The Smallest Thing Can Unravel a Secret

That Small Thing

Bakugou Katsuki was really fucking tired of the so-called 'League of Villains'.

First, they ruin the USJ trip and leave Aizawa-sensei with a time limit for his Quirk.

Next, they attack Hosu and, even though Katsuki wasn't there himself, cause chaos and destruction.

Finally, they march into their summer training camp and kidnap him.

So yeah, Bakugou Katsuki was really fucking tired of them.

Currently, he was sitting in a chair whilst the League surrounded him. He was chained down and, even though he would never tell anyone this, fighting off flashbacks from the sports festival, which brought on flashbacks from the slime villain attack.

"Ah, Bakugou Katsuki." Handfuck McGee said, holding out his arms. "So glad you could join us."

Katsuki growled under his breath in return. "What the fuck do you want from me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" The blue haired man asked, tilting his head. "We want you to join us."

Katsuki scoffed. "In what world would I join you? I want to be a hero for fuck sakes."

Shigaraki sighed. "So did I, once. In fact, all of us here did. Do you know what changed?"

The silence was enough of an answer for him.

"For me, it was when I met sensei. My father wasn't exactly the... nicest, per se. I wanted nothing more than to be a hero, and he wanted nothing more than for me to live an awfully plain life. I was around five or six, I think, when my Quirk came in. I had gotten in trouble for going into my fathers study to look at a picture of my Grandmother, someone Sensei hated, even though it was my sister that called me in. She ratted me out and I took the blame. No supper. And I was forced to go outside."

Shigaraki paused, eyeing Katsuki from the gap in the hand on his face. "I took my dog with me and, whilst I was stroking her, my Quirk came in. Needless to say, she wasn't alive for very long after that."

Katsuki shifted uncomfortable in his chair. He had been kidnapped and asked to join the League. That was why he was here. Not to listen to some child tell him about their childhood trauma.

"My sister came out at that moment and started apologizing. Then-" Shigaraki's voice cracked for a second, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. "Then she saw our dog. I had no idea what was going on - my Quirk's a mutation, see - so I did the one thing I could think of. I tried to grab her. And I did. But she- she disintegrated right in front of me. Her scream made my mother and grandparents come out, and I accidentally killed them all. Except for my father." Shigaraki let out a sharp laugh. "I *purposely* killed my father."

Somewhere, in the back of Katsuki's brain, there was a nagging that something in Shigaraki's story didn't make sense. He ignored it.

"After I realised what happened, I left. I wandered round town for a bit, but no one helped me. They all said that the 'Heroes would come' or 'Someone else would save me.' Bullshit." He spat. "Absolute bullshit. Because the only person that saved me was Sensei. I owe him my life."

And there it was again. That little nag that told Katsuki that something wasn't adding up. He eyed the room furiously as every single one of the villains watched him with glee. And then, his eyes fell on the shoes Shigaraki was wearing. The bright red shoes. With black laces. And white bottoms. And suddenly, everything fell into place for Katsuki. Because he knows those shoes. He tends to associate them with annoyance because they're the only shoes Deku wears. And when Katsuki had laughed at him for the terrible choice of footwear, Deku had defended them by saying they were his only choice. Katsuki knows what brand those shoes are, and he knows there's only one reason why Shigaraki would wear them.

So, after a second of silence whilst he put all that together, Katsuki looks up.

"Tell you what." Katsuki mutters. "I'll consider joining your shitty little gang if you can explain something for me."

Shigaraki hesitates for a moment before nodding his head. He doesn't have anything to lose, anyway.

"Let's make sure we're on the same fucking page here. To start off, you're the grandchild of someone All for One wanted revenge on. You just so happen to get a very powerful and destructive mutation that's incredibly difficult to control and you get it later than everyone else, a lot later. You run away, and just so happen to not bump into a single person that gives a shit and instead run into All for One who's just out, I dunno, taking a fucking walk?"

A frown appears on Shigaraki's face before he nods. That's all correct.

"Right so lets see how fucking smart you are. You know about Quirkless kids correct? You know how to tell if they're Quirkless?"

The sudden change in topics is startling, but Shigaraki answers anyway. "An extra joint in the pinky toe."

Katsuki nods aggresively. "See I've found out that if said Quirkless person gets a Quirk later on, their extra joint will not disappear, it'll stay there. And anyone that loses a Quirk doesn't grow one, makes it easy to tell who was born Quirkless and who wasn't, providing you can get an x-ray of their foot."

Shigaraki nods, it would make sense for the joint to be a constant. The body would hardly be able to change at will. "What does this have to do with anything?" He huffs, however.

"I'm getting there, Handfuck McGee." Katsuki snarls, causing Dabi to snort. "Fun fact, and by 'fun' I mean 'shitty'. That extra toe joint means Quirkless people need different shoes. At least, if they're going to be using their feet a lot. Since they're in the minority, there's not a lot of shoe options out there, especially not for athletic wear. I grew up with someone that was Quirkless and he loved athletic stuff so he only really had one option for his shoes. And I've never once seen someone that didn't have the extra joint wear the same colour scheme he does."

Suddenly, Shigaraki doesn't like where this is going, but Katsuki plows on, ignoring the mans discomfort.

"Bright red shoes, with black laces, and white soles. Super fucking distinctive. They stand out like a sore thumb and there's no way anyone wears them because of the way they look."

Shigaraki starts breathing more heavily and he realises that Katsuki is further away then he used to be, maybe he somehow found a way to slide his chair back or maybe it was Shigaraki that took a step backwards.

Shigaraki knows what shoes Katsuki is talking about. He's worn them his entire life. Sure, he tried others on, but they never seemed to fit as well as these ones did. They were always a bit too tight, a bit too small. Shigaraki now realises that none of them were a bit too big. He never understood why they never fit. Never thought about it for very long, because it hadn't been important. Or maybe because he hadn't wanted to think about it. He still doesn't want to think about it.

"So given all of that. Given that according to your story, you were born with a quirk. Given that every shitty outfit I've seen you in is just fucking black besides your footwear, which you've kept the same despite changing the rest of it several times. Given all that shit, we get the part I need you to explain for me."

Katsuki's eyes find Shigaraki's, red meeting red and forcing Shigaraki to listen, even when all he wants to do is clamp his hands over his ears and drown out this blasphemy before that final question comes and makes it real.

"Why the fuck do you wear shoes made for Quirkless people?"

Both of them know the answer. Shigaraki can't bare to say it out loud. He can't let his life fall apart like this, not over something that shouldn't have mattered. Everything he thought he knew was crashing down around him.

Funny how many secrets could be unraveled by something as insignificant as a pair of red shoes.