Renevere Mars: Part Three

Episode 23: Master Itai

Duren awoke with another body in the bed with him, and for a moment he couldn't fathom why. Then he remembered the night before. He cringed, sitting up gingerly and rubbing the crick in his neck from sleeping awkwardly. He peeked over his shoulder in trepidation.

A beautiful girl with long, dirty blond hair was face down in his pillow, drooling a little. His ex-girlfriend, Carly. They had run into each other the night before and were too drunk to stay out of each other's pants, apparently. Being 17 had its perks, however. Duren felt totally able bodied now, which was good because judging by the hand of the clock drifting steadily towards the hour, he was going to be late for a mission briefing if he didn't hurry.

All the same, Duren made his way through his morning routine lazily. Carly remained unconscious. He started to make himself breakfast as loudly as possible which finally stirred her.

"Mm, whatcha makin?" Carly asked in the breathiest, grisliest voice she could manage.

"My breakfast," he said. "You should go get some. At your house."

"Ugh!" Carly grunted in high-pitched disgust. Duren ignored her, so she kept going. "Seriously? After last night?"

"You took advantage of me," he said plainly.

"Oh, please," she said, rolling her whole upper body in exasperation.

She always did this. Acting like she didn't know what he was talking about. It was infuriating. He scrapped the bottom of the frying pan over his plate and turned to face Carly with an edge of hostility in his posture. "Carly, you cheated on me," he said coldly. "Twice."

"Ugh!" Carly said, rolling her eyes. "And I apologized—"

"With Drakor!" he added. That one still hurt. Drakor was at least a head shorter than Duren and so strongly resembled a cow when he chewed his food other classmates used to moo at him under their breath at the academy.

"Okay, so now what?" Carly said.

Duren just looked at her, dumbfounded.

"Babe," she dragged out long and sad. "I promise it'll never happen again."

"Yeah, so do I." He let her ponder on this for only a brief pause. "Carly, get out of my apartment," he said sternly. She made a sound of disgust and went to the bathroom, to fully dress, god willing.

Lucky for him she was proud enough to leave after dressing without anymore objection. He would rail on himself for taking Carly home, of all people, later. As of now, he was already late.

Duren strolled into the Vertex where Master Itai was waiting for him. "You could at least pretend to be in a hurry," he muttered as Duren came to stand, hands in his pockets nonchalantly, beside his master.

It took him a moment to realize he meant because Duren was late. "Oh, right," he muttered, and made a face as close to anxious as he could muster, but he was sure it didn't read as such.

"Oh there you are!" bellowed Lady Rexus Keylopé, turning from her assistant to focus on the two warriors before her. "So glad you could find time in your busy schedule to join us."

"Uh, there was... an incident," he offered feebly. What exactly an incident might entail, he had no clue.

"My, my, Itai, things have changed since I called you Master," she said, forcing Duren to repress an eye roll. "You don't expect punctuality any longer."

Itai laughed easily, because nothing ever seemed to dampen his always-sunny disposition. His full, chin-length hair was a silvery-grey, giving away that he was in fact old enough to have trained the Rexus when she was a child, and years later take on a new squad of trainees, Duren one of them. He had a bit of an old man belly, which could maybe fool an opponent into underestimating him, if the name Itai Kazuki wasn't infamous across the continent. "Haven't you heard," he chuckled. "Duren here's a protégé, no one can make him be on time."