The year is 2026. In the same sprawling metropolis where Rex lived, down in the southern district, inside a grimy apartment unit in the heart of the industrial zone.
"Huaaaah."
A beautiful girl with blonde, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes, wearing a hooded sweater, stretches her arms and lets out a wide yawn. She drops her hands and gets back to typing. In front of her sits a high-end computer setup with three side-by-side monitors. The right monitor shows CCTV feeds from outside her apartment; the left displays moving graphs for stocks, forex, and indices.
On the center screen, she is busy typing out code that looks like a high-level hacking program. "Clack." She hits the enter key hard. The monitor immediately fills with lines of scrolling text.
"Sweet. Now I just wait for the money to roll in," she says, spinning around in her high-tech chair.
"Knock... knock... knock." Suddenly, there's a rap at the door. She glances at the right monitor and sees a delivery man standing there. Because of his hat, she can't see his face. "Sring!" She draws a short katana. She slips out of her chair and creeps toward the door.
"Click." The girl cracks the door open just enough for the security chain to hold, her hand gripping the sword hidden behind the door frame.
"It's me, Ruby," the delivery man says, taking off his hat.
Ruby shuts the door again, "click," unfastens the chain, and swings it open. Her hand shoots out, grabbing the man by his jacket and yanking him inside. The door is slammed shut and locked. "Thud." Ruby knocks the hat off the man as he ends up flat on the floor, and she straddles him.
"You're late, Brad," Ruby says.
"Sorry, I had some business to take care of," Brad replies.
"Mmmh." Ruby leans down and kisses Brad passionately, but Brad pushes her back. Their lips part.
"What is it?" Ruby asks, confused.
"Could you put that away first?" Brad asks, pointing to the sword Ruby is still holding.
"Oh, hahaha, sorry," Ruby says, setting the blade aside.
They sit on the floor and open the food Brad brought. They start eating together, though Ruby occasionally glances at her computer monitors, which are still processing data. Brad hesitates, clutching his food container, then looks up at Ruby.
"Ruby," he calls out.
"Yeah?" Ruby asks, lifting food to her mouth with chopsticks.
"You really don't want to go back to the clan?" Brad asks.
Ruby goes still. She sets her fork down and chugs a can of soda sitting nearby before picking the fork back up.
"You already know my answer," Ruby says.
"But if this keeps up, eventually they're going to order me to hunt you down, and I don't want that," Brad counters.
"I know. But I'm not going back just to be executed. Sorry, I'd rather live alone here than go back to face those elders," Ruby says.
"Caw!" "Thud... thud." Both of them look toward the window. A crow has landed on the sill with a letter tied to its leg. Brad stands up and opens the window. He unties the letter, and the crow flies off. Ruby sets her food down and grips her sword.
"What does it say?" Ruby asks.
"I'm sorry, Ruby. I couldn't refuse. It's a shame you could only live to be fifteen," Brad answers.
"Hehe... is that so? I'm sixteen now. Today is my birthday. Give it a shot," Ruby replies, secretly gripping a kunai.
"Tring!" Brad suddenly flings a shuriken at Ruby, which she deflects instantly with her kunai. "Sring!" Ruby draws her wakizashi and lunges at Brad, who pulls a katana from his bag. "Trang!" The blades clash.
"Trang... trang... tring!" They fight with lightning speed, occasionally throwing shuriken and kunai at one another. After an intense struggle that trashes everything in the room except for Ruby's computer setup—which she protects with her life—finally, "jleb," a shuriken sinks into Brad's thigh.
Ruby is behind Brad in a heartbeat, crossing her blades at his throat so he can't move. Brad smiles, then glances back at Ruby.
"I love you, Ruby," Brad says.
"Same here. I love you too, Brad," Ruby replies with a smile.
"Craaaas!" Ruby slices Brad's throat, sending a spray of fresh blood across her face. "Blugh." Brad slumps forward, face-down on the floor. Ruby stands up and walks to her computer. She sees a massive sum of money enter her account and smiles. She looks back at Brad's body.
"It's a pity, Brad. If you had refused that mission, I would have taken you with me and we could have lived together. But I guess you were more afraid of the clan elders. Sorry I'm not taking you along and... sorry, I don't love you. To be honest, I don't even understand what love is, hehe," Ruby says, smiling.
Ruby walks to her closet, "sreeg," slides the door open, and grabs a pre-packed bag. She opens the next closet, grabs a towel, and takes a quick shower. She changes her clothes, puts on her backpack, and goes back to the computer. "Clack... clack... clack." Her hands fly across the keyboard. "Cleck." She hits enter. A five-minute countdown appears on the center screen.
Ruby approaches Brad's body one last time, lifts his head, and kisses his forehead.
"Sorry about this... enjoy exploding with the apartment," Ruby says with a grin.
But suddenly, Brad bolts upright and drives his sword through Ruby's stomach. Ruby stares at him in shock, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.
"Let's explode together, darling," Brad says, smiling with a mouth full of blood.
"Ugh... fine, whatever," Ruby thinks to herself, rolling her eyes. "Blaaaam!" The slum apartment explodes as the countdown hits zero, and everything goes dark.
***
Heartbeat: "thump-thump"
In a dungeon within the world of Valandia, Ruby, an S-rank adventurer, enters a goblin-infested cave with her party. A warrior swings his sword, cleaving through several goblins at once. A mage blasts them with fireballs, and an elven archer picks them off with precision from a distance.
Ruby, acting as the scout and thief, kills goblins at high speed, teleporting around to strike from the shadows. Seeing their kin slaughtered, the remaining goblins flee deeper into the cave. Ruby feels a sense of relief, but her party members are arrogant and overconfident.
"Huh... nothing to it. We should have taken a harder quest; this is way too easy," the warrior says.
"Exactly. Let's hunt them down," the female mage adds.
"Let's finish every last one of them," the archer chimes in.
"Hey... don't underestimate them," Ruby warns.
"Shut up. You're the most useless one here. You've barely killed any, right?" the warrior snaps.
Ruby goes silent. They continue deeper, chasing the retreating goblins. Ruby follows from behind, uneasy. She isn't sure they can handle what's inside; this place is a goblin nest that has never been conquered. They press on, enthusiastically killing every goblin they find.
Finally, they reach a massive, dark cavern. As they step forward, suddenly, "syuut," "crack," an arrow strikes the warrior's leg, piercing his calf.
"Aaaah!"
The warrior falls to one knee, staring at the arrow lodged in his leg.
"My husband!" the mage screams, kneeling beside him.
The elven archer scans for the source, but suddenly, "zleb... zleb," three arrows sink into her chest. She falls forward, dead. Ruby immediately stands guard over her two wounded companions, but then, "wooosh," hundreds of torches ignite. Ruby's eyes widen as she sees the cliffs surrounding the cavern—hundreds of goblins are cheering as the lights come on.
At the far end of the cave sits a massive goblin wearing a crown, with a shaman-like goblin beside him. The cavern is a goblin throne room. Ruby starts to tremble at the sight.
"Oh... God. We have to get out of here," Ruby says.
"We can't... my husband's leg... it's poisoned," the mage replies.
"We have to go... come on, honey," the warrior says, forcing himself up.
They limp toward the cave entrance. The goblins begin to descend as the king orders the attack. Ruby fights back, holding the line so her friends can escape, but as she reaches the mouth of the cave and sees her companions have made it out:
"I'm sorry, Ruby... sacrifice yourself for us... Stone Wall!" the mage shouts.
"What?" Ruby says, turning around.
Too late. The mage seals the cave with earth magic, creating a solid wall of stone. Trapped inside, Ruby feels a surge of heartbreak at the betrayal. She fights desperately against the endless waves of goblins. She tries to teleport past the stone wall, but she keeps reappearing in front of the feral horde.
Ruby slashes and stabs, but she's overwhelmed. She sees her elven friend's body; the goblins are stripping her and violating her corpse. Some are even eating her limbs. "Aaaaaah!" Ruby screams. She teleports past the rank-and-file goblins and sprints toward the king on his throne. She leaps high toward the cliff, aiming her knife at his throat, but suddenly:
"Blam!"
The goblin shaman hits her with a bolt of lightning. It strikes her stomach dead-on, and she is frozen by a paralyzing spell. "Thud." Ruby falls flat on her back. Without delay, the goblins swarm her. They tear at her clothes until she is completely naked and begin to violate her. Ruby can only weep as she is abused and bitten. Some even stab her with her own weapons. She feels every ounce of pain, unable to even blink due to the paralysis.
"You... bastards... bastards... I don't want to end like this... help... aaakh... it... hurts... mercy... I... I want to go home... h-help," she cries in her heart.
Finally, Ruby's consciousness fades from the unending agony. Everything goes dark.
Heartbeat: "thump-thump"
***
"Huh!"
Ruby wakes up in the ruins of the exploded apartment, now overgrown with plants. She immediately checks her body, clutching her stomach and feeling herself everywhere, even her most private parts.
"This... what is this... why... why am I back... WHYYYY!" Ruby screams hysterically, sending birds scattering into the sky.
***
Back in the present, Ruby stands lost in thought, holding and hugging her glass case. She opens the door of the case and sniffs the boxers once more, but this time, her expression is somber.
"I finally know what it feels like to fall in love... and to love someone. I will stay by his side forever, whether he accepts me or not. I don't care. And if he rejects me, it would be better if we just died together... okay, enough with the nostalgia. Time to go. I wasn't lying about the job interview, just about the timing because I had to be here to receive the package, hehe," Ruby says in her heart while looking at the boxers.