Beginning of a New Spring (MHA/PJO crossover)

Chapter 28

Ophelia could hear the chatter from her classmates as she neared the classroom. It was slightly relieving to know they had semi-bounced back to normal in their two days off. She opened the door, quickly steadying herself when Mina threw herself at her.

"Be careful, raccoon-eyes," Katsuki growled from his seat, glaring at Mina.

Ophelia shook her head softly and laughed as Mina stuck her tongue out at Katsuki. She hugged her pink-haired friend back before she took her seat. It was like a signal for the questions to begin as everyone wondered who would be their homeroom teacher, thinking Shouta would still be out recovering and all heads turned toward her.

"What?"

"Do you know who'll be coming in?"

"Nope," she replied, popping the p. She wanted to play along and see their faces when Shouta came in, knowing he left earlier than her to not hear her nagging on taking time off to recover more. 

Groans littered the room before they heard Ida shouting from down the hall and she couldn't help but laugh at his dumbfounded face as they were already in their seats waiting before he arrived. Ida hunched over in defeat as he made his way to his seat and sat down dejected. The door opened not even three seconds later with Shouta in his gauze of glory—as Ophelia liked to call it. 

Mineta was the only one to exclaim in surprise, wondering how everyone had said he was 'alright,' when clearly he didn't seem to be. 

"Sit down, Mineta. My well-being doesn't matter," Shouta stated as he made his way to stand behind the podium. "More importantly, the fight isn't over yet."

Ophelia raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Katsuki. The fight wasn't over in any aspect, but she didn't think Shouta was talking about what happened at USJ either. It had only been three days since hand-fetishes—or Shigaraki, as she had found out, utter defeat. Unless he had an army at his beck and call they didn't know about, which she highly doubted— considering the crap for villains he brought before, he would be laying low until he was ready. 

"The U.A. sports festival is drawing near."

The excitement most of her classmates had on the normal school event was short-lived as Kaminari pushed Kirishima's face down with his hand only to be stopped by Jirou asking over him if that was the right decision after the villain’s attack, resulting in more questions from others. It wasn't a surprise to Ophelia when Shouta mentioned that U.A. thought proceeding with the sports festival meant their crisis management system was as solid as rock. Which didn't sound so foolproof to her, because even rocks weren't indestructible and had weak points you could exploit. 

"In the past, the Olympics were called a festival of sports, and the whole country was crazy about them. As you know, with reductions in scale and population, they're now a shell of their former glory. And now, for Japan, what has taken place of those Olympics is the U.A. sports festival!" Shouta stated as Mineta had spoken against it just being about sports. 

Ophelia lowered her head slightly at his words. They didn't hold festivals like they used to where she was from. The sports festival was what Japan had taken from the old Olympics that had been renewed years after Ancient Greece’s ritual. She could hear the idle chatter of everyone around her, but she didn’t pay close enough attention to what they were talking about. Her chest ached at the bitter-sweet reminder of Camp.

“Time is limited.” Ophelia glanced up as Shouta began talking again. She pushed her thoughts to the side—remicising only brought an onslaught of guilt and burden. “If you expect to go pro, then the path to your future will open up at this event. One chance a year—a total of just three chances. No aspiring heroes can afford to miss this event. If you understand that, then don’t slack off on your preparations!”