The Genius Above Elites

Vol 4 Chapter 4.2

(Dis)Satisfaction

Episode 1; Kurenai Rayla

"......What's taking him so long? Can't he just keep to the schedule?"

I'm getting strange stares from the people inside the ship, all including the staff members think I'm waiting for my boyfriend or something so I can see some of them silently whispering in the back like a pack of hyenas. Situations like these is when I bet having that increasing headache would be better than a couple stares from bystanders.

It's cold so I ended up changing into  longer pants instead of my usual shorts, shame since these pants are so damn uncomfortable. If it weren't for this slowpoke idiot, I would have went inside by now and avoided all these random stares.

"Kaneko, sorry I'm late." At last the expressionless moron arrives in a short sleeved jacket with a white shirt hidden inside and long pants similar to mine.

"About time! Do you have any idea how awkward this is? Keep a lady like me waiting again and I swear I'll kill you."

"Right, sorry for being so late."

"Ugh, whatever just follow me. I already rented a table since you came so late."

We head inside the restaurant silently. Our postures are similar as we keep our hands inside our pockets, it's nothing t be ashamed of though since it's pretty damn cold right now. Moments later, we finally sit down as I begin to stretch in my seat while the waitress comes to our table to take our order.

"Order anything ya want. I asked you out here anyway so I'll be the one paying too, anything too expensive will earn you a knockin' though so keep that in mind."

"Alright..... Uhhh, set 3 ma'am will do. What about y-"

"The usual." I give a straight forward yet simple answer as the waitress bows before heading back to deliver our orders.

I've been here a number of times and even managed to become acquainted with the boss to some extent. Despite only being here for about a week, I'm basically a regular here since the corner of the place is always so quiet and the food is both delicious and cheap.

The two of us sit still in our seats, neither of us want to start the conversation given how strange the subject is. Staring at each other is even more awkward than waiting at the entrance like some girl who has a date. Speaking of stares, Ayanokouji's is more like a blank slightly reading me expression, in short it's highly uncomfortable.

"What is it? Get speaking 'fore I punch that face of yours for staring like a pervert."

"I just thought you reminded me of the girl I saw at the end before everything got reset, don't take it too personally."

"Girl....? Tell me more, we don't have all day so hurry up."

Our drinks arrive and are placed onto the table as I begin to blow onto my hot tea while waiting for him to start.

"Alright, let's start here before everything gets confusing. You couldn't enter that realm or whatever it was right?"

"Huh? I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about but I'm pretty sure the answer is no."

"Well the sky turned from afternoon to midnight in an instant and the time stayed the same for the entire time I was in there. Rose petals littered the floors of the ship and rose monsters appeared out of nowhere while all the other passengers disappeared. The only other people I saw besides the monsters were Sugihara, Kurenai and a silver haired girl."

It's a brief explanation but it gives me a good idea of what happened, although I've never experienced something like that myself because of certain circumstances.

Ghost would occasionally talk about not letting me into certain 'domains' even though only a few of them exist. Better get every confusion out of the way first.

"A silver haired girl.....I haven't came across someone like that but I have heard of it from Ghost. She mostly talks about some psychopathic little girl going around killing Sugihara in the last branches but I don't have specific details. What I can say is the realm you were in is known as a branch domain, it's essentially a thing that can cut off branches at will to stop said branch from continuing."

"Branch domain? So all those rose petals and monsters...."

"Products of that little shit I guess. I haven't experienced it myself but I can guess whoever makes the branch domain can control whatever goes on in there. Basically only people like you and me will ever have brains in that place is my assumption."

It's amazing how Sugihara despite not having much memories of previous branches can move there at his own will too. Kurenai too, though I doubt she could do much since the girl was likely after her to torment the man.

"Would you care to explain more? I'm afraid my knowledge on branches is still highly limited."

"Sure, whatever. Buckle in because this is going to be a long ass explanation, also remember that your curious brain was the one that started it."

I take a long, long, looong sip of my hot tea to cause a bit of pain to my tongue. Pain is a good thing to keep you awake, however I dare not condone torture which is exactly why I'm going against this silver hair girl.

"Think of branches as your typical branches from the trees, they continue to grow and grow without any end but eventually someone has to come and destroy them. These branch domains are something similar to a branch cutter, they cut off branches for the shake of either letting the branch continue on or stop it completely."

"So another way to put it, the moment Sugihara dies is the moment the branch is cut off. However the branches doesn't start off exactly from where it let off, but instead at a certain time so it could change trajectory."

" I guess. Saving me the time of more explanation....Sugihara is the tree where these branches sprout from, apperantly he's supposed to have the same ability as us but he can't seem to remember what goes on in other branches. That's about all I know until Ghost gives me more info, sadly she isn't back yet."

"Huh? Where did she go?"

"Off to find more information about stuff, like shit about Kujou being one of the past victims of the branches or something. It's not my place to get involved so I shouldn't know."

We continue to talk about random shit before paying for our food and drinks to head out and look for Kurenai. We agreed to split up and look for her so that's exactly what we set out to do, albeit extremely slowly because of my lack of energy all the sudden. Guess I lost my motivation.....eh, whatever.