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Hawks padded down the hallway, obediently following his trainer for the day. One of his sneakers squeaked quietly against the glossy tile floor. It echoed in the silent white hallway. The only other sound, the faint droning buzz of electricity.
It was hard to keep up with the woman’s brisk pace on his much shorter legs, so he ran a few steps to avoid falling behind. She didn’t acknowledge him. They never did.
But that was fine!
It was great!
He was going to be a hero!
And heroes don’t need to be acknowledged for everything they do! That’s what makes them so great and special and awesome !
Like Endeavor!
Hawks smiled softly to himself, he was going to be just like Endeavor. A shining light for everybody!
Swooping in on red wings to save the day!
That’s what his wings were for. Saving people.
The woman abruptly stopped at a door; Her feathered, barn owl head swiveling around to look at him.
Hawks jolt ed to attention instantly.
A fter a brief pause, she addressed him. “I have to pick up some files for your teachers. We’ll be detouring in the offices. Everyone is busy working. Do not speak to or bother anyone. They have very important work to be doing. No distractions.”
He quickly nodded, bowing his head. “Yes ma’am.”
She stared a long moment, black eyes unblinking, before swiveling back and opening the door.
The office was quiet. Not as quiet as the hallway. The clicking of fingers typing away on keyboards. The shuffling of papers and folders. The muted chatter of hushed conversations. A couple workers looked up as the door opened, the rest ignored the intrusion.
His trainer led the way to an empty desk situated at the end of the office. She began shuffling through the stacks of papers.
As he waited, Hawks observed the room. It wasn’t a big office, only a handful of people scattered at the neatly arranged desks with a perfectly generic office plant stuck in the far corner. He hadn’t seen many offices before but there didn’t seem to be anything of particular note. Everything bland and plain. Even the staff all wore nearly identical grey suits.
His feathers twitched as they picked up the vibration of quiet whispers off to the side. Eavesdropping was rude and unheroic, but... It’s not like he could just not hear if something caught his attention. He carefully didn’t look in that direction, filed down talons digging into his palms.
“That’s that new kid, Hawks, right?” The first voice soft and airy.
“Yea, what about it?” The response was low but somehow lyrical like they were struggling to not sing.
“Did you hear about his last set of training scores? He’s doing better than some of those hero school kids!”
“And? You expect anything less?”
“Well, no, but if he’s already on his way to beating out kids twice his age imagine what he’ll be able to do once he can actually debut!”
“Okay?”
“He could be the next up-and-coming Number 1!” Their voice squeaked slightly louder on the emphasis.
“Yeah, cool, great. But we already have All Might. Sure, he’s strong and can beat anyone but did you see the reports from Nagoya the other day? If we had more intelligence gathering we wouldn’t have needed him to save those people. And by the time any heroes arrived, we already had a body count! If we had someone with his talents focused on other areas don’t you think that-”
“Shhh, not so loud.”
Hawks blinked as his trainer straightened, holding several thin folders. He surreptitiously shuffled his wings, trying not to look guilty as the motion obscured any further conversation. She seemed not to have noticed anything because she swept out of the office with only a glance at him to make sure he followed.
----
H awks hobbled after his latest instructor, trying to ignore the pain lacing through his ankle with every step. He’d been doing so well only to fumble his landing.
This instructor at least didn’t seem angry, just irritated at the necessary diversion to the doctor before returning him to his room.
He knocked on the door, waiting for a muffled reply, before entering.
The doctor, an older woman who never smiled, pointed him towards the nearest chair, not looking up as she finish scribbling on a pile of documents.
Hawks obediently limped to the chair and sat, keeping his eyes down as he waited.
Finally, she pushed the papers aside, rising to her feet. She eyed him expectantly.
He swallowed, taking a slow breath before speaking. “’M sorry, I injured my ankle. I got too excited from successfully hitting all the targets at once. I didn’t watch my angle and speed. I’ll be more vigilant in the future.”
He sensed more than saw the approving nod from the instructor.
“See you do so. We wouldn’t want you causing yourself permanent injury by being careless.” The doctor seemed about to say more when her phone rang. A shrill, chirping, irritating sound. Glancing at the screen, she scowled, not that she ever did anything else, and snapped, “I’ll see to you in a moment, something’s come up.” She gestured to the instructor and they vanished into her small, soundproof, office.
Hawks ducked his head further until the door closed. Finally peeking around the room.
The usually empty ward actually had another patient. A man with green sparks dancing through his hair and bandages covering his exposed arm lay in the bed by the only window. Someone with glasses and a notepad sat near them, nodding along as he quietly spoke .
It’s not that he tried to eavesdrop. They just certainly weren’t whispering in the otherwise silent room.
“-I’m just saying, if we could just train someone to do the job there wouldn’t be so many problems!” The man in the bed sounded annoyed; like it was an argument he’d had many times before.
“As I’ve said we currently have no candidates.”
“Couldn’t we just repurpose-,” his voice dipped towards a hushed whisper but still far too loud to ignore for Hawks’ sensitive feathers and hearing, “the kid?”
The other person shuffled their papers, “No, the-,” out of the corner of his eye, Hawks saw him shoot a glance his way, “the kid ,” they continued with a low hiss, “is training to be a hero. Not a spy.”
With an irritated snort, he dropped into a full whisper, but still loud enough for Hawks to easily pick out his words in the otherwise silent room.
(He tried to ignore it, he really did. He was going to be a hero . He could be good. )
“But he’d be so good at that spying stuff, you’ve seen his scores, you know how many more lives we could save if-”
“Yes, but that’s not the point. He wants to be a hero and-”
“But there’s so many heroes already, even one more amazing hero won’t save as many lives compared to what we could do with trustworthy information. Besides-”
“No. We can’t make decisions for him and he’s far too young. And he wouldn’t be ready for that kind of training.”
Hawk’s brow furrowed, mind whirling. Saving more lives? He wanted to be a shining light. Save people just how Endeavor had saved him. B ut. Heroes saved people. That’s what they do.
But... Could he really be more useful not as a hero? Would that really be possible?
Before he could think on it more the office door flew open, the doctor and instructor returning.
“Let me take a look, we’ll see how bad it is.” The doctor examined his ankle briskly, pushing and bending the joint. “Only minorly inflamed,” she finally declared, pulling out some bandages from one of her dimensional pockets to securely wrap it. She turned to the instructor “he’s to avoid any combat training for the rest of the week to ensure it heals, alternating heat and ice if needed. Focus on other studies in the meantime.”
W ith that, they were dismissed. Hawks quietly mulling on the whispered conversation.
Was there really something better than a hero?
----
It was during one of his study blocks that he finally blurted out, “Is there- could I do more not as a hero?”
He bit his tongue, immediately regretting the question and clumsy wording. He was supposed to be studying. Reading cases of historical heroic events and analyzing them, explaining what he would have done in such a situation, laying out every step of his reasoning and how that would affect the events as they unfolded.
His teacher frowned, looking up from their work with narrowed eyes, tiger ears flicking back. “Excuse me?”
Hawks cringed, locking his eyes down on his packets, fingers gripping tight underneath the table. “I- uh- I mean- I just thought- I-”
“No stammering. If you speak, speak clearly. And make eye contact.”
He breathed slowly.
Maybe he shouldn’t?
He exhaled, turning to his teacher, looking them in the eyes. “There a re ... already a lot of heroes.”
He knew that was true. There were over 50,000 licensed heroes in Japan alone.
“Is,” he paused, wings shifting against the unyielding metal of his chair, “is being a hero the best way for me to save people?”
Brilliant green eyes studied him, “Do you not want to be a hero anymore?”
His eyes widened, “N-no! That’s not what I meant! I-I want to save people!”
They leaned forward, all attention on him. Both striped ears pricked towards him. “What do you mean then? Many people save others as mere civilians: police officers, firefighters, doctors. You don’t have to be a hero to save people but you have the skills to do so. We took you in here because that’s what you said you wanted. Is that no longer the case?”
“No! Er- wait, yes! I do want to be a hero! But- I- I just- I-” He trailed off, struggling to find the right words.
“Is this too hard for you? We thought you were doing well, we can slow the pace if you can’t handle it.”
“No, I can handle it!” Hawks squeaked, frantically trying to backpedal. “I-I can do more! Faster!”
“Oh?” They tipped their head, short black hair falling to the side with the movement, a small smile on their lips. “Well, we can certainly increase the workload if you’re sure you’re up for it.”
H is sigh of relief was cut off by the next question, “But, what were you trying to ask? Something about not being a hero?”
F ingers clenched harder under the table as he froze. “Umm. I-I just thought... I wanted to… make sure there wasn’t something... better I could be doing?”
“Better than being a hero? Like what?” Their voice purely calm curiosity.
What was he supposed to say?
“...Information?” He quietly mumbled, unsure if that’s what he should be saying.
“Information?” They repeated, clearly waiting for an explanation. Slitted eyes observing but lacking the expected judgmental stare; despite his unacceptable mumbling.
“I just... Heard people saying that it’d save a lot of lives if there was a spy to get information…”
The eyes narrowed, “And where did you hear that ? Have you been eavesdropping on private conversations?”
He flustered at the accusation, “N-no! I-I didn’t mean to hear it! I just- my feathers hear things! It wasn’t on purpose, I’m sorry!” Dipping against the table in a seated, cringing bow.
The expected anger didn’t come. Instead, the teacher sighed, “That’s not something to concern yourself with.”
“But, if I can do more than I should-”
They cut him off, “ What you’re asking... That kind of training is much harder than anything you’ve been learning. You don’t know what you’re asking for ...”
Hawks’ eyes widened, “No! I can do it! I want to help people !”
“Hawks. You are a very good student and you work so hard but. I just-” They trailed off for a moment, eyes narrowing once again. “You said you wanted to be a hero. Right? You wanted to be a shining light for people. Isn’t that what you said?”
He nodded vigorously.
“Those aren’t really compatible- spying and being a shining light- it’s much more shadowy, dirty work.” They cast a sad smile in his direction, “Hawks, you don’t need to tarnish yourself to save people. Leave that to others. You can just be the hero you always wanted to be.”
“I-I don’t have to be a shining light! If I can save more of them it doesn’t matter!”
“No, Hawks, you don’t have to do that. Spy training is... It’s hard. I don’t think you can handle it...”
His wings fluttered as he set his jaw, “No, I can handle it! I can do it!”
“You really don’t have to-”
“Please let me try! I don’t care what it takes, I- I just want to save people!”
Hawks flushed, his voice having gone shrill with the plea, tucking his wings in tightly to his back. He hadn’t meant to interrupt them.
With a sigh, the teacher leaned back. “Well... If that’s really what you want...” A strange expression crossed their face which Hawks was unable to decipher. “I... suppose I can ask the President...”
Just like that? Hawks faltered, they would really allow him to? A grin slowly began to spread across his face.
“Hey. I said I’d ask. That doesn’t mean that she’ll agree to it. But, if that’s what you really want...” They shook their head, expression still unreadable, “Get back to work. I have a meeting with her this evening, if your analyses are satisfactory enough I’ll even bring it up tonight.”
With an aborted chirp of excitement, Hawks dove back into his work.
----
“Hawks, the President would like to speak with you.”