yo!

Jirou: That nickname makes no goddamn sense.

Mina: Aw, admit it, Kyoka, it's growing on you.

Jirou: I hope your character gets mauled by goblins.

Mina: We'll have to find out at 6, won't we?

Mina: =}

Jirou: ...

Jirou: Ugh, alright, I'll go, so long as we never speak of this again.

Mina: Deal, lol.

Jirou: Seriously, Mina, if you tell anyone I like those two, they'll never find your body. Got it?

Mina: Message received loud and clear, Yo Yo.

Jirou: You can be a real pain sometimes, you know that?

Mina: Yup!

Mina: We're meeting up after class to make characters beforehand. See you then!

Jirou: Yeah, yeah, whatever.

By the time classes were finally done with, the party made their way to a moderately sized outdoor table right outside of the cafeteria, each of them making sure to disguise the true purpose of their gathering as much as they could. When they finally met up at the table, they allowed the pretense to drop, satisfied that Izuku wouldn't catch wind of their meeting prematurely.

"Hey, Jirou, glad you could make it!" Kaminari said, smiling his almost literal thousand watt smile. Momo smiled along with him, the combined effect of which left Jirou a blushing mess. Of course it was just her luck to be crushing hard on not one, but two adorable dorks.

"I-it's whatever," she said, trying to play it cool and failing miserably. "Didn't have anything better to do, so I figured, why not, you know?" As the punk rocker sat down in between Kaminari and Momo, Mina glanced at her with a subdued smirk. She knew that if Jirou could have flipped her off without drawing suspicion, she would have.

"So! We've only got about...say, Toru, what time is it?"

"3:15."

"Two hours and forty-five minutes to get you guys ready to go for Midori's game!"

The group nodded with some slight apprehension, not entirely sure whether they could manage such a feat.

"Uh, this isn't going to take that long, is it?" Kaminari asked, speaking for the group. Mina responded promptly.

"Don't worry, I've got y'all covered!" She immediately sent out a group text she had prepared in advance, with a link to a website she found which listed all of the official class and race options a player could choose from for this particular edition. As the others flipped through the available options, Kaminari let out a low whistle.

"Man, there's a lot of stuff here. You know the gist of all of this?"

Mina nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! I mostly just read up on the basics, but I know enough to help y'all get through making your characters in no time! Just let me know if you need any help."

Momo nodded in approval at Mina's diligence before turning to look at the pink haired girl. "If you don't mind, Mina, could you show me what I have to work with?"

"Oh! Oh, yeah, sure!" she said, promptly showing her a picture of the standard set of dice the game used, as well as handing over her own character sheet for examination. After looking it over for a moment, Momo nodded.

"Should be simple enough," she said as she rolled up her sleeve and held her right arm straight out. In a matter of seconds, the skin on her arm glowed with a pinkish light, and enough blank character sheets, already stapled together as necessary, emerged from her arm as if it were a printer spitting out copies. The sheets flopped down onto the table, followed by several different colored sets of polyhedral dice. The group watched in awe at Momo's handiwork for a moment before selecting what they needed. To no one's surprise, Mina took the pink dice set, holding up the six-sided die for the others' inspection.

"Alright, now, as soon as you guys have settled on a character, these are gonna become real important. There's a couple different ways you can figure out your characters' stats, and one of them is by rolling one of these four times and-"

"Um, e-excuse me? Ashido?"

A small, timid voice which Mina and the others instantly recognized could be heard coming from right behind her. Just as she turned around to look for the source, Jirou's expression, still somewhat embarrassed from earlier, immediately perked up into a smile.

"Oh, hey, Koda! You made it!" she said as everyone else turned to look at him. With the spotlight on him, he immediately clammed up, smiling nervously as he waved at everyone. Mina turned to look at Jirou, who simply shrugged. "We got to talking about the game at lunch, and he was really interested, so I suggested that he ask to join the group after classes. Is that cool with y'all?"

Each member of the group voiced their agreement almost immediately, catching Koda a little by surprise. "A-are you sure? I-I don't want to impose," he whispered to Mina, who happened to be closest.

"Don't worry, dude, we got room. Pull up a chair!" she replied, prompting the animal whisperer to smile brightly before sitting next to Momo, not wanting to be too far from Jirou.

"You're in luck, I made a couple of extras just in case," Momo remarked, handing the timid boy a character sheet and gesturing towards a couple leftover sets of dice. He quickly snatched the set he wanted before looking up at Mina expectantly, catching Momo's attention. "Now, then, you mentioned something about rolling dice? To determine our characters' stats?"

Mina nodded, eager to keep things moving and diving headfirst into her explanations.

"Yeah! You take one of the six-sided dice and you roll it four times, then take out the lowest roll and add the rest together. You've got six stats to worry about, so you're gonna do that whole thing six times and write down what you get. Of course, there's also this other method people use called 'point-buy,' where each stat starts at 8 and you can add to them from, like, a certain amount of points or something. I went with that because it seemed easier, less math involved, but it's up to you. Whichever one you end up using, you gotta keep in mind that, depending on the class, some stats will be super useful and others won't. The race that you pick also gives bonuses to certain stats, which might help you out, although you can choose whatever you want. Like, for example, when I was making my character, I knew that Strength really wasn't gonna help much, but Charisma was super important, and she gets a plus two bonus to that, so that ended up helping a lot..."

As Mina continued to explain everything she knew, the others listened intently to varying degrees, all of them ready to complete the task ahead of them.

About five minutes shy of 6 pm, Izuku scrambled out of his dorm room with his Dungeons and Dragons set in tow. He could practically feel Mineta's furious stare through the peephole of the small boy's door, and he knew that his neighbor hadn't yet forgiven him for his "betrayal." He also knew that if looks could kill, he would no doubt be erased from existence without a trace.

Nevertheless, he pressed on, making it to the elevator and sitting there alone for a moment, a hundred minor worries beginning to occupy his mind. What if he stuttered? What if he went on talking for too long, or if he didn't say enough? Would Mina remain interested the whole time, or would she start to check out? He'd re-balanced everything properly, hadn't he? Her character was a bard, so he knew she'd be a bit light on health and defenses. She wasn't going to get stuck or run into too much trouble with the enemies, right? Or, hell, what if he'd made everything too easy trying to compensate for that? Maybe if he double checked everything fast enough, he could-

The elevator doors opened, prompting a familiar voice to call out to him from the common area's couch as she spotted him arriving. Izuku gulped, his palms already beginning to sweat a bit. This was it.

"H-hey, Ashido, are you ready to-?" he began, walking out of the elevator before pausing to fully register the scene before him: Mina, Kaminari, Momo, Jirou, Toru, and Koda, all sitting around the common area's coffee table, armed with dice, pencils, character sheets, and plenty of sugary snacks and drinks to go around. For a good couple seconds, he didn't know how to respond, eventually just asking, "W-what's going on? What are you all doing here?" The answer seemed obvious, but for some reason he was having trouble making that connection in the moment.

Momo smiled, gesturing to the materials laid out on the desk. "Is it not obvious?" she asked simply. Before Izuku could answer that question, Mina cut in.

"Surprise!" she said enthusiastically. "Party of six, ready to roll!"

Izuku blinked a couple times, still not quite believing it, while Kaminari and Toru laughed at Mina's unintentional pun. Jirou groaned. Based on what Mina had told them of her character, she knew that these kinds of puns would be frequent.

"Y-you got a whole group together for me?" Izuku asked, causing Mina to blush slightly.

"I-it was kind of last minute," she admitted sheepishly as she tried to hide her face. Toru simply shot her a smug glance while Kaminari interjected strongly.

"'Kind of' last minute? I finished my character sheet like half an hour ago!"

Jirou scoffed, smiling a bit as she did so. "You would've finished it sooner if you hadn't spent fifteen minutes trying to pick out your spells."

"Hey, that stuff was more complicated than I thought, okay?"

Jirou chuckled. "I had, like, twice as many spells to pick as you did, and I still finished my character faster."

"Now, now, you two, it's not a competition," Momo interrupted. "The point is, we all have our characters ready to play for Midoriya's game."

Kaminari scoffed himself, a bemused smirk crossing his features. "Says the girl who had her sheet done before Mina even finished explaining everything," he said, causing Jirou to laugh in spite of herself, while Momo simply chuckled.

"Yes, well, the point still stands," she said with a slight smile. Jirou returned her friend's smile, becoming lost in her eyes for a moment before remembering something.

"Oh, Midoriya, you mind if I ask a question real quick?" she asked, turning to look at Izuku before pausing. "Uh..." she began, prompting everyone else to look towards where she was looking. "You good, dude?"

"Hm?" Izuku asked absentmindedly, only noticing the tears beginning to pool in his eyes when Jirou pointed them out. He quickly blinked them away and tried to get his head back into the game. "Uh, yeah, yeah. I-I'm fine. Ask away, Jirou." He and the others failed to notice Mina looking at him with an affectionate smile, with the obvious exception of Toru.

Jirou slowly nodded, content to let him be for the moment. "Okay...well, my spells all say they have verbal components. It doesn't matter what those are, right? Just that you say something to make the spell work?"

"Uh, from what I understand, yes."

"Cool. Then my idea works," she said, causing Izuku to raise an eyebrow and chuckle slightly.

"Well. Color me intrigued," he said, before his thoughts returned to the new task he was presented with, and he began to busy himself with unpacking after pulling up a chair. "I'm gonna need a couple minutes to, uh, set up my stuff. While I'm doing that...why don't you guys introduce your characters? You don't have to say much, just, like, their name, pronouns, class, race, other basic things. I mean, Mina already sent me everything about her character, and I'm assuming you all know each other's, but it'll be helpful for me to know. Plus, uh, it'd be a good idea to figure out how you guys will actually, uh, play your characters throughout the game. Like, how they'll talk, what their personality is like, that sort of thing." As he spoke, he set down the screen which came with the starter set, making sure his materials were hidden from all the other players. "Whoever wants to go first can go."

Mina giggled and cleared her throat before launching into her introduction, speaking in the most hyper, excitable tone she could muster. "Hi, everyone! My name's Joy, she/her/hers. Don't have a surname, I'm afraid, but Joy will do just fine! I'm a pink Tiefling Bard with a rather devilish tongue and some pretty sick moves, if I do say so myself! I also love puns, and I'm always eager to hear new ones from whoever I talk to! I have a particular talent in cracking jokes or, if necessary, cracking skulls! I gotta admit, I can get distracted pretty easily, but I always try to do the right thing. My motto is to always leave something better than when you found it. I'm super excited to go on an epic quest with you all!"

Throughout her entire introduction, Mina got up several times, making extremely elaborate hand gestures as she went and occupying everyone's attention. Jirou mostly just groaned while the others smiled and laughed at Mina's antics. As Izuku listened alongside getting his stuff ready, he couldn't help but notice that weird warm and fuzzy feeling again. Where did that keep coming from?

"Well, I guess I'll go next!" Toru said cheerfully, getting up from her position in between Mina and Izuku and clearing her throat. When she spoke next, it was in a much deeper, harsher tone of voice, one that immediately caught everyone off guard. "My name is Scratch, she/her/hers. I'm a Tabaxi Rogue, a skilled Thief who's a master at striking from the shadows and remaining unnoticed. I take what I want with no one the wiser. I'm fairly chill most of the time, but if you want to keep your stuff on your person and your eyes in working order, do yourself a favor and don't piss me off."

The other party members blinked a couple times, taken aback by Toru's choice of character.

"Oookay, then..." Kaminari began, slightly intimidated before he shifted into a confident, laid-back voice. "Well, my name is Farai, but you can just call me Rai, he/him/his. I'm a variant Human Storm Sorcerer, who used to be a sailor until I got caught in this vicious thunderstorm and woke up with magical powers. Now I'm just kinda wandering around, trying and, honestly, struggling a lot to figure out how all this magic stuff works. But hey, if I manage to pick up a fair amount of money during my travels, that'll definitely be nice."

The girls in the group chuckled as Kaminari finished his introduction. "Of course you go for the confident tough guy," Jirou remarked teasingly, causing Kaminari to scoff in irritation.

"Oh, yeah? Let's see what you come up with," he replied, immediately prompting Jirou to clear her throat.

"Gladly," she answered in a refined tone of voice, one which caused both Kaminari and Momo to blush slightly before looking away, while she carried on unaware. "My name is Alision Norwynn, they/them/theirs. For the sake of ease of communication, I tend to just go by Alis, pronounced like 'Alice.' I'm a High Elf Wizard of the School of Enchantment. My family specializes in a unique method of spellcasting involving the use of vocals, and I have likewise been trained in that craft."

Izuku nodded, having mostly completed his preparations. "Ah, so that's what you were asking about," he muttered, which Jirou overheard.

"I would have picked a bard too, but Mina already made hers and I didn't want to double up," Jirou explained in her normal voice before getting back into character. "Anyway! I have ventured from my family's ancestral home to explore the world and expand my magical knowledge. Along the way...I happened to make something of a friend."

As Jirou spoke, she turned to look at Koda, who began whispering in a volume far too low for anyone without Jirou's enhanced hearing to register. She nodded, and relayed what she had been told, remaining in character. "Whisper, he/him/his, is a Kenku Druid associated with the Circle of the Shepherd. He is quite young and wishes to hear more Common words in order to mimic them, and thus be able to fully converse in Common. I have endeavored to help him with this in exchange for him acting as my escort and sharing what magical knowledge he possesses with me. In the interim, I am able to translate for him through my working knowledge of his native language, Auran. By my estimation, he's incredibly earnest, polite, and, as you can imagine, loves animals. I imagine he will be a most dependable companion."

"Dawww!" Mina and Toru said simultaneously, placing their hands on their cheeks. Koda immediately became embarrassed and slightly fidgety, but a look from Jirou managed to calm him down. Momo smiled at the animal whisperer before clearing her throat and attempting to get into character.

"Well, then, let's get this over with," she began in a gruff, no-nonsense tone which caused Kaminari and Jirou to immediately burst into laughter, laughter which quickly became contagious as everyone else couldn't refrain from lightly chuckling along. "What is it? Am I doing something wrong?" Momo asked in her normal voice, somewhat worried and caught off guard by the group's response. Izuku took a second to compose himself before replying.

"Well, um, at least for me, it...it wasn't quite what I was expecting," he admitted before immediately adding, "Which is good! That's good, you guys should, you know, be trying to branch out from what others might expect based on your personality. I think you've been doing a decent job of that so far." He glanced towards Kaminari and Jirou with a more stern gaze than he would have given under normal circumstances, prompting them to work to calm down. "Please. Continue," he said encouragingly.

After taking a couple seconds to reassemble her thoughts, Momo resumed her introduction in the same tone of voice as before. "My name is Rona Querinas, she/her/hers. I'm a Goliath Fighter, having been trained as a Battle Master. I've mostly been traveling around from town to town, taking care of local problems so I can get enough coin to deal with my own. I tend to keep to myself most of the time: other people are often more trouble than they're worth. Still, I'm not above having company in my travels. Occasionally."

As soon as Momo had finished, Kaminari and Jirou couldn't stop themselves from snickering ever so slightly.

"Oh, man, that voice was amazing," Kaminari said earnestly, to which Jirou nodded. Momo found herself blushing a tiny bit.

"Well, I am, um, relieved to know that your amusement was not malicious in nature," she said, to which their expressions immediately became serious.

"Dude, of course it wasn't."

"Yeah, Momo, you know how much I lo-like...you. Yeah," Jirou said, beginning to sweat a bit as Kaminari tried his hardest not to laugh. Momo, completely oblivious, simply smiled.

"The feeling is mutual," she said, leaving Jirou on the verge of a heart attack while Kaminari's task got even more difficult. Mina likewise had to refrain from reacting too strongly, which Toru couldn't help but notice. Koda, hearing everything that was going on, summoned the courage to speak.

"U-um, are we, uh, gonna start, ah, playing now?" he asked, just loud enough to catch everyone else's attention. Before anyone could say anything else, Izuku nodded, taking control of the situation.

"Yes! Yes, of course, let's, um...let's get started," he said, taking a deep breath as his friends at the table all found themselves leaning closer to listen. He looked at the text of the module, turning around what to say and what not to say before resolving to just go for it. "I-it's a busy night at the Wanderer's Reprieve, a tavern set up, uh, largely in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but a dense forest bordering it on one side and the intersection of...yes, three different dirt roads passing right in front of it. The owner of the tavern, a standoffish, yet, eh, fairly reasonable Dwarven woman named Reina Coldaxe, is busy at the bar, uh, cleaning empty glasses. Each of you came into this tavern for the same reason as everyone else does: to rest, relax, and prepare for the next leg of your respective journeys. As, uh, as the light level in the bar begins to fade with the coming of dusk, most of the patrons return to their rooms to sleep." Izuku paused as he looked across at all of the players. "What do you do?"

Mina immediately brought her hands together with a determined expression. "Okay, so, is there, like, a stage to perform on?"

Izuku thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I'll say there's a small stage, about big enough for a small quartet to play on. It's kind of, uh, nestled in a corner of the room."

"Sweet. Okay, so, the whole time everyone's been in this tavern, I'm gonna say that Joy's been doing a comedy routine built around a whole bunch of random puns she picked up from people on the road."

"Oh, no," Jirou remarked with genuine fear, while Izuku thought it over for a moment.

"Make me a Performance check," he said, prompting Mina to roll and stare down intensely at the twenty-sided die before glancing at her sheet.

"11, so that would be, uh...16!" she confirmed, positively beaming at getting such a good roll to start with.

Izuku nodded. "Uh, over the hour or two that you all have been in here, your routine attracts a good amount of attention, with almost every ordinary patron who hears it stopping to tip you before they leave. You've earned a total of...I'll say about 5 silver pieces, from tips."

"Woo hoo! Awesome!" she said, her enthusiasm as she updated her sheet distracting Izuku for a second with that same fuzzy feeling.

"Uh, how do you all react to Joy's performance?" he asked, eager to keep things moving.

Kaminari shrugged. "Eh, Rai would find a couple of her jokes funny, I figure. He'll toss in a silver piece for her trouble. Maybe with, like, a little electrical spark or something on the coin, just for flair?"

Toru chuckled. "Scratch finds it funny, but you can tell from her face that she won't admit it if you point it out to her."

Koda whispered in Jirou's direction, prompting her to turn towards Izuku. "Whisper asks Alis if they get any of it, but they just shake their head. It's all rather confusing."

Momo scoffed, getting into her Rona voice. "'This woman needs to find better material,' Rona says, looking at the pink Tiefling with contempt."

"'Yes, that is a rather astute observation.'"

Momo chuckled. "Rona turns in the direction of the voice and says, 'You talking to me?'"

Jirou gulped both in and out of character before replying. "'Why, yes. Is that agreeable to you, miss?'"

"Rona smirks as she takes stock of this, comparatively speaking, much smaller High Elf. 'Not usually...but I'm thinking I might make an exception tonight.'"

"Listening to this conversation, Rai's just gonna be like," Kaminari began before wolf-whistling loudly, causing Momo to laugh a little while Jirou became red in the face.

"Alis casts Mage Hand and positions it so that it's clamped right over that dumb idiot's mouth," Jirou said, stewing in her embarrassment. Izuku chuckled along with the rest of the group.

"Uh, make me a ranged spell attack to, you know, see if you get it in the right position."

"Oh, crap, my AC sucks, hold on," Kaminari said, checking his sheet as Jirou rolled and let out a triumphant laugh.

"17, you jerk!" she proclaimed, to which Kaminari sighed defeatedly.

"Yeah, that hits," he said, leaving the party chuckling as Izuku ruled what would happen next.

"Out of nowhere, this, uh, spectral hand kind of appears right in front of your face and just clamps onto your mouth, refusing to let go and muffling anything you try to say."

"Rai kinda sits back down, he's not even gonna fight it. The point's been made," Kaminari remarked as he leaned back in his chair.

"Joy just giggles at this whole situation. These people look like fun, so she's gonna jump down from the stage and go see what they're doing."

"Scratch is also amused, and kinda turns her head a bit to see what's going on."

"Rona will say 'Ha! Nice.'"

"Joy walks up to Rona and immediately holds out her hand. 'Hey, there! My name's Joy!'"

"...Rona just kinda looks at her outstretched hand for a moment before taking it. 'Rona.'"

"'Alision, but I go by Alis,' Alis says, not wanting to take the handshake. They gesture to Whisper and introduce him as well."

"Joy just kinda nods. 'Well, it sure is nice to meet all of you! What'd you think of my show?'"

The group looked at each other for a moment before replying.

"Scratch just kinda shrugs, but you notice she's a little embarrassed about it."

"Rai nods and gives a thumbs up, not bothering to speak."

"Rona shrugs as well. 'I've heard better.'"

"...Joy's shoulders kinda slump a bit, and she's just like, 'Oh. Huh.'"

At this point, Izuku decided that now was as good a time as any to move things along.

"Uh, before you have much time to dwell on that, Joy, all of you kind of instinctively turn around as something big comes from the outside and slams open the door, sending it flying back on its hinges as a large humanoid enters the tavern. Coldaxe kind of stops what she's doing as the creature, a tall, shambling thing covered in moss, stares you all down with these unnaturally dead white eyes. It looks at you all and just kinda starts growling in a low tone." As he spoke, he attempted to produce an approximation of what he was thinking, a gurgling sound which made everyone instinctively inch away from the screen, imagining the creature before them. "It seems to have rather hostile intentions towards you. What do you do?"

In a matter of seconds, the group had marshaled their responses.

"Joy does a quick two-step as she pulls out a pink ribbon and gets ready to cast some spells!"

"Scratch kinda keeps a hand on her shortsword, more than willing to use it if need be."

"Rai tears off the Mage Hand from his face, and tiny bolts of electricity begin to charge up in his hands."

"Rona gets up off the table and pulls out her longsword, ready to cut this thing to ribbons."

"Alis has their spellbook in one hand and their stave in the other, ready for battle. Whisper likewise readies his own druidic focus along with his quarterstaff."

Izuku nodded as each of the players stood at the ready. "Okay, uh, the creature sees all of your weapons, and immediately the moss on its body, uh, kind of grows to cover up an even greater portion of it, like some kind of armor. It rears back its head and roars, in a really, like, guttural way, as it charges you all. Now..." Izuku took a deep breath. Here was the moment of truth. The chance to see if he could really do this. It was now or never. With one last second of hesitation, he said the most infamous words in the game's long and storied history:

"I need you all to roll initiative."

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed reading this story. I had been itching to write some kind of fanfic about the MHA cast playing Dungeons and Dragons for a while, and I knew that Izumina Week 2020 was coming up, so I took advantage of the Free Day prompt right at the tail end and whipped this up over a couple of days. It was honestly a blast to try and come up with each character's character, as well as some of the differences of this new edition. I'm really tempted to write a whole series around this, but I've already got a whole bunch of other fics that I should probably focus on. Still, I hope you guys liked what I've written so far, and let me know what you think in the reviews! Until then, thank you all for reading, have yourselves a fantastic day, and take care. Happy Izumina Week!