Thankfully, Ochako's brains wasn't splattered across the wall. Apparently she had enchanted her clothing with something a shield spell, but it did make her nose bleed and knock her out for a good five minutes, the entirety of which was spent with Katsuki being yelled at from all sides.
"What the hell-"
"Did you just try to kill her?"
"Holy shit, bro!"
"You seriously tried to kill her?"
"What did she do to you?"
"AFTER ALL I FORGAVE OF YOU!"
Katsuki just took it all. Yeah, not much he could say, other than a weak, "I wasn't trying to kill her. I knew she had those protections."
Izuku and Eijiro knew very damn well that he did not know that. Izuku was wise enough to not holler so where Iida and the whole courtyard could hear, but Eijiro had no qualms, not being able to be heard by normal humans.
"BULLSHIT!"
"So you really did try to kill her?" asked Mina, sounding more intrigued than appalled for a moment. "No, wait, after she fed you? And clothed you-damn, she was so nice, what is your deal?"
"I WASN'T FUCKING TRYING TO KILL HER!"
"She's not dead, right? RIGHT?!" asked Iida, even though he was the one to assess the damage and tell them about the enchanted clothing.
Izuku grabbed Katsuki by the latch of his hobbit cloak and decked him-
Or he would have, if that had actually happened outside of Katsuki's head.
No, Katsuki hadn't so much as budged after saying "Screw it," and dropping his bag, leaving everyone waiting for him to drop the other shoe.
"Screw what?" asked Izuku.
"Did you want me to lighten your bags anyway?" said Ochako, all damn sparkle eyed and bouncing.
He rubbed his face very, very hard.
"Let's just go," he said.
They released Eijiro, who hadn't even really noticed the chains, the bugger. Izuku and he got their bags tied back onto the saddle. Mina gave all the poor midget humans a heart attack by popping out her own wings. There was a brief fight where Ochako tried to manipulate Katsuki into letting her ride Eijiro with him and Izuku, in which said Izuku was NO help whatsoever. But since she was a damn witch of course she had a broom to fly, complete with a padded cushion she'd tied onto it for a seat, so like hell were any of her or the nerd's guilt trips going to work on heim. Eijrio and Mina very wisely kept out of it.
"You are welcome any time," said the Toaster for the uptenth time. "And please be sure to return our court magician punctually."
"We ain't going to keep her," Katsuki snapped.
Ochako pouted.
Then they were off, probably blowing half the poor castle's men onto their rears with the force of Eijiro's wings.
As Eijiro and Mina mutter/yelled to each other about keeping an eye out for their breakfast, Katsuki bundled himself up tight in his fur rimmed cloak, layered underneath with the hobbit cloak in leu of a proper shirt. Ugh, his nipples were getting sensitive. It reminded him of a guy back at the tribe who had picked up a fad from another sister tribe of piercing their nipples. Freak had an entire claw in his nip by the time they left. Weirdo. Did look a little bad ass, though…except it was stupid. What if someone grabbed onto whatever you had dangling from your nipples during a fight? Ugh.
"What are you thinking about?" Izuku muttered from behind Katsuki, probably picking up on his shudder.
"Just thinking about Natso."
"Oh, his nipple piercings, huh?"
Natso had a lot about him outside of his nipple piercings, of course, but trust Izuku to pick up exactly on Katsuki's thoughts.
"Your nipples cold?" and gawd damn if Katsuki could hear just how wide Izuku's smirk was in that one sentence.
"May you lose all your shirts and pants and only depend on midgets to reclothe you," Katsuki growled.
"Don't worry, I'll keep your nipples warm if you do," said an ethereal voice that should not have been as clear as it should be.
"Uh, that won't be necessary, Shouto."
Now it was Katsuki's turn to smirk. He didn't envy Izuku with his new elemental contract. At. All. Even if he did get new fire and ice powers now…wait.
"You got fire and ice powers now, right?"
"Uh, no? I just can borrow Shouto's."
"No, they're yours," insisted the too-clear voice.
"Where the fuck even is he?" Katsuki sat up to look around, ignoring the wind beating his cloak open for a moment. He'd gone invisible right before they'd taken off.
"He's right behind me." There was a strange little lilt to the way Izuku said that.
Katsuki twisted about to eye his co-pilot. The nerd had his head bowed, curls going crazy, and a writhing caterpillar for a mouth.
Katsuki frowned. "Is he molesting you?"
"What? No! He's just, you know, holding on…around my middle…and kind of, uh…"
Katsuki scowled. Okay, it had been fun to laugh at the nerd getting a gay stalker, but this was too far.
His hands got hot.
"Tell the fucker to back the fuck off or I'm blowing him up," said Katsuki.
"It's nothing bad-"
"It's making you uncomfortable! Get a fucking spine!"
"I'm making you uncomfortable?" came the ethereal voice, tinged with just some worry.
"Wel, um…yeah."
"I'm sorry. You should have said."
Izuku's face went slack with relief, but Katsuki watched for a moment longer, ignoring the sting of his eyes in the wind until he was sure the nerd was okay before turning back around and retucking himself into his cloak cocoon.
"It wasn't anything bad, Kaachan, he was just patting my stomach a little low."
"If it makes you uncomfortable, it's bad, it doesn't matter what it is. Shit, how weren't you some sexual abuse victim before all this? With a sucky attitude like that."
"I know he didn't mean anything by it-"
"No, he's right," came Todoroki's bodiless voice. "I'm not familiar with coporeal customs. I need you to tell me if I do something uncomfortable. I just…have never enjoyed touching someone so much."
Katsuki nearly got his spine chipped at with the force that Izuku hid his face in his back. He could feel the heat of his blush through his double layered cloak. It tickled a bit as Izuku muttered something that couldn't be heard over the wind.
"What's gay?" asked Todoroki.
Katsuki wanted to hide his face as well. Maybe he could get away with blowing up Icy Hot and making him remember. Honestly, he was just as up to dealing with this as Izuku was.
Ochako led the way towards this little village. Katsuki could see the cloud crowned mountain they were aiming for over Eijiro's spiked head. It was farther than he had hoped, but they could see it, so he hoped a day flying would be enough. At some point Mina dived down, only to catch up with them at an alarming speed with a adolescent boar hanging from her claws, which she happily tore in half, then and there, and tossed the rear end to Eijiro. The dragon proceeded to act like she'd just offered him a bouquet of flowers and her eternal love rather than the butt end of a wild pig, which probably still had shit and who knows what else on it.
"No big, no big! I like the brains," she said, slurping out an eye, then and there, in front of all of them, still flying. "And the eye-jelly. Yum. To bad we don't have any bread. It's quite good on toast. It's the only time I like plant-stuff. A little grass helps make you regular, you know?"
It wasn't necessary to belt all that, even if they weren't going so fast so the carnivores could enjoy their breakfast. Seriously, TMI.
Ochako looked like she was desperately trying not to think the same thing Katsuki was thinking.
"Oh, don't worry, I ran it through a river before bringing it up," said Mina, having caught Katsuki's expression, since he wasn't as polite as Ochako. "You want some?"
"No."
"Suit yourself. Brains are the best."
He wanted to gag.
"That's gross," said Todoroki.
"Well of course it would be to you, elementals are herbivores," she said with a roll of her eyes.
And they were off again, Mina licking brains off her claws as she let the wind beat the blood away from her face.
Hey, at least she wasn't throwing her pee and feces out a window to cover the streets.
Eijrio and Mina were still chatty little fucks, but at least they'd gotten the worst of it out the first day and managed to enjoy some lengths of silence during their flight. Occasional he'd hear Izuku shout something to Todoroki, but otherwise Katsuki was allowed to enjoy the scenery in peace. It wasn't much, just more forest, but his eyes kept straying to that crowned mountain in the distance. Something about the clouds made the back of his neck tingle. It was like the feeling he got before a punch came his way-old instincts he'd honed as a hero back in his previous life. But it wasn't so much a feeling of danger as it was of anticipation.
The feeling increased with the swelling of the mountain as it grew ever closer till it loomed above them, even in the air as they were.
They managed to land just outside the village by the light of the moonlight, and a helpful floating orb of light held out by an invisible line strung to Ochako's fingertips. Several figures burst out from the silver-lit huts the moment they landed, their steps far too fluid for the average extra, though only one of them held a visible weapon.
"We come in peace!" Ochako yelled. "I'm Uraraka Ochako, court wizard of Tenya Providence!"
"Oh, Miss Witch, isn't it a bit late to be herb shopping?"
"I'm escorting these folk. They're only interested in finding the storm dragons for their tamer."
"Doesn't he already have a dragon?"
"Oh, there's two," Ochako looked back. "Izuku, if you would show them your lightning."
And so Izuku did after sliding off Eijiro's massive back, giving a strobe light effect to the half a dozen men who'd come out to meet them.
Katsuki got brief flashes of night shirts, wide eyes, and one man with brilliant red hair.
"We were told we could find someone who might know of their location if we came here," Ochako continued. "That aside, though, would it be okay if we stayed here for the night? Of course, we can pay."
Katsuki hoped that meant she'd brought money, as he had no idea how much their leftover three coppers could bring. Monster carrots and apples had drained them dry. Damn, would they have to actually find ways to make money in the future?
He didn't miss the men exchanging looks, especially with the one ginger who'd hung out in the back.
After they'd had their moment, they'd agreed, though they'd insisted Eijiro and Mina stay outside the village, to which they tried not to whine about.
"Humans are so inhospitable," Mina had grumbled. "It's not like I'm going to eat anyone, even if I'm hungry enough to. I'd settle for a horse."
That just cemented their ostricization.
Katsuki felt a little bad, but not bad enough to do anything about it. The two had already proven themselves perfectly capable of taking care of themselves if allowed to hunt, and they weren't the only ones who hadn't eaten anything other than jerky snuck out of the saddle bags all day. And it wasn't like he'd had a nice little vacation clinging to a wind beaten saddle. Maybe, if they were lucky, the next stretch of their adventure could be done on foot. Katsuki could do with a good hike.
The first thing that stood out about Ninjang village in the silver moonlight was the architecture. They were distinctly Japanese, with stilted foundations, ceramic tiled roofs, and sliding doors. It felt like he'd gone back to his previous life and was walking around historic Kyoto, and the sensation was distinctly jarring. The next thing he noticed was the lack of sewer smell that their last trapeze into civilization had. It made him wonder why Ninjang village was the tiny, forgotten place while Tenya Whatever was the culture center.
As he drew in line with the men leading them to wherever they'd be stored for the night, he found they too weren't as large as he or Izuku, though there seemed to be more meat on them then the men back in the city. Or perhaps that lethal-like grace in their steps seemed to be giving that impression. The swords at their hips also looked suspiciously like katanas.
"Is this like some secret ninja village or something?" Katsuki said, mostly to himself.
The guy beside him, who looked particularly zitty in the light of Ochako's magic orb, visibly flinched and looked at him.
Another guy elbowed him in the side, jerking the kids attention back in front of him as though Katsuki hadn't said anything.
Katsuki smirked. "Not very subtle, you know."
"Kaachan."
"What?"
"Shut up."