*Has spoilers from Season 2*

Chapter One: Sent to Hell

Retsuko tapped away at her keyboard one key at a time. She yawned until her jaw cracked and then quickly shook her head. Last night had been another battle with her mother. A battle that Retsuko had no weapons for, and was therefore losing. The battle cries, aka conversation, they mulled over had lasted for a good hour and a half, even stretching into Retsuko's sleeping hours through confusing dreams and dark nightmares. Suffice to say, the woman was utterly exhausted. Her eyes felt like they would stick completely shut of they closed, and her brain was filled with fluff and fog.

"Psst! Retsuko. Hey!"

"W-what?!" Retsuko's ears perked up. From the corner of her eye, she saw Anai raise his brown eyebrows at her.

"Boss was calling yo—" The young man tried to finish sentence before a blasting bellow almost blew the whole department away. He sighed and went back to work.

"Calendar, get your person over here ASAP! I have a talk to conduct with ya!" Ton yelled out from the front of the office.

"Right away, sir!" Retsuko gulped and tried to ignore the shifty glances being thrown at her from all sides of the computers. There would be no help from her coworkers. Fenneko sighed and continued her work, already used to the firework display known as Retsuko and Ton's morning conversations. Haida, on the other hand, gave Retsuko a timid thumbs up.

Retsuko's already cloudy mood brightened only a little. She'd take the thumbs up over whatever Ton was going to dish her. She apprehensively approached Ton's desk, and she thought about all the things that could have gone wrong that day. Retsuko had just caught Komiya scurrying away. The meerkat snickered when he caught sight of Retsuko, and she knew that she would not like what her boss was going to say.

Ton sat at his desk polishing a golf club so well that the metal's gleam nearly matched the power of a laser. The big man didn't look up to greet Retsuko. He just went straight into what it was he wanted to say.

"See, our building is a conglomeration of everything." He paused to put down his golf club and take a gulp of green tea. He drained the entire cup and slammed the container down on his desk. "Coffee shop. The little help stations. The head hanchoes…" Ton picked his golf club back up and resumed polishing the already shimmering item. "You know of the mailroom holed up in the basement, yeah?"

"Y-yes, sir!" Retsuko scrambled to confirm. She was trying to piece everything he was saying together. What in the world was he wanting her to do?

"The basement with no windows. No natural sunlight. Just cement and the miracle of cellphone WiFi bending a knee to its power." Ton couldn't help the creep smile that began to stretch from one side of his face to the other.

"Umm." Now she was getting an inkling of what he wanted. An unpleasant spark of uneasiness made her stomach go queasy.

"Got a call from the higher ups. Looks like the postmaster down there went—heh—postal. Thing is, Calendar, we want you to go down there ta hold the fort for a could week's 'til HR gets someone else to cover for ya."

"Well, I've never worked at a—"

"How hard can it be? Just throw some letters at the sorting tables and help the customers at the contract station."

"Wait, sorting?"

"Where else do you think our mail is organized and all that stuff?"

"I—"

Ton held up one finger, silencing the distraught Retsuko. He finally stared straight at her with all of the intensity of six CEOs commanding to cut the budget.

"You are very glad to accept this new position? Hell right you are. Don't forget what you put this company through after that tech kid mishap."

Retsuko briefly recalled when she and Tadano went golfing with Ton and the CEO. The CEO must have certainly known who she was after all of the fuss and guff on social media pertaining to Retsuko and Tadano's then relationship. Retsuko really didn't want to get into that again. She shook her head clear and saluted and tried to not mind the sweat pouring off of her in torrents.

"Mailroom employee ready for duty!"

Ton grunted and inclined his head.

"Now git outta here."

"Ton says get out. Out, out, out!" Komiya parroted after appearing out of nowhere. Retsuko didn't have to be told twice, or the three times the meerkat had provided. She shot out far away from the malignantly gleeful expression on Ton's pink face.

Retsuko later told her two friends, Fenneko and Haida, what had occurred during lunch break. She pitifully ate the homemade lunch her mother prepared for her the night before. Despite everything her mother had done to frazzle her nerves, Retsuko was glad that her mothers meals always brought some comfort. She needed that comfort after imagining being stuck in a mailroom dungeon for two weeks.

"I guess I get a break from sitting at the computer all day," Retsuko said. She shrugged and drank one of the iced coffees she bought from the break room vending machine. The caffeine infused drink did more to increase her heartbeat rather than perk her up. She knew she should have gotten an iced green tea.

"And I didn't even know there was a contract station down there anyway. Maybe this will be a nice, calm job for the next couple weeks."

"That's one positive way of looking at it," Haida added.

Fennako let out a harsh laugh and sadly shook her head.

"It's Hell. It's utter Hell down there. You don't understand, Haida, she won't have an internet connection! She'll shrivel into a husk and get swept into the garbage!" The fox's intonation rapidly became drenched with notes of terrified desperation.

Haida calmly patted Fenneko on the shoulder while Retsuko watched in entertained silence. Retsuko took a bite of her food and washed the savory bite down with sweet coffee. She then said "It's Hell for you, maybe, but I think I might like it. I'll just be sorting mail and helping the occasional customer until they find a replacement. What could go wr—

"Excuse me, are you listening?"

Retsuko blinked, suddenly brought back to the present. That was right. This was her fist day on the mailroom job. It wasn't much of a dungeon in design but…actually, scratch that. The two rooms composing of the mailroom and contract station must have been constructed at least half a century prior. The was no internet, a simple cash register, and the walls were all painted a dull cream. There were no windows to be seen, and the only company Retsuko had was herself, the sorting mail station, and the irate customer in front of her. Retsuko stared at the otter man dressed in a blue suit and black shoes. The customer held up a blank envelope, clearly expecting Retsuko to answer.

"I'm sorry. Please. Can you ask me that again?" The woman politely asked.

"I said, do I have to address the envelope on the outside if I already addressed the inside?" The otter's whiskers twitched in agitation.

Retsuko broke.

FAREWELL TO MY BRAIN

I HAVE KNOWN IT WELL

THIS JOB'S QUICK TO INFORM

THAT THIS IT LITERALLY HELL

PUT YOUR ADDRESS ON

PUT YOUR ADDRESS ON

WE DON'T HAVE X-RAY VISION

PUT YOUR ADDRESS ON

PUT YOUR ADDRESS ON

GIVE ME BACK MY IQ!

"Yes. Yes you do," the woman answered the otter customer calmly.