Author's Note: Time for the Hero License Exam!

Disclaimer: I don't own MHA or its characters. Original characters are mine but that's it. Story is rated for sensitive subject matter and content both mentioned and written.

Chapter 47 - Hero License Exam

Mile peeked into Keigo's room, her wings fanned out because she just got done with her bath. She loved being able to shake and spray the water off her wings instead of having to pat them dry. Her hair was combed and she was in pajamas, waiting for bedtime. Keigo's wings twitched and he turned from his desk to blink at her. Mila smiled brightly as she pointed at his desk. "What are you doing, Nii chan?" He glanced at his books and then back at her, waving her into his room. "I'm studying for a test that I have to take tomorrow." Mila walked over to his desk, which was just at her head level. She peered at the paperwork and opened books before looking at him.

"What kind of test?" Keigo sighed. "It's to hero license. I have to do a written test and then a practical, and I need to score really high in both because they don't pass a lot of people. Less than ten percent normally. He saw Mila looked really confused before he adjusted his wording. "I have to do a written test, then fight a bunch of bad guys, save a bunch of people and have to be the best at it, basically." Her blue eyes looked at him worried. "And then you'll be a hero? Even with your wings?" Keigo tilted his head. "Because of my wings, they're my quirk after all. You don't think you can be a hero with wings?"

Mila looked at his desk as if she were thinking with a worried chirp. "Auntie at the home said wings are hard. When you fight bad guys will you get hurt?" Keigo narrowed his eyes, but chose to focus on the second part of what she said. "Maybe, but all heroes take that risk." Mila grabbed his hand and trilled. "I don't want you to get hurt!" He blinked and quickly turned to try and calm her down, seeing her eyes well up with tears. "Whaoh, calm down, Mila. It's just a test. There will be doctors and medics and it's all pretend for the test. I won't get hurt more than if I was playing outside and fell down. I promise."

She calmed down, but kept a hold of his hand, now staring at his wings. "Don't get hurt. I fell when I jumped off the slide and it hurt a lot." He nodded and picked her up to sit in his lap, bringing one of his wings around so she could get a better look at it. "How come your feathers come off and go back on? Does it hurt?" Keigo shook his head and willed two to come off and spin around in front of her. "My real mom could move things with her mind, and my dad could sense things with the feathers he had. The mix of both means I can move my feathers with my mind. It doesn't hurt, but if I lose them it takes a

while for them to grow back."

Mila reached out to touch one of the spinning feathers, eyes wide. "My feathers don't go back in when they come out. And mommy didn't have feathers." Now akeigo got curious, glancing towards the doorway. He could hear Soji and Azumi talking about plans for tomorrow, no mention of coming to get Mila yet. "What about your daddy?" She smiled proudly. "He looked like a bird! And he used to sing to me. So when he went away, I would sing to mommy and it would make her happy. She would tell me we have to play the quiet game, and when she came back I would sing and she would smile and tell me I won the quiet game."

Keigo frowned a bit as he slowed the feathers down for her to play with them. "Quiet game?" Mila nodded smiling and chirped, something she did a lot once she found out she was allowed to. "Yes! Mommy would say time to play the quiet game and I would be quiet and she went into another room and made people feel better with her hair and then I would sing to her and she would be happy." He blinked and his heartbeat seemed to pound up in his ears as his eyes darted to her wings again. Azumi walked to the doorway smiling and leaned on it.

"Time for bed, Mila." She chirped and hopped off Keigo's lap and turned around to hug him. "Please don't get hurt on your test, Nii chan." He chuckled and hugged her back before she ran to Azumi, getting scooped up which caused her wings to flap quickly as she chirped. "Let's let your brother study and Daddy jmis going to read you a story." Keigo watched them disappear and glanced at a shelf of books he had next to his desk. Pulling down 'Heroes of the Age' he flipped through to the rescue/healing hero section.

He had gone through it twice when he sensed Azumi walking in, his mother hugging him from behind. "Hey there my handsome bird, what are you looking at?" Keigo sighed and shut the book. "Thinking about something Mila said when she was in here. I know you've been trying to find information on her parents, and she mentioned to me that her dad looked like a bird and her mom made people feel better with her hair." Azumi hm's and reached a hand up to brush it through his hair. "You thought her mother may have been a hero?" Keigo nodded and smiled as he leaned into his mom's hand.

"Yeah. Healing quirks are super rare, and the Commission tries to scoop those people up for hero and rescue work. To their credit, the Quirk Registration Offices keep that information tight-lipped to prevent people with bad intentions from grabbing one off the street." Azumi smiled and kissed the top of his head. "Sounds like you are ready for your test tomorrow with all that knowledge in your head." Keigo turned to look at her, worry evident on his face. "What if Mila has a healing quirk or manifests a healing quirk?"

Azumi put a finger over his lips and smiled gently. "You're worrying over what if's. If she manifests a quirk in a year or two, we will handle it at that time. If it's a healing quirk, we will handle it at that time. You need to focus on the things you can control, not the what if's you can't. Alright?" He nodded and smiled, letting himself chirp as she played with his hair some more. "I was right, you are getting so handsome and tall." He laughed and moved to close up the paperwork and books on his desk. Once he was done, he turned around and gave Azumi a big hug as she played with the nape of his neck. "Good luck tomorrow, be safe and be clever like I know you always are." He grinned and gave her a thumbs up before deciding to get to bed early. It was going to be a big day tomorrow after all.

/

Keigo took a deep breath and shook his feathers out to calm his nerves. He had been taken to the testing center, a large building that looks like the swirly top of a soft serve ice cream. He had his gear in a special case strapped on like a backpack and was looking around outside at all the adults, and older teens walking inside. Keigo saw some people he recognized from the Commission, and a few he knew from U.A. that he saw on TV during the sports festivals. On the shuttle from the Commission building to the testing center, they had been cautioned that just because they were sponsored by the HPSC, they have to pass the same way as everyone else, on their own merit and results.

Once inside the building, he noticed very few applicants with animal quirks, that fact only driving up his nervousness. Keigo registered at the desk, given a tag of B45 and was shown to a locker room in the B wing to change into his hero gear. He felt luckier than most, because his gear was designed for comfort and increased practical use. It didn't really hinder his quirk at all, nor was he reliant on it for anything that he couldn't do without. Once geared up, he went to a waiting room where Hawks watched nineteen other applicants come in. They started some idle chit chat, basic introductions, and all seemed to be as nervous as he was.

Once they were all assembled and had been waiting for a bit, a secretary walked into the room and asked them all to follow her. She led them to a room for the written test, making sure each of them had a pen, a drink and the test packet. Once they were all ready she told them to begin the hero license exam. Hawks flipped open the first page, glasses up on his forehead, and began to fill in answers. Peeking up, he noticed the secretary sitting up front with a clipboard, making notations here and there. On the board behind her it looked like a schedule:

Written Exam - 45 Minutes

Break - 15 Minutes

Practical Exam - 30 minutes

Break - 15 Minutes

Results and Processing

Furrowing his brow, he noticed others had seen the schedule and were rushing to get their answers written. When Hawks looked at the secretary again, she was looking directly at him with a neutral look on her face. He smiled brightly and went back to his test, trying not to rush as he kept the time limit in the back of his mind. There were no clocks in here. Cell Phones had been left in the lockers with their stuff, so there was no way to know how long they were taking or how long was left.

He finished his packet and looked up to see the secretary collecting a few finished tests. When she got to his desk, he leaned on his hand and smiled at her. "Hey there. Do you administer a lot of these?" She smiled down at him as she picked up his test. "I handle about half. This is your first time taking the license exam?" He turned the smile into a grin. "Is it my age that makes it apparent?" She laughed and shook her head. "No, just curiosity." Hawks kept the charm up as a few others finished their tests. "Well, I'll be happy to sate your curiosity during our break if that schedule is accurate."

A man in a black suit with white wires around his arms seemed to click his tongue disapprovingly. "Flirt on your own time, kid. Some of us are serious about this exam." Hawks glanced over at him, still relaxed looking. "I am serious about this, but you can't ask the public to give you trust if they don't know you." The secretary smirked at him, picking up a few more tests. "That sounds like a nice PR line." Hawks let his wings perk up as he turned his golden eyes to her. "Oh yeah? Well if you like it, I'll use it more." She laughed as a blush came across her face and few people in the room also chuckled or giggled. "Now it sounds like you're flirting." Rubbing the back of his neck he smiled wide with closed eyes. "Guilty as charged."

A rumble filled the room followed by shaking and the secretary grabbed a desk to keep stable. "Uh, everyone please wait here. I'll check on that real quick." One of the heroes near the door offered to go with her, and she declined his offer, carrying the tests she had out with her. Looking around, Hawks noticed all but three people had completed their tests. Looking at the board in the front of the room he narrowed his eyes in thought. The clipboard on the front desk was also gone. The room shook again and someone yelled for them to take cover as the front wall blew inward, spraying cement, drywall and slate all over the room.

Hawks threw his wings up to protect him and sent a few feathers out around the room. Two slipping out to the hallway to look for the secretary as they saw an open field on the other side of the wall. It looked like a city that was half demolished. There were doors that had some of the test applicants walking through them in surprise, others had osrt of their room blown out. One of the women in room B next to Hawks had strange goggles on her face. "It looks like there are people trapped in the rubble, they're pleading for help. This must be the practical portion." Another prospective hero pointed to some men in black suits with weird guns, firing at some of the heros. "Those must be the villains for this part of the test. Let's go!"

Hawks tried to stop them as he split his focus on the two feathers looking for the secretary and the ones from earlier giving him information on people in the rubble and villains around the large open field. His two feathers seemed to have some trouble getting through rubble but he found her, yelling for help in a pile of debris. "Ma'am? You back there?" There was a pause before he heard her again. "I can't move my legs. I'm stuck!" Hawks sent more feathers through the debris, careful of how many in case he needed to move and aware he had sent some to track and find survivors on the field.

"Well hold on. I'll come get you." He sensed rhe way the debris was laid out andbsysrted movinf and supporting it with his feathers, taking careful steps through as he did. "You're missing the practical. I'm sorry, I thought I cleared the hallway before the opening explosions hit to lead you all to the practical." Hawks smirked and kept moving slowly. If she was talking it meant she was conscious and he could find her easier. Practical or not, he was in this to save people and she needed saving. "It's just a test. I can retake it if I have to. But you're stuck and I would be a horrible gentleman if I left you here. Besides, weren't you curious about me earlier? What's your name?"

He heard her laughing as a large poecenof debris appeared wedged like a wall. He was only going inches at a time at this pace, but he knew his support and structure would support until he could get to her and get her out safely. "My-my name is Rasi, what's yours?" He grunted as he struggled to move the large piece with his feathers to support and paised when he thought he heard movement further in. Once he realized it was stable, he kept going. "You can call me Hawks." He heard her laugh, something about her breathing sounded off as he used the two feathers near her to try and get a sense of her vitals. Her body temperature was dropping and her breathing seemed strange. "Hawks. I like it. Like-like a bird right?"

"Yeah. Hey Rasi, how you feeling right now?" She seemed to be taking stock if herself. "Honestly pretty tired." He forced himself to move faster through the debris, the sounds of fighting and rescue operational going on around his other feathers in the field. "Well don't go to sleep on me. Tell me about yourself. Any family?" Her response was delayed and softer than before. "No. None." He shook his head. "That's a shame, pretty lady like you should have a ton of guys chasing her." He moves a piece of drywall and saw her on the ground, her legs under rubble and she was clinging to the packet of tests and her clipboard. Blood was covering part of her face and was pooled around her legs.

Giving her a grin, he started moving the last of the debris to get to where she was. She watched him, a relieved smile on her face as she did. "Trying to talk and keep me awake? Or just being flirty?" Hawks moved the last of the debris and made sure his feathers were still holding it all in place as he crouched by her. "Are you saying it can't be both? Let's take a look at those legs and your head." He looked for a head wound as Rasi peered over his shoulder at the cleared path he had made. "Will that hold until we can get through?" Hawks nodded, confusion starting to kick in as he moved some of the rubble near her feet, still looking for a wound. "It will hold for as long as we need it to. Where did you say your pain was?"

Rasi pressed a button on her lapel that beeped and lit up red. "I didn't. I said my legs were stuck." She smiled at him and stood herself up, appearing to have no problems standing or balancing. Hawks looked stumped until he heard an air horn blow in the background and a voicw came over the speakers.

"Practical portion of the Hero License Exam is complete. Please make your way back to your assigned waiting room." Rasi smiled and motioned past the debris he had been holding up. "After you?"

/

Keigo sat in the waiting room with everyone else. He had his right wing pulled around so he could preen his feathers. They had been waiting foe almost half an hour for their results, the idle chit chat from before wasn't there. Soke were bragging about how many villains they took down. The lady with the goggles seemed so proud she had found almost ten victims on her own, confident her skills at finding survivors and victims was going to help her pass. Keigo didn't want them to ask him about how he had done.

When everyone had met up, they were all asled to do a report on what they had done. Where they were, who they rescued, who they faught, how and why. Keigo tried to put as much detail as be could into his report, so he wouldn't get a bunch of crap for not doing as much, but it didnt quite work. As he preened his wing, the man with wires around his arms walked up to his seat and stood in front of the teenager. "Hey, how old are you?" Keigo rolled his eyes and looked at the guy through his tinted shades. "My name is Hawks, and my age shouldn't matter. Why?" The man, called Surge, made fists with his hands and his arms crackled with electricity. Keigo was up out of his seat and a few feet away, wings high and poised behind him, every feather sharpened to a blade. Surge paused to assess the new threat level of the teenager in front of him as another person stood between the two, hands up.

The side door opened revealing a skinny man with normal features and antenna on his forehead a clipboard in hand. "B45, please come with me for your test results." Keigo eyed Surge as the man folded his arms, slowing the electricty in his arms to a dull throbbing hum as before. Still poised to react, Keigo followed the man through the door to a boardroom. He was motioned to sit at the end, seven other people on the other side of the table with papers and documents. The man in the middle looked up at him, smiling gently as if to give him bad news. The man was old, balding with a white mustache and thin framed glasses. He was wearing a black suit and seemed to be the oldest man in the room.

"Young man, I have some questions about your actions during the exam. I'd like to ask for some answers before we issue your results. Please be honest, you aren't in any trouble." Keigo blinked and nodded, hands resting in his lap. "Of course, sir." The old man nodded and looked at a piece of paper. "This says you will be 17 years old next month, is that correct?" Keigo nodded, eyeing each person on the board. "Yes sir." The old man continued. "Your feathers. On your paperwork, it says they can be manipulated by your thoughts. So when you send them out, do you retain complete control over them at all times? Or do they take an order and follow it like auto pilot?"

Keigo brought his wings forward some as if to show them and a few came off his wing to circle arouns next to him at different speeds. "I can control each one completely telepathically. I sent 14 to the field to look for victims and 2 after Miss Rasi." The older man looked to someone st rhe end of the table who had raised eyebrows but nodded at a silent question. The older man smiled and glioped to a second page. "Well, your feathers in the field led quite a few people to victims in tricky spots. Well done. I guess we will get to your test results." Keigo put his feathers back into his wing and seemed to sit forward a bit, either to adjust his wibgs or to hear his results better.

"On your written examination, you scored an 89% which is a passing grade. On your practical, given your assistance with locating victims to rescue, application of calm, collected judgement and personal skills to put a vixtim at ease and safely rescue them when no one else did, you have scored a 90%. These scores reflect on your overall total and you are hereby passed for a Hero License with all rights, privileges granted thereafter. As you are a minor, you will have to practise and work under the HPSC or one of their agencies until you are 18. Alright?" The old man looked over his frames at Keigo who was bouncing in place with excitement.

They congratulated him, one at a time, and then he was led to get cleaned up, his photo taken, and his license process finished. He was part way to his goal, and at only 16 years old. Next step, his own agency!