A groan left Ryūko Matoi's throat, stretching out for a good few seconds.

Ryūko Matoi was a woman whose body was infused with alien lifeforms called Life Fibers. Those same aliens attempted to destroy the world, but Ryūko fought against them with help from many allies. Along the way Ryūko met the girl she would fall in love with, connected with her sister, and was physically mutilated in several ways that would have killed a normal person. She had her mind controlled and had to battle her own mother, but despite all the hardships, Ryūko never gave up, and in the end she stopped the Life Fiber menace.

The woman named Ryūko was a hero.

Ten years later, Ryūko was a security guard.

Ryūko sat in a swivel chair inside a cramped security booth within a subway. Right outside were automatic ticket machines that swathes of people were passing through. The woman twisted her chair from side to side as she leaned her head on her hand and stared at the passing pedestrians through the window right in front of her.

The uniform Ryūko was forced to wear was an unremarkable dark blue outfit that she hated, though she hated wearing uniforms in general. She took solace in the fact that Mako thought the ensemble looked good on her, especially the hat.

Every hair on Ryūko's head was tied back into a bun so tight it stretched her skin a bit. Even the red streak in her locks was pulled back and hidden under her hat. At least hiding it meant she didn't have to dye it black to meet the dress code.

"Matoi, why aren't you doing your paperwork?"

Ryūko's back straightened as a senior guard appeared behind her, an older man with a deep frown.

"I'm sorry, I got distracted." Ryūko immediately began sifting through the sheets of paper on the desk in front of her.

Timid. Ryūko had acted timidly. Such behavior would have been jaw droppingly out of character for her when she was teen.

"This isn't the first time this has happened." The older guard loomed over Ryūko.

"I'm sorry. I didn't sleep much last night."

"Neither did I, as it so happens, but I'm still doing my job."

"I'm sorry." Ryūko's fists tightened. "It won't happen again."

"You said that last time."

"I know. I'm sorry." Ryūko bit the inside of her cheek.

A grunt from the older guard followed him exiting the booth.

Dull annoyance filled Ryūko, but not for the most obvious reason. She wasn't annoyed at being talked down to or being reprimanded for a brief lapse in attention.

What filled Ryūko with annoyance was that she wasn't angry.

"Why didn't I talk back? I would've before." In her youth Ryūko would fight against anything that she was bothered by, but now she had been trained to be quiet, keep her thoughts to herself, and accept whatever happened. Doing otherwise was what caused her to lose her last several jobs.

This security guard job had lasted longer than any of her previous ones and that's because she had finally accepted she couldn't get away with the same things she did in high school.

Back in the day, Ryūko had to fight for her life. Now she was living in the peace she had earned by saving the world.

"The fighting was more fun." Ryūko filled out paperwork.

Paperwork.

More paperwork.

Yet more paperwork.

The only excuse she could use to pause from filling out and organizing sheets of paper was to look out the window to watch for any potential disturbances. There weren't any. Rarely did anything noteworthy happen.

"I should be happy about that."

Paperwork.

Paperwork.

Paperwork.

Paperwork.

Paperwork.

Pa epr work

Papepr work

Pape rwor

Pap e rowk

Pa eprp perm

It was getting hard to focus and think straight. Ryūko was slowing down, her mind fogging up with stray thoughts. She had to erase the last few sentences she had written since they were borderline gibberish.

"How long have I been working?"

Disbelief arrived within Ryūko when she looked at a clock. She slumped a bit in her chair as she was pulled down by a newborn weight inside her.

"It hasn't even been two hours." Ryūko pulled out her phone to double check the time, the listed time matching with the clock.

The mountain that was Ryūko's remaining workday felt impossible to scale. A pressure built at the back of Ryūko's eyes, and that pressure grew even more intense when Ryūko thought about how after work she would barely have any free time at home before she had to got to sleep. Then she'd have to wake up and go to work again. She'd also have to go to work the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that.

She'd have to go to work for the rest of her life. There was no endpoint, no goal. It wasn't like there was an enemy to defeat or anything, Ryūko was just living life now, and that meant having a job until she could retire or she died.

Ryūko had to keep living the same day for weeks, and months, and years, and decades.

What made things worse was that this wasn't the first time Ryūko had thought about this; she had pondered the enormous monotony that loomed in her future dozens of times. Every time she hoped she'd come to some kind of 'solution'. She wanted a way out of her current life, but she never found such a path.

"This is my life." Ryūko spoke so softly that her words were nigh inaudible.

"Matoi!"

Ryūko spun around to see the senior officer had returned and was looking at her with a wrinkled brow. She stood up immediately.

"I'm so sorry! I swear I was trying to focus!" Ryūko bowed forward so far that her hat fell off.

It took a second for Ryūko to realize the significance of her losing her hat.

The red streak in her hair was now front and center in her senior's face.

"I-uh-I'm sorry, I mean-I-I swear my hair isn't dyed, it really is naturally like this! You can ask anyone who knows me, my hair just has a red part! Please, I-"

Ryūko stopped as her senior inhaled slowly.

The man exhaled even more slowly.

"I'm going to have to file a report about this."

"Please, don't! I'm so sorry, I'll lose my job if you file another negative report about me!" Ryūko bowed so far forward that her upper body was parallel with the floor.

"You say that like you don't deserve to be fired. The entire time you've been working here you've constantly failed to meet expectations. I expected little from you since you're a woman trying to be a security officer, and yet you've still managed to disappoint. You're lazy and incompetent. You can't even fill out paperwork."

"I swear I'll improve." Ryūko endured the insults even as her jaw clenched and her hands formed fists.

"There's no reason for me to believe you. You constantly claim not to make the same mistakes or to get better, but you not only fail to keep those promises, but you always proceed to screw up even worse than you did before. It's as if you're trying to outdo yourself in terms of ineptitude."

"I know. I'm so sorry." Ryūko's whole body tensed and her teeth grit.

"Honestly, I don't get how you're going to find a husband the way you are. You can't even follow basic instructions." The man sighed again. "I'm filing the report. I suggest you take the time to figure out an excuse for the higher ups that's actually believable, that or researching other careers that aren't as mentally intensive."

Ryūko's body was shaking. The emotion inside her was at a peak. She had to do something or she'd overflow. Instead of thinking, Ryūko had to act, to just do as her emotions told her to.

But like before, Ryūko wasn't angry.

Ryūko got onto the floor and pressed her forehead to the ground.

It was a dogeza, for Ryūko wasn't angry, she was scared of losing her job.

"Please, I can't afford to lose my job! I promise that I won't screw up ever again! I'll work a double shift today to make up for screwing up, and I'll dye my hair completely black as soon as I get home! Please don't report me to the higher ups!"

"I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. Why am I doing this? Why do I care about this job so much? Because I can't get another one. I'm too stupid. When did this become who I am? Why am I not mad? I should be mad. Be mad! I can't. I just can't."

The senior guard was silent. Ryūko didn't rise from her kowtow.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Fine, I won't file a report, but if you screw up one more time, then you're gone."

"Thank you so much! You're so kind!" Ryūko felt disgusting.

She continued to feel disgusting throughout the rest of her now double length shift. The dread Ryūko had experienced before upon recognizing how time crawled as she worked didn't go away, it only grew more intense now that she had to work for twice as long as she normally would.

Time itself nearly petrified. Ryūko's only method of coping was to simply pretend that she would be at work forever. If she could not dream of going home, then that tantalizing eventuality couldn't torture her with its distance. All Ryūko had to do was give up, to stop fighting, to submit, to conform despite having spent her youth fighting against a foe that embodied conformity.

It was frightening how a mere ten years could break a person down. No amount of individualism was going to earn one the money necessary to live half-decently. Life Fibers dominated a person all at once, but the gradual reprogramming of people as they tried to live in human society was far more effective in the long term, and certainly more terrifying. With humans you often didn't know how you had been altered until long after the changes had become ingrained as a fundamental part of who you were.

When Ryūko peered at the window, she saw her reflection and it didn't look like her anymore.

Eventually, after a sixteen hour work day, Ryūko finally left work. On her way home Ryūko bought some black hair dye.

By the time she arrived at the apartment complex where she lived, the night was deep and she was exhausted. Physically she was fine given her Life Fiber infused body was able to fight for hours on end without difficulty, but mentally Ryūko was struggling to not break down.

Ryūko unlocked the door to her apartment and opened it.

"Ryūkooooooooooooo, you're home!"

Mako the human missile had locked onto Ryūko who didn't have the energy to do anything other than take the projectile straight on. Ryūko was tackled to the floor, her limbs limp.

"Ryūko, how was work? How was your double shift? Did you have fun? Were there a lot of people? There always is, so I guess that was dumb to ask. Oh! Were there not a lot of people? That would be surprising! A subway with not a lotta people would be creepy! Like a ghost town, but for trains! Ghost trains! Imagine being haunted by the ghost of a train! You'd hear loud whistling in the middle of the night! Chooooo-chooooo! Now I wanna ride a train! Wait, I get to ride a train every day when I go to work! Yay!" Mako nuzzled Ryūko.

"Hi, Mako." Ryūko couldn't help but smile despite the long day she just had. Even when the world was sad and dull and monotonous, Mako was a ball of consistent chaos that Ryūko found comfort in.

"Hi." Mako giggled and kissed Ryūko. She peppered Ryūko's face with more kisses as they stood up, or rather Ryūko stood up while Mako clung to her like a sloth. "How was work?"

"Terrible. My senior's a dick and I had to grovel to him just to not get fired over the dumbest crap." Ryūko carried Mako into their home and closed the door behind them. The dwelling was rather standard for a Japanese apartment with little to differentiate it from any other. "Now I just wanna go to sleep."

"Do you wanna eat first? I made croquettes!"

"Sorry, but I'm too tired. Can you put the leftovers in the fridge for me?"

"Sure!" Mako jumped off Ryūko and zoomed into the kitchen

"By the way, have you slept yet?"

"I was napping when you opened the door and I shot right towards you!"

Ryūko entered her and Mako's bedroom, immediately falling onto the bed. She didn't even bother getting out of her uniform or moving under the covers. The plastic bag that held her newly purchased hair dye was still in her hand.

"What are you doing? Where are your jammies?" Mako had appeared in the bedroom like a bolt of lightning. "You can't sleep without your jammies!"

"I'm too tired to change." Ryūko slurred.

"It doesn't matter how tired you are, you have to put on your jammies, brush your teeth, and get under the covers! You can't sleep right unless you do!" As Mako spoke, she proceeded to strip Ryūko naked, dress her in her pajamas, brush her teeth, and bundle Ryūko under the bed covers so tight it was like she was in a cocoon.

Mako then did the same to herself, though she slipped into the same blanket cocoon that she put Ryūko in. The pair were smushed into each other, which was how Mako liked it, and how Ryūko like it too admittedly.

"Thanks, Mako." Ryūko snickered.

"You're welcome! Goodnight!" Mako immediately fell into a deep sleep, a snot bubble growing and shrinking from her nose with each breath.

"Goodnight." Ryūko closed her eyes, but despite her exhaustion, her body refused to fall asleep.

"I love Mako so much. If I didn't have her, I don't know what I'd do. Even with her I don't know what to do. I hate my job. I hate every job. But I need a job. I have to make money, for Mako's sake. We can't live well unless we both work. I could try asking Satsuki for money, but I don't want to leech off her. The only job I liked was MMA, but I got kicked out of every league because everyone thought I was doping due to how crazy strong I am. Then I went to underground fighting rings, but I won so easily that nobody wanted to watch, and I wasn't good at faking getting my ass kicked, so I got fired from all those promotions too. Hitting stuff is the only thing I'm good for, and I can't even do that right. I hate my life. I hate it so much. Even being with Mako isn't enough to make me feel better."

Ryūko felt choked up.

"I need some kind of break. When was the last time Mako and I had a break? We've been working so much. All I wear is my uniform most of the time. Didn't I promise Senketsu I'd wear outfits so cute he'd be jealous? When was the last time I wore something cute? Is the life I'm living the one Senketsu wished for me? Was this what Senketsu died for?"

Ryūko had to force herself not to sob as she began to cry. She had to move her head away from Mako to not risk her tears dripping onto her beloved. There was no way in hell that Ryūko was going to let Mako know about the turmoil she felt inside. Mako would go crazy if she found out what Ryūko felt; she would insist Ryūko quit being a security guard and look for her dream job. That would be kind of Mako, but it wasn't reasonable. They needed money or they wouldn't have any chance at being happy. Ryūko couldn't waste time searching for a theoretical dream occupation.

"But how long can I keep doing this before I break? What will happen when I break?"

It wasn't a matter of if she'd break at the rate Ryūko was going, only when.

While feeling trapped by her life, Ryūko finally drifted to sleep. What she dreamed of was a mess of disjointed events. Getting fired, becoming homeless, Mako leaving her, losing her mind.

In the swamp of unfettered thoughts that formed her dreams, Ryūko said something she wouldn't dare think, let alone utter, aloud. It was a wish for something that could simplify her life.

"I hope the Life Fibers come back."