Across the street, half-hidden behind a parked delivery van, a man in a beige windbreaker was pretending very hard to be interested in his phone. The camera lens peeking out of his tote bag was not subtle. Neither was the windbreaker. It was twenty-four degrees out.

Katsuki Bakugou—Dynamight, Number Two Hero, holder of exactly zero good press—stood on the sidewalk with his hands shoved in his pockets like he was bracing for a dentist appointment.

His approval rating had dropped four points last week after an interview in which he'd told a morning-show host to, quote, ask a better question or get off my screen. Unquote. His agency had been very clear about the stakes today. The PowerPoint had seventeen slides. Slide nine had been a graph. The graph had been declining.

So here he was. Jeans, black jacket, hair doing the thing it always did in humidity. Standing next to the person his agency had selected for him like a mail-order groom.