The boy's soul bleeds translucent tears. As thick as the snot coursing out his nose, hot like blood but desaturated, his eye streams touch his trembling lips. A sour taste saltier than copper bites his mouth. Reflexively, the boy curls his lips inwards so that he runs his tongue along the sore spot, feeling the fresh scar of his busted lip from where his father had hit him. His sobbing increases when the sting intensifies.

He pulls the corgi in his arms close to his chest, the dog's fur a warm and fuzzy feeling against his heart. "Mon..", he whines in symphony with his pet. The hug does nothing to soothe the organ's itching though. His hands clench as his fingers curl over with a tightening hold, desperate to scratch but still clinging on to the animal for a desperate ulterior solution to gain comfort.

"I .. can't take it..", the boy hiccups as he strains his voice that's become equally scratchy. He wants to reach for his neck but relents, still longing for his dog's affection to solve the problem instead. "I hate.. You hear me, Mon? I hate..", the corgi tries wriggling itself out of the hug when the boy's nails begin to dig in, "I hate EVERYONE!"

Feeling the dog's resistance, the boy sinks his nails deeper to keep it still. Gripping the corgi with fingers like claws, his hatred carries over into his hold. In that moment, the boy wishes that everyone would just turn to dust and blow away in the wind. His sister who betrayed him. His father who hit him for it and threw him outside. His dog for not even wanting to give up a simple hug. He wants them all gone.

All semblance of love rots and decays in seconds. The boy's hands become a destructive catalyst for his hatred. Anything he touches gets destroyed. Mon rapidly decomposes, flesh corroding as fur falls out. The dog crumbles to ash. He stares down at his shaking hands, stained with blood and twitching to scratch at the itch now that he no longer has his pet to hug.

His arms wrap themselves over his shoulder and across his abdomen to scratch his back. A self given hug that gives him more pain than pleasure. His unclipped nails cut and tear into him but still the itch remains. From that day forward, the boy stops relying on others to comfort his skin condition with a soothing touch and starts scraping at it instead.

That boy later finds himself presented with a new dog. Not a gift from the abusive father that he killed moments after Mon the corgi, but the man that had taken him in beyond that point. The boy took that man's name, Shigaraki, and left his old life behind to decompose in the ground. Yet, the orange mutt with a chainsaw poking out of its head reminds the boy too much of Mon that his past life haunts him. He hates it.

The dog attempts to clamber up onto his mattress to sleep with him. He punts it off the bed, kicking the mutt so that it sails across the room and lands on the other end. It yelps and then whimpers, annoying the young Shigaraki further. "Stay the fuck away from me", he hisses in contempt.

It curls itself up in the corner that it inhabits and stays there after that. Satisfied for the time being, the boy lays down and closes his eyes to fall asleep. That night, like every night, he has a nightmare about the awakening of his quirk. He recalls killing his family. The way each and every one of them deteriorated flashes through his mind. He remembers the way Mon died best though. Up close and personal. The touch. The channeling of his anger.

Shigaraki snaps awake, eyes flicking open as he shoots forwards. His skin crawls head to toe like his mattress is infested with bed bugs. When he sees the dumb orange mutt on his futon with him, he considers that it could be flea infested. If his mind itching more than his body weren't enough to annoy him, the dog pushes him to his limit. It disobeyed and came to curl up next to him in his bed. It hadn't learned its lesson.

Shigaraki kicks it off his mattress a second time, this time much rougher than the first. "What did I tell you?!", his hands pause in the air when they reach for the dog. They stop short and he moves them to scratch at his neck instead. The dumb dog cries in pain, retreating to the corner it had been in before.

He figures the mutt probably just wants him to feed it. He's supposed to give it kibble and pour water in a bowl but he turns over and covers himself with his blanket instead. He leaves that sorta caretaking for Kurogiri to handle. If the dog dies of neglect, he doesn't care. But the annoying whimpers all night long keep him up. He can't go to sleep no matter how much he tosses and turns or tells it to shut up.

Shigaraki tosses his covers off and jumps to his feet. Despite his age, he towers over the dog, completely casting it under his shadow. It's smaller than Mon was. Though the breed is lost to him. He considers dusting it but then worries his new guardian might be upset with him if he were to do so. If he lets it out of his room, it might scratch against the door to be let back in, and that'd be as equally aggravating.

If he lets it out.. Shigaraki chews the mended scar on his bottom lip. Carefully, with his pinky raised so he doesn't accidentally eradicate the door, he turns its knob to let the dog out of his room first. "Follow me", and then he heads for the front of the building where Kurogiri usually tends a bar. It's vacant at this hour with zero patrons, allowing for him to be rid of his pest without being caught.

When he opens the next door, a much larger metallic one with a screech instead of a squeak that leads into an alley rather than a decorative hallway, the dog looks back at him. "What are you waiting for? Go!", Shigaraki shoos the animal away with an aggressive wave of his hand. It flinches but doesn't budge. Shigaraki looks back to make sure nobody is watching before forcing it out with a kick, "I said GO!"

The dog shies away, just short of getting shoved but still lands outside. Shigaraki scoffs and slams the door to the bar shut. He leaves the dog outside by itself.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I know I'm a bit late for Chainsaw Tuesday and this chapter is really short but hopefully it's still worth something! I felt it was necessary to establish Pochita's past with Shigaraki and explore that at least a little.

On another note, this story is getting a Russian translation thanks to ArataProto for anyone with a language barrier!
You can find that version here: ficbook readfic / 12738077

I'll be wrapping up the USJ stuff next chapter (which will certainly be longer than this chapter) and Chapter 20 will be the final flashback chapter for those of you tired of flashback chapters to celebrate.