A malicious smile that really didn't suit Kouki's child-like face graced her lips as she stood up straight. She put both of her hands to her chest and took a few deep breaths, stabilizing her breathing. For a few seconds, she stood completely still. Then, she mumbled some inaudible words and her body jerked almost comically before she vanished.
Naru barely had time to react before she felt a sting in her neck, and Kouki appeared in front of her again. "What the hell..." she muttered. A strange feeling spread along her skin, and just as she put her hand to her neck, a searing pain attacked every cell in her throat.
She couldn't help but let escape a loud exclaim in pure shock. As if struck by hundreds of needles, the pain prickled every single inch of her neck before slowly beginning to spread to her chest and shoulders, and she hissed when it reached her lungs, making it hard to breathe. She dropped to all four and coughed harshly a few times. A wave of nausea bubbled up inside of her, and she had to swallow thickly a few times to avoid throwing up.
"How does it feel to be cursed?"
Naru bit her teeth together and stood up on shaky legs. The earth seemed to spin uncontrollably underneath her feet, but she could still tell Kouki was standing in front of her, the playful smile back on her lips. "Do you believe me now?" she asked, her voice sounding distorted and distant.
Although pain seared with every move she made, Naru ground her teeth together and lunged forward to grab hold of Kouki's shoulders. The warlock's smile disappeared, and she started squirming to get out of the vice grip that clutched onto her instead.
"I know how you do it now," Naru hissed and buried her claws in Kouki's skin. "I know your trick, Kouki."
When the pain started increasing again, her grip weakened and Kouki managed to get out of her hold. Naru staggered backwards a few steps and raised a hand to rub her eyes. Her vision was slowly starting to blur, and her knees were feeling like jelly.
"My trick?" Kouki said and laughed. "I have no trick! I am a warlock!"
Naru ignored her and backed another few steps. "Sasuke!" she called over her shoulder. In the matter of seconds, the archer appeared next to her.
"I'm kinda busy at the moment." He was out of breath and he was rubbing the side of his head, where a large bruise was forming. "What do you want?" he asked.
"There's a small flask in your belt's container, right?" Naru spoke fast as she feared if she kept her mouth open too long, something else than words would come out. Not even daring to blink, her eyes were constantly focused on the girl in front of her. "I need it."
"What are you—"
"Now!"
Sasuke flinched, and after sending Naru an aggravated glare, he withdrew a small vial from his belt. The flask was filled with an opaque, almost completely transparent liquid. He tossed it over to Naru and turned around. "Kurama and I are almost finished here," he said. "Few more and we'll be done."
Naru nodded and smirked when Sasuke left her side. She unplugged the vial and held it up so the warlock could see. "Wanna know what this is?" she asked Kouki, whose eyes narrowed in confusion. "Oh well, you'll see soon enough."
With those words, Naru brought the vial to her lips and downed the liquid contained within. The second the substance touched her tongue, the pain in her body started to fade away. A cold sensation spread through her veins, and after emptying the entire flask, she shivered at the sensation and straightened up.
She tossed the flask to the side and grinned smugly at Kouki's shocked expression. "I told you, I know your trick," she said and took a few steps closer to the warlock. "It wasn't actually that hard, I just wanted to see how you curse others."
"I-impossible," Kouki breathed out. "How did you remove the curse?"
"It was actually Sasuke who told me half of the story," Naru said. "He told me of your reputation, and he told me you stole his bow. He also happened to mention the Kiryuin clan has always used poisons when hunting. Now, while he thought you wanted to sell his bow, my attention stuck to the poison."
She paused to rub her neck, and when she withdrew her hand, a small drop of blood rested in her palm. "I figured you used poison to curse people with," she continued, thoroughly enjoying Kouki's distress. "But I just needed to see how. That's why I let you inject the poison inside of me."
"You 'let me'?!" Kouki yelled. "I cursed you! You didn't let me curse you, I cursed you!"
"No, you didn't," Naru said coldly. "Your ability has something to do with speed, right? That's how you managed to dodge my every attack, and that's how you 'curse' people. You move too fast for their eyes to notice, and they think they've been cursed."
"And... and what you drank just now..?"
Naru held up the vial. "Since I knew you were using Sasuke's poison, I just needed to ask him for a vial of the antidote," she said and tilted her head to the side. "It was risky, since I didn't actually know whether he had antidote or not, but it all worked out just fine."
Kouki opened her mouth and closed it a few times, making her look like a fish out of water. Finally, she shook her head and straightened up, failing miserably to look dignified. "Fine," she said somewhat hysterically. "Fine, so what? You know my trick. I use the power of the Kaze Kaze no mi, which allows me to move as fast as the wind. So what if you know? I'll just kill you right here and then the secret will die with you."
A cold expression settled on Naru's face. "You can't kill me," she said simply. "You're younger than me, and so much more inexperienced. I just said I let you curse me. Which means I could've stopped you if I wanted to. Thanks to my ability, which I have trained for longer than you've been alive, I'm fast enough to keep up with you."
"As if!" Kouki shrieked and withdrew a dagger from within her robes. She clenched it tightly in her hand and leaned forward. "Wind God!"
She broke off the ground with such force the rock underneath her feet shattered. Naru braced herself and closed her eyes. From Kouki's scent and the sound of her featherlight footsteps alone, Naru could tell exactly where the girl was.
For a second, Kouki vanished from her senses, but Naru smirked when she felt the girl's presence appear behind her. "Going for the back is not fair in a battle," she said and whirled around to parry Kouki's attack. Her knife connected with Naru's claws with a deafening clang, and after squealing in dismay, she vanished again.
Naru sighed and turned around to where she most strongly sensed Kouki's presence. She widened her stance and braced her right arm, raising it above her head. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she focused all of her strength into her hand, and when she felt Kouki was close enough, she parted her lips and snarled, "Claw Cannon!"
She lowered her hand and let her claws tear through the air, triggering a violent current in the air. It flew like invisible swords towards Kouki, who was just a few feet away from Naru when the current hit her. Deep cuts appeared on the warlock's shoulders and chest, and she had barely enough time to even notice before she was thrown backwards, and she crashed into the mountain wall.
After letting escape a small sound of pained surprise, Kouki fell forward and onto the floor, where she lay motionless. Naru huffed and strode up to the warlock and stared down at her while absentmindedly rubbing her sore neck.
"Wasn't anything personal," she said with a roll of her shoulders. "You just chose the wrong target."