Hiroshima, August 1945

The air raid sirens stopped quickly, filling Eiko with relief as she accompanied her family out of the underground shelter and helped five-year-old Setsu scale the uneven stairs. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she had scarcely eaten the rice soup and boiled radish which had comprised her breakfast.

Regardless, her mother seemed more intent on fixing her hair into pigtails than heating the food again on the stove. With a heavy sigh, Eiko slurped it up afterwards and gave her mouth a quick wipe before grabbing the bag of books she needed for school. Inside also lay a note that she had written for Shigeru the previous night. She would make sure he saw it today, and if all went well, he would respond with another note of his own.

Eiko said farewell to Setsu, Osamu, and her mother, then left the house with Hisako and her father. They walked together for a few hundred meters before she parted ways with them, feeling excited at long last about what lay ahead. Her school wasn't too far away from Shima Hospital, and she remembered how her friend Satomi wanted to work as a nurse someday. She approached the school gates, looking for a sign of the other girl as a faint hum sounded from above.

She ignored the surrounding chatter and raised her head to the sky. A B-29 plane was flying overhead and she came to a stop while fearing another air raid siren. Moments later, the aircraft disappeared from view, and she found the courage to continue walking.

Two steps were all she took before bright light engulfed her and everybody else present. Her eyes fell shut as the air grew intensely hot and she lost all consciousness.

*******

Hisako was convinced that she had gone blind when she opened her eyes to see nothing but darkness around her. Shedding tears, she tried to move her arms and then her legs to little avail.

"Father..." she croaked through the agonizing heat and silence until the shuffle of feet sounded nearby.

"Hisako. I'm here..." The hoarse but familiar voice spoke, sliding their hand beneath her arm and forcing her to sit. "Can you stand? We must find your sister and the others..."

"I'll try," Hisako murmured, thinking of how content Eiko had looked leaving for school earlier. She leaned on her father for support while trying hard to shift weight to her knees and feet. A sharp cry escaped her body as they almost gave way.

"That's my girl," Her father said shakily. "We can ask someone to remove the splinters when we get to the hospital..."

Hisako's head sagged at the realization of why she was in such pain. She licked her parched lips to keep them moist, but the effort only left her fighting for air. "Water. I need water," she rasped while her right arm hung like a heavy chain.

"I know. We'll think about that later as well," Her father replied as each step she took proved to be a battle. Gradually, the darkness faded enough for her to see the surrounding debris, which had been a busy street just minutes earlier.

Dark and misshapen masses revealed themselves the more she stared. Her father noticed them too, and he stiffened. "Hisako, don't look anymore. It isn't proper..."

His flat tone told her everything. Each scorched figure had once been a person like herself, with their own worries and dreams, and a family waiting for them at home. Knowing this, Hisako became determined to see her ordeal through and be reunited with her mother, Setsu, and Osamu.

******

They had been unsuccessful in locating any of the three, and not a single other person could attest to seeing Eiko.

Hisako and her father found refuge in an evacuation center that had once been the local tram station. With no doctors or nurses around, their only choice had been to rely on a stranger to pull the splinters out of Hisako's legs one by one. She screamed countless times and the pavement below her was stained with blood when it was over.

She finally grew weak and fainted in the stranger's arms, waking up an unknown amount of time later to shrieks and panicked whispers.

"What's happening?" she asked, looking up at her father with heavy eyes. He stared down at her for a long while before his cracked lips began to move.

"There's something wrong with the water. People are dying when they drink it."

Hisako blinked and considered her own thirst. Her body had long since run out of tears, but she choked in despair, nevertheless. "Father, will I die too?"

He averted his eyes, and her pain only grew. "I don't know..."

******

The smoke and fire raging around the city had mostly died down after two days. Beneath a clearing sky and a scorched tree, Hisako recovered from her wounds while waiting for her father to return with food that he had scavenged from a nearby storehouse.

Her mind continued to dwell on the fates of the rest of their family until she spied his figure in the distance. His weathered face became clearer, and Hisako saw that he seemed to have aged ten years since they'd left the tram station.

She turned over her discolored arms and wondered if the same could be said about her. There were no mirrors around, so Hisako could only guess that she looked tired and sick at best.

Her father arrived with a handful of rice stored inside his jacket. He set them down in front of her, then reached for their only pot and stood up again.

"I'll check if there's any water left in the well," he announced, reminding Hisako of the burned and bloated corpse they had found in it yesterday. She shut her eyes and swallowed, knowing they had no other choice.

"Of course, father. Best of luck."

******

Another day passed, and Hisako accompanied her father to the morgue. A line of trucks stood outside, each one filled with corpses that would be cremated by the soldiers on duty.

She reached out to grip her father's arm with a trembling hand. "How can they do this? What if Eiko and-"

"Shut up," he suddenly snarled, frightening her to the core. "We'll look inside first. Then we'll speak to the soldiers."

Hisako could do nothing but nod while hobbling behind him into the rundown building. The acrid smell of smoke faded, giving way to the stench of decaying flesh and something else she could not recognize.

Row upon row of bodies were arranged across the floor, some covered in sheets while others lay completely exposed. Flies buzzed around and Hisako noticed that a few of the corpses had become infested with maggots. She placed a hand to her mouth, struggling against the impulse to vomit while indescribable emotions swirled inside of her.

She did not know how her father could be so cold when she felt as though her mind would rip itself apart. With labored breaths, she scanned the area until a lone boy caught her eye. He stood over the bodies of two people in tattered clothing, and though much of his face was covered in burns, something about his posture struck Hisako as familiar.

It was only when he turned to stare at her that she knew. He was Shigeru, the boy that Eiko had once pined after, and would speak to her about when they were together in private. Without even realizing, Hisako's feet carried her towards one of the only reminders she had of her sister.

"Shigeru," she murmured, regaining awareness a few feet away from him. "It's me, Hisako. Do you remember?"

His eyes remained emotionless as he spoke no louder than a whisper. "Yes. I do."

"There's something you ought to know. About my sister."

"What?"

"She... she liked you very much."

Shigeru's face twisted into a grimace before he returned to staring at the pair of bodies in front of him. "I know. Leave me alone."

Hisako blinked, then followed his gaze to their faces. It dawned on her that they were his parents, and she retreated, feeling nothing but guilt at her own selfishness. "I'm sorry..."

She trudged back to her father's side. His weary eyes met with hers, and it seemed like the cold man from earlier had disappeared. 

"Forgive me for speaking to you that way. It is getting late, and we should go."