48

Level 48

Patience.

Time.

While his quirk was powerful, nearly infinitely so, those two aspects that it had oh so generously given him were perhaps his greatest treasures. With infinite patience and time, he had the luxury to simply wait and watch as society grew lax and all but fulfilled his goals for him while he wanted for the exact moment to strike.

And now that he had a quirk such as Overhaul's under his command, waiting would be all the easier. It would be so easy for him to just assume the life of someone else and live normally for a lifetime or two, wait for the likes of All Might and One for All to simply fade into the history books.

He had entertained such thoughts from time to time, but, at the base of his nature, he was very spiteful. As a matter of fact, spite was often all that drove him during those few darker times of his life. And he wanted to see All Might suffer.

Besides, the world had already gone and built him a throne and was well on its way towards constructing his crown.

All he had to do was play his role for a few more days and then everything would belong to All for One.

"Hey Sam," David Shield leaned back in his chair and smiled at him. "What do you say we call it for today?"

"Ehh?" 'Sam' looked up from his desk, as David's assistant he was very well positioned to ensure that his crown was completed in a timely manner. All he needed to do was wait, bide his time, and make sure that David did his part. "But we're making such good progress."

All Might's former sidekick—he was very, very aware of the delicious irony—scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "Yeah, I know but, we've been making some excellent progress, plus we don't even know if the board will approve of the project."

So many people, so many idealists, dreamt of a world where scientists, those who had the knowledge to make informed decisions, were the ones making those decisions. They often overlooked the slow creeping touch of bureaucracy that swept into such glorious systems, bogging down progression for the sake of ethics and petty things such as morals.

"Still, I don't think that's any reason for us to stop right?" 'Sam' spun in his chair, looking at the intelligent man who was going to be the key to All Might's downfall. "We're doing this for All Might, right?"

David blinked in surprise. Technically, this was knowledge that Sam wouldn't have actually known, but it was a sign of trust. A bait, a tactful drop of faith that would make David trust him all the more and push him towards greater and greater heights. Only to make his fall, and All Might's all the more spectacular. A smile spread across David's face. "Ha! You're right Sam! But Melissa wants to make dinner tonight, so I gotta put family first."

'Sam' just smiled and nodded. "Understandable, you go enjoy yourself, I'll go see if I can get on the good side of some of the board members."

"You sure?" David paused. "I mean, I rely on you a lot with dealing with them but—"

"It's fine, David, really, I recently bought a self-help book to help me get what I want, I'd like to try it if you don't mind."

David just laughed. "Another self-help book? Well, I can't say they haven't been working for you. Alright, Sam. I'll leave the board to you."

He always did find how easy it was for bureaucratic boards of officials, businessmen, or experts to have a tinge of evil somewhat appealing; it was why he wore a business suit. And the board of I-Island was no slouch. Sure, no doubt individually the members were largely good, but it was as a group that their cruel evils would be drawn out, even on an artificial island designed to support heroes around the world.

'Sam' looked up at the bright pacific sky as he made his way through the city; the central tower of I-Island was meant to be a beacon of progress, hope, justice, and peace. It was the hope of nations for the future that quirks had robbed from them.

Truly he could think of no better throne.

664 hours and 7 minutes until he could make the world his.

Or longer if David's device wasn't finished by then, but he could wait.

He had all the time in the world.

XXXX

[Doom Foretold.

Duration: 27 days 15 hours.]

They were running out of time.

Staring at the debuff was going to do less than nothing.

It wasn't the first time that Izuku had felt like he was in over his head, but it was the first time that he couldn't even find the surface. It felt like every direction he looked was nothing but cold murky water that was trying to disorient him in a cyclone of confusion. Part of him wanted to leave the hard choices, the difficulties, to the established pros. To those that have already proven themselves.

But.

Part of him knew that no matter what, that he―no, that everyone in his party―would end up in the middle of this. That was just how his quirk worked. Besides. They were heroes.

It was their job to stop villains.

And perhaps more importantly, Itsuka was involved in this because of One for All.

Any sense of choice they had was just an illusion.

The only choices they had were how they dealt with the upcoming conflict.

But there was so little information.

"Problem?" Izuku looked up from his desk to see Shoko standing there wrapped in only a bath towel that would normally be large enough for a girl of her stature, if it weren't for the large fluffy fox tail coming out from her backside that pushed up the towel and exposed basically all of her thighs.

"Not really," Izuku shrugged, leaning back into his seat and looking at Shoko once again. It was hard to believe just how far she had come, it felt like years since she was that bland boy that was supposed to be his roommate, and now she was Shoko, someone that really loved to cuddle him and whose favorite position was being picked up and—right bad thoughts. "Just coming to terms with my own powerlessness."

"Powerless?" Shoko tilted her head to the side, her fluffy looking ears twitching. "I've felt that way before. But, why do you feel powerless?"

"Well, it's just—"

"The person we're supposed to fight right? He's really hard to fight, especially since we can't let him touch us. But, even if it's impossible, that doesn't mean you can't do it right?" There was something so simple about the way that Shoko said that, a confidence that was derived from the simplest of logic. "You've done the impossible before haven't you?"

"I have?" Izuku asked, blinking. Sure he saved Eri, and technically died and lived to tell the tale but those weren't really impossible, just incredibly difficult. And he got into U.A. which he guessed was technically impossible with his quirk.

[Sys-admin: I heard that

Izuku Midoriya: It's a compliment!

Sys-admin: I know!]

Shoko nodded and moved onto him, placing her knee between his legs and moving closer to him. She grabbed his face, her towel falling to the side as she stared at him with her grey and blue eyes. "You have. You made me happy. Something I thought was impossible. Every single day I'm with you it feels like anything is possible if we work for it. So even if it feels impossible now, I know that you'll be able to make it possible."

Izuku laughed; even though he had seen all of these girls naked over a hundred times and that Shoko herself was just frequently naked in general, his long-standing nervous virgin instincts had a nasty habit of kicking in when he was confronted by someone that was incredibly forward. And Shoko was nothing but forward. "I umm, Shoko, you're."

"You're amazing Izuku," she said softly, her breasts pushing against his chest as he felt her firmly sit down on top of him. "I know you're working as hard as any of us to be ready for this fight, but don't think that you're just relying on us. You have already done so many impossible things."

She kissed him. Shoko kissed him. It wasn't the hot steamy kiss that she gave whenever she was in the mood, but rather a genuine kiss that was tender enough to make his heart melt. She pushed away, smiling at him, her nakedness didn't seem to be erotic at all, just tender. "Like making me fall in love, and making me feel loved like," she paused and brought up her hand. "Itsuka, Nejire, Momo, Menu, and you, so that's, uh, five times."

"Has anybody ever told you that you're adorable?"

"My sister says that a lot recently. Same with her girlfriend. Oh. And Nejire and Momo say it a lot too. And you do too." Shoko shrugged and pushed back her hair. "But, it means a lot when you say it, Izuku."

She stood and kissed him one last time before picking up her towel. "Now, are you feeling better?"

Izuku could only nod dumbly. "Thanks, Shoko, I didn't really know I needed that but, thanks. For everything."

"Hmm, well, Itsuka's finally done fighting for the day, so you should take a break too. Working so much is supposed to be bad, right?" Shoko grabbed his hand and pulled him up out of the seat. "So we should enjoy ourselves while we can, right?"

Naturally, they did.

AN: Sorry for the shortish chapter, I got rather sick and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. That and I'm still prepping for what's to come with this fic. Part of me wants to rush it and jump right into the action, but I need to do this right. I just hope I'm doing this right. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter.