YO SO I WROTE THIS SONG THINGY

'S ABOUT SETO IN ADDICT :D

IT'S ON MY YT CHANNEL (HGHRULES), TITLED "YOU ARE GOOD"

ALSO, FOR ALL YOU WATTPAD FOLKS, IT SHOULD BE POSTED ABOVE!

ANYWAYS ENJIHUSHDFA SOHYOYYYYY THIS CHAPTER AND THESONGG

IM SO HYPER AND YET SO TIRED WHAT

Addict

Ch 3: "Bad"

"But- But this is the path to the City-"

"Yeah, shut up. My cloak is all bloody, I want a new one."

"You're super powerful. Couldn't you just summon one..?"

"Sometimes walking is a nice thing to do." And, truthfully, I'm hoping that my scary forest will scare him away. Then I won't have to deal with... him.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess so," Brice replies quietly, ducking under a sharp branch. Dang, he survived the first test. What a shame. "Um, how long of a walk is it?"

I smirk. "I can speed us up."

"Um-"

"Celeritas!" I shout, and our steps speed up a large bit.

"W-Wait, I- That's too fast, I can't keep up-" Brice's face smacks against several branches and shrubs and even a squirrel that couldn't move out of the way in time, and I try (and fail) not to laugh out loud. "I- DS, come on!".

I snort. "Did you just call me 'DS?'" I ask, effortlessly dodging yet another branch.

Brice splutters as he runs straight into said branch. "I- Well, you just told me to call you 'the Dark Sorcerer,' so, I mean, that's just really long, so-"

"I think that's an insult on my title," I scoff, not really offended but all for acting like I am. Maybe this will get rid of him.

"Oh, sorry! But what's your real name?"

"Not telling."

"Aw, come on!"

"Don't make me punch you again."

Brice immediately shuts up, and I have to laugh a little as I jump over a tree trunk. Brice, impressively, manages the jump quite well, and I give him an appraising glance before zipping around a murky pond. He just barely manages to dodge it when it comes up, and I raise my eyebrows in surprise.

Our next obstacle is another fallen tree trunk, this time too high up to jump over. I limbo-skid under it before glancing back to see Brice's progress. Unfortunately, I'm so distracted by his just-barely-a-success that I end up tripping over a third tree trunk and then flying into another, thankfully less murky, pond. I splutter as I sink down in the still-not-so-clean water, and then something splashes nearby and I launch myself out of the water to find Brice reenacting my embarrassing spluttering from earlier.

I laugh as I let myself fall back into the water next to him. "And I was doing so well," Brice pouts, wiping water out of his eyes, and I grin.

"My apologies. You were doing quite well."

Brice, having finished wiping his eyes, sees my smile and smiles as well, and I internally curse myself as I force my smile to drop. Brice looks up to my eyes in confusion, and I shake my head and shrug.

"You can call me Seto," I say after a short, comfortable silence. After a moment, I glance over at Brice to see him staring at me in awe, and I roll my eyes.

"I've never heard that name before!" he exclaims, a wide smile forming on his face as he changes his position in the water. "Did your parents actually name you that?"

"Eh. When a powerful sorcerer is born, they're born with their name sketched into the back of their head. My parents didn't really have a choice."

Brice's jaw drops. "That's so cool! Can I see?"

I consider it for a moment, which is a bad sign in itself. Notch, I hate cute boys. Especially when they're dripping wet. "Maybe later. Let's keep going."

Brice nods understandingly and clambers out of the pond, and I teleport out next to him. He pouts when he realizes that I've managed to magically dry myself. Then he looks up at me with this pleading expression, and I roll my eyes. "I'm not your servant."

He sighs and then frowns in concentration as he lifts his hands and moves them around a bit. "Uh..." He winces and then looks up at me. "What's the word for 'dry?'"

"Siccum," I reply, rolling my eyes again. Nice to know he's at least a sorcerer, though. And apparently in control of two magic types, regardless of how incompetent he is at both.

"Siccum," he repeats, flinching as though expecting it not to work. It doesn't, and he sighs.

"You have to believe it's going to work," I tell him, rolling my eyes a third time. Impressive, that might be a record. "Believe it, and make it so."

"Like a god?" Brice asks in awe.

"We're not gods," I scoff. "We're just sorcerers. Don't get too full of yourself."

He takes a deep breath and tries the spell. Miraculously, it actually works, and he grins proudly as he looks down at his suddenly dry clothing. "I did it!"

"Indeed, you did," I confirm, walking in the direction of my house. "Come on, now. We're wasting time."

It doesn't take us much longer to reach my house, which is a seemingly small thing made of brick and cobblestone. Very homely, if I do say so myself. "Aw," coos Brice, "it's so cute!"

Your face is cute, I manage to avoid saying. Really must rid myself of that habit. "It isn't cute, it's misleading," I correct him, opening the door and strolling in. "Normal, right?" He nods hesitantly. "Wrong."

With a wave of my hand, a spiral stone staircase appears in the corner of the warm, homely room. Brice's eyes widen, and I smirk as I lead him downstairs.

"Holy crap," Brice whispers. "This place is huge!"

And, honestly, it is. The room, made of concrete, decorated with the scariest things I could conjure, enchanted with a protection spell of the highest caliber, spans the length and width of almost the entire forest. I've also enchanted this place with mindful-transport; if I take a step in the direction of the part of the room I wish to go, and if I think in my mind, "I want to go there," then I will take two more steps and already be there, regardless of how far away it was. Very useful enchantment. "Yes. It is," I reply simply, stepping toward my wardrobe, which is approximately half a forest away.

"What the crap!?" Brice yells, his voice fainter and farther away now, and I laugh as I open the wardrobe.

"Join me!" I shout to him, ignoring how much this is going to bite me in the butt later if he ever decides to share my whereabouts with the Light Mages.

Brice hesitantly takes a step in my direction, and then he squeaks as he's transported two steps away from where I am. "Oh my Jeb," he squeals, glancing behind him. "That's so cool!"

"Yes, well," I hum, pushing aside different cloaks in my wardrobe. "Ah, here we are." I pull out a cloak identical to the one I'm currently wearing; it's white, grey, purple, and red, and it's the one the City and the Burg know me by, for the most part. I snap my fingers, and my bloodied cloak is replaced by this new one while the bloodied cloak returns to my wardrobe, perfectly clean. "All right. I'll get us some potions and food stuffs, and then we'll be off, yes?"

Brice just nods, still staring at me in awe, and I can't pretend I'm not enjoying the attention. It's nice to have someone be simply impressed with me rather than afraid of me, for once.

I step around the room, picking up various potions and food items and stuffing them into my bottomless backpack (very useful, if you ask me). "Brice! Need anything specific?" I ask him as he steps between the potions and the food department over and over, giggling wildly.

"Uh, I dunno, what is there to need?" he calls back distractedly, eventually ending up at my side again.

"And, that means you don't need anything," I mutter, rummaging through a chest in search of a swiftness potion.

"I need you," Brice says, winking exaggeratedly as though this is the best pick-up line he's ever come across.

"You're an idiot. Follow me, we're going." He pouts as I lead him back up the spiral staircase and then wave my hand, causing it to disappear. "I suppose the 'don't-tell-anyone' threat goes without saying?" I ask, holding the door open for him.

Brice laughs nervously as he walks through, and I look up at the sky to find that the sun is rising on a new day. Guess we spent quite a while in there. "Um, yeah."

"Lovely. Lead me to the first Dark Mage base!"

☼☼☼

According to Brice, we're only about half-way there when I get distracted.

"Danielle!" I shout, calling off the swiftness spell and walking towards Danielle and her family. "Jenny! Ah, and your parents. How are you four doing on this fine day?"

Danielle flinches back in what looks like genuine fear, and her sister shakes her head frantically. Her parents nearly faint upon seeing me, and I raise an eyebrow. "It's only been a day since our, ah, encounter," I comment, narrowing my eyes at them all. "I wouldn't expect you to be leaving your beloved City so soon."

Danielle sniffs quietly.

"My family and I are going on a merchant trip to the Burg, but the night scared us all a good bit," laughs a tall man as he walks out from behind the four.

"Oh? And who are you?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Jenny and Danielle look up at me hopefully.

"Why, I'm his father," the man laughs, pointing to Jenny and Danielle's dad, and I roll my eyes at his shoddy acting.

With a wave of my hand, I zip forward so that I'm right up in the man's face. "But who are you really?"

The man's eyes go wide. "It does not concern you," he says, though his voice wavers unsurely.

"Sir, I understand that you've probably got a very reasonable reason for seemingly kidnapping these four citizens. But, unfortunately for you, I was planning to kidnap them, as well! What a shame that our two plots have crossed each other," I sigh, shrugging as I look up at the man, who is a good deal taller than me.

The man's eyes narrow, and he stiffens. "I need this family for business of the Dark Mage Empire," he says in a low tone.

"Do you? I need this family for business of the Dark Sorcerer Empire. Look, at that, Brice, I've got my own empire now!" I laugh, glancing back at Brice. "Fantastic," I say, turning back to look at the man. Before I can fully turn around, though, I'm being hit with a blast of powerful dark magic that forces me to the ground and causes me to groan in pain.

"Seto!" Brice calls worriedly, running my way, but I hold up a hand to stop him.

I exhale slowly while standing up and brushing myself off. "Pal," I laugh darkly, turning around slowly to face the man again. "That was what we winners call a 'fatal mistake.'"

I raise both of my hands up in front of me, brushing them around in the shape of an orb. "Quarere," I whisper, grinning cruelly. The man must know that signifies a tracking spell, because he immediately puts up his arms to form a shield. "Confractus clypeus. Gradu decem." His eyes go wide, because he can't be higher than a five power-wise, and so my spell is sure to break through any shield he could cast. "Cover your eyes, kids!" I shout, and Brice puts his hands over Danielle's eyes when she tries to look. Jenny buries her face in her mother's skirt, and I grin. "Laminas acutissimas. Fast et repetita. Ut dolor ultimus extremum usque spiritum."

Brice winces and looks away as well when the magical purple blades begin flying at the man from all directions, stabbing into him over and over and bringing out flows of blood. The man begins to scream in agony, and I cast a quick spell with my right hand to deafen Brice and the family.

The man drops to his knees as the blades continue to attack, painful but never fatal assaults. "Please, stop- stop!" he begs through ragged breaths.

"Tell your higher-ups," I hiss, kneeling down to be at eye level with him, "that if they wish to have me on their side, they should not be getting in my way."

The man nods frantically, and I smile sweetly as I hold out a hand to help him to his feet. "Run along, then," I command, and he lets out a small cry and then sprints toward the Burg, with my magical blades still pressing him forward all the way.

I flick my wrist toward Brice and the family, and their hearing returns. "W-Where did he go?" Brice asks timidly.

"Vacation," I reply, waving a hand behind my back to clean up the messy blood pool the man left behind.

Jenny takes a deep breath as she backs away from her mother. "I-I don't even wanna know."

"Smart kid," I comment, walking closer to her and her family. "Well! Now that your kidnapper has, ah, resigned, I suppose I can take his position!"

"You saved us," the father breathes in awe.

My eyes darken. "You are far worse off with me than you were with him," I whisper, and the father's face pales. My tone and expression brighten. "Unfortunately, Danielle has her first baseball practice tomorrow! Perhaps give it a try, Danielle, and if you don't form a liking, you can ask your parents for a switch?"

Danielle nods happily, recovering astoundingly quickly from my little display. "Well. I won't keep you any longer, then," I say politely. "Good luck with your game!"

Her mother frowns. "We'll be late." Then she catches herself and smiles nervously/gratefully at me. "Er, but thank you! For saving us."

"For re-kidnapping you," I correct her. "I can teleport you four if you'd like. My sincerest apologies if you arrive with a slight headache."

"That would be lovely-"

"I'm only doing this for your daughter," I remind her sternly, and then I flick my wrists toward them, and they poof away to the City.

I sigh as they go, and then I sink to the ground and take in a deep breath.

"Seto?" asks a nervous Brice, and I force a smile.

"Sano," I breathe, and the small amount of damage done to me by the random Dark Mage disappears. "Yes, Brice?" I ask, standing up again.

He shakes his head in disbelief. "That was..."

"Terrible, I know."

"Adorable!"

"Are you kidding me right now."

"No, I just- That was so cute! Like, you act all tough and everything, but then you go and save these little- girls, right? And that was just so sweet, and, like-"

"I obliterated their captor," I say dryly. "While you were neither hearing nor seeing the damage, I can assure that that event was not sweet."

"It was heroic!" Brice squeals, clapping his hand. "You totally saved them! Who knows what the Dark Mages wanted them for! Could've been, like, ransom, maybe, if they were related to a Light Mage or something, or-"

"Brice."

He freezes mid-sentence and looks up at me in confusion.

"I am not a hero," I tell him flatly. "Sorry."

"But you totally are-"

"I'm not. I never have been, and I never will be. I can't be. I'm the Dark Sorcerer. I'm Addicted. I can't be anything but bad while I'm like this."

Brice frowns. "But that wasn't bad- Well, why don't you just... not be like that, then?"

"What?"

"Stop using dark magic. You can be the Light Sorcerer instead!"

I bite the inside of my cheek for a moment, not stopping until I taste a small bit of blood. "I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work that way."