The next moment was much louder.

The floor gave out as I cried out in pain and we all moved downwards. I inhaled sharply, breathing in a great deal of dust.

Ah, crap, crap, crap.

Moving when time was stopped was like moving through water, and I had never tried it when I had less than stable footing. I knew jumping was watery and momentum strange, but stopping in the middle of a fall like this gave me vertigo.

Lucky for me, Kirishima's grip loosened in the shock. I was able to pry my hand away. Jeez, my wrist was bruised, the brute. I used broken pieces of concrete as stepping stones, trying to make everyone safe. Kirishima's tough skin would protect him, but what about the others? I moved uncomfortably, more so when I realized my arm was definitely dislocated. Things hurt a little less in this state, though.

Pulling myself with my good arm, I reached Uraraka. She could float, right? Well, she'd be falling anyhow, better to get her away from the debris. I used the direction of the fall to more or less guide her to an opening in the wall, maybe a window, and sort of pushed her out. What about Bakugo?

I moved towards him, but suddenly-

Concrete rained over me and I crashed into Bakugo. From the sounds of it, he seemed fine. I heard cries from outside.

"What the hell?" Bakugo protested, thrashing. His ribcage dug into my collarbone. I coughed and tried to get my bearings.

Everything shook again, and this time light streamed in and All Might appeared in dust.

"That's time, children!"

It was more embarrassing than I thought it would be, being pulled out of the wreckage by All Might. I'd landed flat on Bakugo, luckily perpendicular. He was probably yelling at me, but I was focused. The moment we were free, I dashed to the bushes and lost my breakfast. Then I just sat on the ground, dizzy.

"Recovery Girl is on her way." All Might told us, "and we prepared for such an occasion! The next three buildings are identical! Who's next?"

As they talked, I sat, feeling useless, eyes barely open as I stared at my scuffed shoes.

"At least we won." Bakugo stood over me, "Are you really gonna just sit there next to your puke?"

"Ugh, let me sulk."

"What for?" He asked, "Tackling me at the end there? Getting yourself caught earlier?"

"Did Uraraka land okay?"

"Yeah, why do you care?"

"If I keep arguing I'm gonna throw up again and your shoes are in range."

"I thought your quirk made you tired, not nauseous!"

"Trying to navigate in a fall made me nauseous!" I shot back, exhausted and annoyed, "And, by the way, the plan was obviously not to head-butt you. I slipped, okay?"

"Wait, did your dumb ass try to use your quirk when the ground caved?" He let out a loud, slightly mean, laugh, "What good did that do?"

"You have three seconds to get those nice sneakers out of my sight."

"Fine, see if I care. But you don't sulk after winning, you idiot. Fat lot of good that does." He walked away and I closed my eyes.

"Hello again!" I opened them and tried to smile at the nurse.

"Hi." I greeted, feeling a different kind of tired, "Long story, hardening quirk plus a collapsing building got me. I think my arm is, OW!" She popped it back before I could finish my sentence. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the pain to fade.

"Sorry about that."

"That's okay, I hate countdowns." I cleared my throat, "The worst of the rest is just my wrist." She wrapped it up and put my arm in a sling.

"You seem awake enough that I could use my quirk to hurry things along."

"Ah, I'd like to use what little awareness I have left to focus on my classes today." I told her, "but thank you."

We returned to the classroom, bruised and dirty.

Mr. Aizawa was waiting, so we took our seats without complaint.

"Had an eventful morning." He observed, getting only groans in response, "Well, fighting blindly is all well and good, but these experiences are just about useless if we don't break down your mistakes afterwards. So that's exactly what we're going to do." A video appeared projected on the board. It was of me and Bakugo.

"You could hear us?" Bakugo exclaimed in outrage.

"Of course. Class, let's listen to our first group's initial strategizing session." So our conversation was played to everyone. I sank into my seat, "So what did they do right? Anyone?" Deku raised his hand.

"They took several scenarios into account and found a common actionable link between them."

"Right. They identified likely avenues once they realized that preparing for every possibility was impossible. What else?"

"Weirdly, their splitting up strategy wasn't terrible." Kaminari noted, "Like, they were able to cover more ground and still work together."

"Splitting up can be lethal in a situation where information is short. While they certainly found a way to communicate, if unconventional and poorly efficient, it still took Bakugo a minute to return to the action. They never should have left the weapon undefended. Juniper, you spoke about playing into your strengths, isn't that right? Can you tell us what you meant by that?"

Eek, singled out.

"Well," I said softly, "I know I'm not much of a fighter yet, and Bakugo is, so I figured it would be okay for me to do what I knew I could do; support and confuse, instead of trying to do something I'm not naturally good at. I mean, I don't want it to always be that way, but we were in a rush so it seemed the most efficient…" I trailed off.

"Alright, then under that logic, why were you left to guard the weapon if you knew you'd have trouble defending it?" It seemed obvious now. I didn't want to say 'I don't know', but well…

"I guess… we assumed they'd have to pass by Bakugo first."

"Exactly. Which leads us to the heroes. They challenged assumptions and were able to bring the fight right to the correct room from the very beginning." I felt weirdly jealous of the praise, but I had to admit it was smart, so I nodded. "They also found a way to render Manderly's main threat harmless." I glanced at my sling, "They are, however, extremely lucky that their opponents lacked the foresight to position Bakugo in the room from the start. If that had been the case, they likely would have been quickly overwhelmed."

"Yeah, but even if we did split up, we still won, didn't we?" Bakugo said arrogantly. Oh no… I sank further into my seat.

"I'd call it more of a tie, actually." Mr. Aizawa said frostily, "The heroes failed to eliminate the weapon before time was up, but the weapon was going to be destroyed seconds later, so I'd say the villains failed at defending it as well."

Ouch.

"What's more," he continued, though in my head I begged him to stop, "You all got tunnel vision. Uraraka and Bakugo, you put everyone in danger by breaking the floor, this is especially egregious for you, Uraraka, since you were playing the hero."

"Sorry, sir."

"And instead of restraining Manderly once you'd caught her, Kirishima, you dragged her along with you, handicapping yourself and putting a great deal of weight on your partner's shoulders. And Manderly, while your initial attempt to escape proved fruitless, you often came close to others and useful objects in the course of the fight, but completely forgot about escape. You gave up."

"…sorry, sir."

"And you, Bakugo, spent far too much time arguing instead of snapping to the point. Your communication needs some significant work. Manderly, if you know your opponent is much stronger than you, don't grab a column and get yourself hurt. Try and think a little. Uraraka, the weapon could have reacted poorly to blunt force, and did you ever think of protecting your partner, Kirishima?"

This went on for a while.

Then, professor Aizawa tore into everyone else too. No one was spared.

When he was done, a breeze blew through the classroom.

"Brutal." We murmured.