“Huh? Where the hell am I? Wasn’t I just killed by my boss?”

I was sitting against a big Oak tree looking out at the grass plains with a lake running through the middle.

“What the hell are all these icons in my vision? Can I touch them….nope”

*Thud

“Damn it! That hurt”

I rubbed the back of my head, I tried to stand up but immediately fell right back down against the tree.

“chirp, chirp”

“Are they birds chirping?”

I looked up into the cloudless blue sky, the sun seems like its beaming but I can find it anywhere, the tree must be blocking it. It certainly does smell nice, like a fresh sunny morning with the flowers blooming and the sound off nothing but nature.

“Ok, lets try and remember the events before this.”

My name is Kubo Udon, Kubo is my family name, yes….…My parents named me after their favourite dish and it has caused nothing but ridicule for me since I started school. I am now 21 and fresh out of college, working as a VR Programmer for the first ever VRMMO, I also work as an Artificial Intelligence Programmer, both these jobs are under the same company based in Osaka, Leviathan Gaming, yep…… That's the companies actual name, sounds evil right? Well, it is, it’s a horrible place to work but it was the only place hiring when I left College, I started as a VR Programmer and game tester but that all changed when I accidentally bumped into another co-worker at the company and made her spill her lunch.

“What the hell is wrong with you! You fat piece of shit!”

The woman yelled at me as the cola from her cup dripped off of her head.

“I-I’m sorry, I’ll c-clean it up”

I mumbled across my words trying to not look this raging woman in the eyes and make her more infuriated.

“Do you have any idea how much that lunch cost me!”

Now she was going on about how much it cost, surly it wasn’t much, it just looks like some cheap cart sushi and a small bowl of miso soup.

“I expect you to pay for this!”

She yelled at me louder than before,

“U-uhh y-yeah of course”

I grabbed my wallet out of my back pocket, hands still shaking, damn it, when will this social anxiety stop!

“h-how much”

I asked still not looking up at her,

“That’ll do”

The lady said with a stern voice snatching what seemed like my ¥5000 note.

“U-uhhh”

I looked up at her trying to see if she knew how much she took, I got a quick glance at the angry woman, she had blonde hair that looks more yellow, a long face that looks like a horses head and a mole that caught your attention under her mouth to the left of her chin.

“WHAT! Don’t look at me with those vomit green eyes, you disgusting grey haired creep! You smell like onion, it’s disgusting!”

“N-nothing, nothing”

I put my head back down quickly avoiding eye contact with her as she walked off.

“hahah I don’t think your lunch was that expensive Sara”

“Who cares, he should be grateful he even got spoken to by me, he probably did it on purpose trying to cop a feel with those orange stained sausage fingers of his, disgusting pervert he is”

The girl walked off with a group of what seemed to be her friends. I hate working here, every day is the same, I get picked on for being over-weight and for having no friends, its the exact same as shitty high school, even college, in fact, all my schooling I was mentally and physically bullied harshly. It’s not my fault that the companies uniform is a white shirt with black dress pants and black shoes, it doesn’t look very appealing on me, even if I had shaved my patches of beard off, and I was a little over-weight, I’ll admit that, but I don’t do anything to anyone and I get bullied and abused, and the reason my hair was grey, is due to those bullies in High School that poured boiling water over my head as a ‘prank’ and my hair changed to grey because all the hair cells were dead. I picked myself up and went to the bathroom and wiped the miso soup and Sushi off my shirt and pants.

“Damn it, this coke is going to stain my white shirt”

I looked in the mirror seeing my shirt already losing its colouring.

“She really took my ¥5000 note, that was for dinner, what a bitch!”

I yelled out walking down the street. I just finished another late night and was trying to figure out what I can have for dinner since that bitch took my money for dinner.

“Why did I have to work late at the last moment, surly there are protocols when it comes to that stuff”

I mumbled to myself looking at the cloudy night sky.

“Hey you!”

“Huh?”

I turned around at the loud voice to see a big muscular guy with blue jeans and a white tank top walking towards me in anger, do I know him? Is he a client of the company? It looks like he just came from the gym.

“I heard you tried to feel up my girlfriend!”

What the hell? I didn’t try to feel anyone up! He has the wrong person.

“I-I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong person”

“No! Your that fat dude with the weird name that works at the gaming company!”

The muscular guy was right in my face now, I could feel the heat from his breath and it sent shivers down my spine, I could feel the goosebumps and sweat all over my body, I didn’t touch anyone at the company, what is he on about….. Oh you have to be kidding me, that bitch!

“I accidentally bumped in to her I promise”

I tried to tell him as I looked away from his piercing brown eyes, but then felt a hard sensation against the side of my head, my ears ringing from the impact as I fell off the side walk and onto the cold road.

“It was no accident! You bumped into her on purpose! Spilling her coke over her shirt to try and see her chest! You scum!”

The bitch’s boyfriend was now slamming the bottom of his boot onto the side of my body, I could feel the bruises and swelling already beginning to appear. Far out this hurts!

“What the hell is this on your cheek? Is this makeup?”

The bitch’s boyfriend said as he punched my right cheek.

“I-I didn’t, s-she looks l-like a h-horse that s-should be p-put down”

I managed to mumble at the bitch’s boyfriend. The frustration I had encountered and stored up just came blurting out, I wasn’t good at holding my tongue in these situations.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY!”

Yep, I knew it, that made him angrier, he was now leaning down and punching my face. I’m surprised I’ve remained conscious at all.

“I’ll kill you for saying that!”

He lifted me up by my collar and chucked me into the stone wall on the other side of the side walk.

*BANG

I felt part of the wall crumble where I hit it, I could feel a cold sensation at the back of my head, was I bleeding?

“If you ever look at my girlfriend again, I’ll make sure it’s the last thing you do!”

The bitch’s boyfriend shouted at me as he walked off, maybe he saw how much damage he’d actually done to me and felt he better leave before the cops come. Damn it! It hurts, should I go to the hospital? No, they’ll most likely just turn me away, that’s humanity for you. I managed to pull myself up using the stone wall as support, I’m only a street away from my apartment I’ll be fine.

I made it to my apartment, it’s a typical small Japanese apartment, one room with a kitchen and bathroom, although, my living room is full of games and manga scattered over the place, since that’s all I do when I’m not working, I guess I was sort of an Otaku with shut in tendencies. I was now fully aware of the pain, all that adrenaline was completely gone.

“Damn it this hurts!”

I shouted as I stumbled into my apartment, I slid my shoes off while still holding the back of my head, I held the kitchen bench for support and made it into the bathroom just opposite the kitchen, there has to be some kind of bandages or something in here.

“Uhh, there we go”

I managed to find some bandages and Jidabokuippo and Hachimijiogan, traditional Japanese medicine, I think it came from plant-based medicine, Kampo medicine I believe they fall under. I rubbed the Jidabokuippo over cuts and took three Hachimijiogan pills, it eased the pain almost immediately but I could still feel it when I moved. I had been bashed that many times in my life, that I experimented with home remedies, I had made a fair few medicines that helped me in certain situations.

“I need an ice pack, my left eyes is already swelling up”

I looked in the mirror and saw my black and purple left eye swollen over, yep, I can’t see out of it.

“That jerk!”

I walked over to the kitchen and took out an ice-pack from the freezer, like I said before, I have had my fair share of beatings so I know the procedure, but, damn it! This one really hurts.

“Lucky it’s Friday and I have the weekend off, I can heal up a little before work on Monday.”

I spent the weekend on my Futon playing games, reading manga and resting up, I didn’t leave the comfort of my apartment at all.

“Monday, another day at this horrible company, I should start looking for another job some where else”

I said to myself as I walked into the companies building.

“Mr. Kubo will you please come with us.”

“Huh”

Two serious looking figures approached me, one female, one male. The female had her brown hair cleanly tied back into a pony-tail with a pair of glasses covering her eyes, she wore tight black trousers, a white button up shirt that seemed to be pressing down her chest quite aggressively, a dark blue blazer and black high heels. The man was wearing almost the exact same thing, minus the white button shirt being blue and the black dress shoes.

“Have I done something wrong?”

I asked, looking around to see if there were others.

“Please just come with us”

The well dressed lady said gesturing her hands to the left of her for me to follow.

I followed the two of them into an office on the second floor of the building, when I walked in there I saw two people sitting down, the boss Mr. Saku, he wore an expensive looking black suit with a King Seiko Automatic watch on his left wrist, his hair was still dyed blonde even though he said it was his natural colour and his still as tanned as ever, and is that…… yes it is, that bitch that made her boyfriend beat me up! She looked at me as I walked in and turned away and I swear I heard a little chuckle, was she laughing at my black eye! This is your fault you horrible bitch.

“Please sit down you three”

The boss said gesturing his hands to the three empty seats around the table.

I took my seat only to realise I was on one side of the table while everyone else except the boss who was sitting at the top of the table was opposite me, am I in trouble?

“Now, I’m guessing you know why you’re here Mr. Kubo?”

The boss said looking at me with a glare. How have I pissed him off?

“U-uhh no I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m here”

I replied, I could feel the sweat starting to form on my forehead.

“Liar! You know exactly why you’re here! Look at the sweat on your forehead!”

The bitch screamed out pointing an accusing finger at me.

“Miss Uma, please control yourself, we will sort this out”

The well dressed lady said in a calming voice.

Wait… her name is Uma? As in horse, I let out a quiet chuckle, not only did she look like a horse but her family name, literally meant horse, I couldn’t control the smirk that appeared on my face.

“You fat little man! Your named after a friggen food dish!”

That horse bitch yelled at me after seeing me smirk at her last name.

“Miss Uma, if you cannot control yourself, I’ll be forced to ask you to leave”

The well dressed man said.

“Now, don’t be to rash, remember why we are here you two, you are both in HR you should understand the feelings Miss Uma is feeling when face to face with her sexual harasser”

The boss said defending the horse bitch.

Wait! Sexual harraser!? What the hell!? And those well dressed people are from HR! What the hell has this horse bitch being spewing!

“Umm, I’m s-sorry did I hear you right? Did y-you say sexual h-harraser?”

I asked the boss, I could feel the sweat practically falling off of my forehead now.

“Yes, that is correct. Last Friday Miss Uma came into my office beside herself, crying and scared out of her skin that something was going to happen to her after work, she told me how you bumped into her trying to grope her chest and ended up spilling her expensive lunch all over her. After hearing this I immediately asked these two HR representatives to look into the matter and was forced to make you work late so that Miss Uma could get home safely.”

The boss said in a condescending tone.

“That’s right, he also, he also”

The horse bitch covered her eyes with her hands and started to ‘cry’.

What the hell! This horse bitch is the reason I had to work late as well! Does she think that highly of herself that she believes every man wants her! I’m sorry horse bitch, but not everyone like your muscle head boyfriend is into beastilality.

“He raped me!”

The horse bitch stopped her fake crying and shouted out even louder, everyone in the room was quiet, the boss was shaking his head and trying to comfort her.

What the hell! I didn’t rape you! You horse bitch!

“Mr. Saku, I appreciate the help for getting straight to the point but this is a matter for the Human Resource Department to resolve, you are here as the boss of an employee nothing else, also, Miss Uma, we have heard your full complaint, but you refused to bring the Police into the matter, so please stop with outbursts of accusations”

The HR lady told the boss, which seemed to annoy him and shut the horse bitch up.

“Now, Mr Kubo, since you now understand why you are here and the magnitude of this accusation, is there anything you want to say?”

The HR man told me calmly.

“I-I didn’t t-try and t-touch her”

Damn it! Why am I mumbling over my words.

“I accidentally t-tripped and b-bumped into her, there s-should be v-video of the scene t-that will confirm it”

I managed to tell them my side, but, it didn’t seem to help.

“We are trying to acquire the security tape of that day, but it will be delayed due to the protocols we need to abide too, for the time being Mr. Saku has come up with a resolution that will help Miss Uma feel more comfortable in her work place.”

The HR Lady said.

A resolution? But I didn’t do anything wrong!

“Yes, that is correct, in light of these events and the situation of unable to ensure which side of the story is correct, we have no other choice but to ensure the safety and the comfort of our employees, and the fact is, that Miss Uma feels unsafe working with you, unable to fire you until the truth is shown, I believe taking you off the VR Gaming Testing Team will be the best case scenario as it is right next to Miss Uma’s work area.”

The boss said with a satirised grin across his face.

Are you kidding me! I didn’t do anything! The safety and comfort of the employees my ass! This only seems like a win for that horse bitch, does she want on the VR Gaming Testing Team?

“Are there any complaints Mr. Kubo?”

The HR man asked.

“U-uhh but I was hired to be a VR Programmer”

I told them knowing that this situation was already confirmed.

“Now, I ensure you, you are not being punished, this is only a temporally situation until the truth comes out, in order to ensure you aren’t losing any work, Mr. Saku has graciously allowed you to work on the Artificial Intelligence Team.”

The HR Lady explained to me.

“I guess that’s fine”

I said putting my head down unhappy about the situation.

“All right, now that this situation has been resolved until the security tape is acquired, Mr. Kubo and Miss Uma please refrain from talking or interacting with one another.”

The HR lady said as she stood up and walked out with the HR man.

I followed the two and took a quick glance over my shoulder to see the horse bitch smirking with the boss, those two assholes! They are in cahoots for some reason! Probably sleeping together, guess that low life boss is into beastilality too.

Two weeks later the horse bitch ended up quitting, so the complaint was tossed out but I was never put back on the VR Gaming Testing Team, and to make matters worse, that horse bitch had a friend in the company that went to middle school with me, and spread a rumour around that I was disowned by my parents because I tried to make moves on my little sister in middle school, like a damn sister complex, I’m no damn siscon! So my workplace got a lot worse even after that horse bitch left.