Only a couple hours past dawn found Izuru Kira already resting atop a roof in his current assigned territory.

Nowadays one took a chance to relax whenever it presented itself. A vastly greater amount of plus souls and Hollows had been appearing in the world of the living than ever before, and the Gotei 13 had been on a heightened state of alert. More deaths meant more Hollows, and more Hollows meant increased chances of Menos such as Gillians or even Adjuchas showing up. There were even whispers of rumors that if the situation got any worse, a Vasto Lorde might stalk this war-weary land.

Fortunately, his protectorate had been spared the fires of war so far. Kira had it comparatively easier than some of his brethren, judging by the other horror stories he had heard from other places in the world of the living. The vast majority of Hollows in this city were newborn ones, fresh from the despair of death, and thus inexperienced, easy pickings for the blond shinigami. There had been one Menos Grande that made an appearance a few months ago, but fortunately a message via Hell Butterfly summoned a captain and a lieutenant to the world of the living before the massive monster caused too much destruction.

But he knew the relative peace of this region would not last for long. Some of the whole souls he had talked with before sending them on to Soul Society said that an invasion was coming. They did not know when or where, but it was inevitable.

Kira had spent the last night hunting down Hollows and performing konsō on whole souls, and he was exhausted. With the sun still low on the horizon, he was taking a rest from his duties.

His eyes snapped open when he heard a familiar drone hit his ears. Izuru quickly stood up and scanned the skies in search of his target, relaxing when he realized there was only one. No cause for concern; a single example like this was a mere scout. All the same he watched its flight with a measure of trepidation. If it did decide to attack, his services would be called for.

The flyer came and went, confirming Kira's hope that it was passing overhead for just reconnaissance. With a grateful sigh he lay back down and closed his eyes. Perhaps now he could take a well-deserved break.

An eerie mix of roar and screech jolted him from his reverie. Hollow! In an instant he had already bolted upright and drawn his zanpakutō, angrily searching for the source of that howl.

There it was, just a few blocks away. Kira leapt from rooftop to rooftop towards his target. When he finally arrived, he saw that the rampaging monster was vaguely avian in appearance. It had no wings, but instead boasted four bird-like legs complete with large, curved talons. Its Hollow mask was that of a bird-of-prey with a hooked beak and piercing eyes.

Zanpakutō held in front of him, Kira charged forward to confront the Hollow.

This specimen proved to be an agile example of its ilk, for the monster was able to deftly avoid the shinigami's first swing.

Undeterred by the miss, Kira did not miss a step as he turned and attacked again from another angle.

Faster than he anticipated, the birdlike Hollow snapped its talons at the blond. Kira managed to twist to the side to avoid having his head taken off but the tip of one claw managed to cut into his forehead, sending blood pouring down the right side of his face. Soldier's instincts saw his blade go licking out to slash along the monster's arm, drawing blood and a surprised shriek in response.

Having been given vivid proof that he was up against a quicker opponent than normal, Kira drew back warily. The monster did not press its attack, merely turning to keep him in sight as it prowled about. They both seemed cognizant that this was not an enemy to be taken lightly.

Izuru considered his situation. He was effectively blind in one eye. A quick kidō spell could heal the wound, but he might be better served using it to his advantage. If he let the Hollow believe his vision was troubling him, that might embolden it into taking rash action in the hopes of ending the fight quickly. Speed and strength weren't the only deciding factors in a battle.

The Hollow made the first move, darting to his left and assumedly blind spot. Kira countered with a swing of his blade right into his enemy's path. This time, his aim was true, and the katana bisected the Hollow's mask, signifying his victory.

The death god exhaled in relief as he saw the Hollow's body dissipate into spiritual particles. The presence of a Hell Butterfly fluttering away signaled a new arrival for Soul Society.

Kira grimaced as he held his hand to the wound bleeding above his right brow, making him close that eye. As a recent transfer from the Fourth Division, he knew that it was pointless to just wipe the blood away from his eye. He was about to start a healing spell that would close the cut when he heard another noise coming from the sky.

Wound forgotten, the shinigami quickly looked toward the source of the sound.

Like before, the flyer was alone. Kira could not tell if this was a second one or the same one as before making another round, but either way, he was nervous. Even if this was just a scout, the fact that there were two forays over the city so soon after each other did not bode well. Kira's unhindered eye widened as he remembered how some of the whole souls had mentioned the upcoming invasion. Was this invasion at hand? Was that why the enemy was sending more scouts over the city than normal?

Instinctively, Kira looked towards the ocean, where he knew the enemy had to approach from. He could not see anything, but that did not allay his fears. He knew humans had technology to fight in ways that attacked from afar. The only consolation was that if an attack was imminent, the natives of this city would be in their shelter, and that there would be a swarm dotting the sky.

Kira made a note to send a message to Soul Society, to recommend that more shinigami be stationed in this city, in the event that it was the target for the invasion.

He took one last look at the flyer, which was now on its way out of the city's boundaries.

And he was struck blind by a massive flash of white light, as if the sun's brightness filled his entire field of vision.

Kira quickly shut his eyes, but the damage had already been done; he could no longer see with his left eye. Bright red still registered through his right eyelid, telling Kira that he was only half-blind as opposed to completely blind.

The next thing that registered to him was the instantaneous change in temperature; the summer morning had gone from comfortably warm to blazing hot in seconds. If it weren't for his reiatsu shielding him, Kira was sure that he would have been roasted alive.

He was just about to risk opening his remaining eye when a force like a captain's punch sent him flying into the air and crashing into another building. Kira's velocity was slowed by that first crash, so when his body hit a second wall, it caused a sizeable dent, but otherwise ceased his trajectory and rudely introduced him to the floor.

After a moment of trying to catch his breath, Kira finally managed to push himself to his feet.

When he was sure he could stand, the first thing the blond did was send off a special Hell Butterfly reserved for emergencies.

Message sent away, Kira stumbled towards where he had crashed through the first wall, and peered out. The sight made him gasp in horror.

As far as he could see, the entire city was decimated, consumed by fire. Not a single structure remained standing. Once pristine buildings were now blackened skeletons of their former selves. What had been a teeming human civilization only moments ago now resembled Hell on Earth. And there in the distance rose the epicenter of the destruction: a pillar of smoke which looked to be a mile high.

Against the backdrop of a world gone mad, countless newly dead souls began to scream.

Snapped out of his shock, Kira leaped down into the street and pulled his zanpakutō out. He needed to start performing konsō, now.

In normal situations, whole souls did not degenerate into Hollows until at least a few months had passed. Sometimes the process came sooner, others took longer, depending on their emotional and psychological state in death. But here, in this maelstrom of fire, where thousands… no, tens of thousands had all died in an instant, incurring the very pain and despair which created Hollows in the first place, the process would be greatly accelerated. Kira doubted that new Hollows would be born in the next few minutes, but they would certainly appear within weeks or even days as opposed to months.

And of course, the biggest short-term concern was that all these newly dead souls would send a signal to Hollows everywhere of a feast opening. Such an opportunity would also be sure to attract the more powerful Menos.

The first victim he approached was a middle-aged woman, simply standing stock-still in the devastation. There were not even any earthly remains that he could see to mark her passing; merely black ash swirling in the devil's wind.

"What happened?" she asked distantly. "I was on my way to the market, and there was this flash of light, and then…"

"I don't have much time to explain," Kira replied hurriedly, realizing as the words left his mouth that he couldn't explain even if he wanted to. "Just know that you will soon be in a better place."

He then tapped the base of his zanpakutō to her forehead, and rushed off to the next soul.

Many were like the first, their ends having occurred so quickly that they didn't even realize they were dead. A few were not so lucky, writing in the ground in agony as they continued to experience the unholy heat which had killed them in seconds.

And then the Hollows arrived.

Izuru couldn't spare time to think about what just happened or why. His duty as a shinigami took precedent. Individually, most of the enemy were easy enough to dispose of, but there were so many. It became a grim routine, to slice through one Hollow, and immediately battle another one. The creatures were so intent on feasting on the vast number of newly dead souls that Kira was easily able to sneak up on Hollows and kill them before they could put up too much of a fight. But that meant he was forced to watch and do nothing as other helpless souls were set upon and devoured. He was doing his best, but he was just one low-ranking officer against a horde of ravenous monsters.

So it was with great relief that he felt the arrival of the shinigami from a Senkaimon. After finishing up with his current opponent, Kira dashed over to his comrades.

When he approached, the weary death god saw that the person leading the reinforcements was none other than the lieutenant of the Third Division, Iba Chikane. She ignored him at first, barking out commands to her other subordinates to curb the activities of the Hollows.

"Report!" the harsh woman ordered as she finished and faced the lone witness to this devastation.

"Kira Izuru, Fifteenth Seat of the Third Division," he answered as he stood at attention despite his exhaustion.

"What happened here?" Iba demanded. "Why did you wait so long to send word that the city was destroyed?"

"I sent the Hell Butterfly as soon as I could!" Kira protested.

"The humans have alarms when their enemies attack! Are you telling me that you were deaf to those warnings, and didn't realize the trouble you were in until after the city was in flames?"

"The alarms didn't sound! One flyer came and went, and it looked like just a scout! A second one came later, and I thought it was another scout in preparation for invasion, so I was about to send a Hell Butterfly advising reinforcements, but…" Kira trailed off, trying to find a way to put his experience into words.

"But what?" the lieutenant growled impatiently.

"I don't know how else to put it, but one moment, the city was here, and the next, it's as you see it now. Everything was destroyed by an explosion so powerful I thought the captain-commander himself had unleashed his zanpakutō!"

"Impossible, the humans don't have that kind of power," she dismissed his words.

"Then how else to explain this?" he demanded in frustration. "I am not exaggerating when I say this happened in an instant!"

Kira knew he should be concerned about the disrespect and borderline insubordination he was displaying towards his superior, but he was too distraught and exhausted to care.

"You're relieved of active duty," Iba coldly informed him. "Report to the Fourth Division for physical and mental treatment."

"Yes, ma'am," Kira acknowledged curtly. On the one hand, he was spent, and very eager to get away from this pure hell he had been fighting in. On the other hand, it was insulting how the lieutenant didn't believe his words. He supposed it was marginally better than outright accusing him of lying, not to mention Iba was generously overlooking his less than respectful behavior towards her.

Still, there hardly seemed a punishment worse than what he had just gone through all unawares. Around him, the wails of the victims seemed to offer their agreement.

Due to his injuries being light, he was treated by one of the younger healers, a silver-haired and shy woman named Kotetsu Isane.

"You're lucky," Kotetsu informed him as she checked him over, paying close attention to his eyes. "If you hadn't had blood in your eye, you would have been struck completely blind. And even the blind eye could probably regain sight in time."

"I'm not sure if what happened to me could be considered 'lucky,'" Kira replied morosely.

"I heard that it was awful," the medic said. "But maybe that's all the more reason you should find good things when you can."

"There was nothing good in that inferno," the blond officer replied adamantly.

Perhaps his tone was harsher than he intended, for Isane flinched back, but Kira did not have it in him to apologize for barking at her.

She finished her examination soon, and quietly informed him that he seemed healthy enough, but should remain at the Fourth for observation and rest, just in case.

It was about suppertime when Kotetsu gently rapped on the doorway to announce her return.

"Kira-kun, you have visitors," she informed him.

The patient looked up to see Hinamori Momo and Abarai Renji cautiously looking in. He couldn't summon anything more than a nod of acknowledgement at their presence.

"How are you feeling?" the normally cheerful girl inquired in concern as they entered his sickroom.

"Dismal," Kira answered bluntly.

"What you saw was that bad, huh?" Abarai asked.

"Dark. Horrifying. Ghastly," he listed in response. "All that and worse."

Neither of his friends seemed to know how to reply

"So, uh, how's the eye?" the Eleventh man coughed, breaking the silence.

"I can't see anything of it right now, but the healers assure me it'll come back eventually," Kira answered.

"You know, if you're not using that side for now, you could wear an eyepatch," the warrior offered. "It'd make you look pretty badass."

"I'll pass," Kira replied flatly, a response that incurred another awkward silence.

After a few minutes, when it became clear nothing they could say might be of any help, both old classmates took their leave, promising to return later once their own shifts were done. Izuru found himself unwilling to ask if they were assigned to that horrendous cleanup, and dearly hoping for their sakes that was not the case.

It was Kira's fourth day in the healer's division when Captain Unohana herself stopped by and informed him he was cleared to return to non-combat duty.

"Aren't you concerned about my hallucination?" Kira asked darkly.

"It was not hallucination," the captain replied. "We are sure of that now."

"You are?" This admission came as a surprise to her patient. He had been briefly interviewed by some of the Fourth's trauma counsellors as well as skeptical agents of the Second Division regarding his experience. None of them came outright and said it, but Kira got the strong impression they didn't believe a word out of his mouth. "How…?" He stopped in horrified realization. "It happened again."

"Indeed," Unohana nodded sadly. "Yesterday, a shinigami officer assigned to a city on the same island as yourself reported the situation normal, if tense and a possible site for an invasion. Literally minutes after he gave that report, an emergency Hell Butterfly arrived with word that this city had been destroyed in an instant. The officer in question is a veteran of other bombings, and described the devastation as something different than his previous experiences. His account is similar to your story, Kira-kun."

The traumatized survivor could only stare in stunned horror.

"So what now?" he whispered. "If the humans truly are capable of destroying cities in an instant…"

"Our objective has not changed," Unohana replied calmly. "We will continue to help plus souls pass on and purify Hollows; the humans' new weapons simply urge us to be on higher alert and be prepared for more dire invasions than before."

Kira swallowed, trying and failing to banish the horrifying image of the world of the living consumed by fire.

"And Kira-kun," the Fourth's captain brought his attention back, "while you are cleared for non-combat duty, I still want you to come by regularly for check-ups."

"I thought you knew I was not hallucinating."

"Correct, but this simply means that the events you experienced were true, and given your reaction to them, you did not emerge unscathed."

"My injuries weren't that bad," Kira protested.

"Perhaps physically, but your mental health took a heavy toll," Unohana gently told him.

"I'll be fine," he attempted to assure her, and perhaps himself as well.

"In time, you will be, but for now, you need healing," the captain informed him. "So I expect you to come by here once a week for mental evaluation."

"Yes, captain," Kira relented, knowing it was fruitless to disagree.

"Do not be offended, Kira-kun," Unohana placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We are simply concerned about you. You have been hurt in a way that does not mend easily or quickly."

The patient exhaled heavily, and replied with a sincere, "Thank you, Unohana-taichō."

Days passed as the Gotei 13 held its breath and waited for word of another city to meet a sudden and catastrophic end.

Fortunately, they discovered it was for naught. The shinigami on duty in the world of the living learned from newly deceased souls that the war had ended. Apparently the bombs the would-be invaders used to vaporize cities in an instant convinced the natives to surrender to their enemy.

The Gotei 13 did not care about the politics or who won; they were just glad to hear that the war was over, and none more so than Kira.

He thought about the flower of the Third Division, the marigold. When he first transferred, he was puzzled by how a division in the Gotei 13 could take something that signified despair as its symbol.

After witnessing firsthand the devastation of that city, he now knew. Battles were not for glory, as the Eleventh Division boasted. No, they were ugly affairs, to be avoided if they could, and if it was inevitable that combat came, those fights should be ended as quickly as possible. By any means necessary.

When Kira had been first assigned to that city, he had trouble remembering its name. Now, there was nothing he could do to forget Hiroshima.

Author's Note: To be honest, the idea for this story had been in my drafts section for a couple of years, but I wanted to get this finished for the seventieth anniversary.

I always wondered if any of our characters had been present for Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki. I chose Kira because he would have been around the right age, and something traumatic had to have happened to him sometime after the Academy and before the present that caused him to turn so gloomy.

Historical context: the invasion refers to the impending attack by Allied forces on the island of Japan that almost certainly would have occurred were it not for the invention of the atomic bomb. Expected casualties for the invasion and subsequent battles on the island itself ranged from six hundred thousand to over a million. With the Soviet Union just declaring war on Japan, the invasion would have also ended with the defeated nation between split into two, one democratic, one communist, like Germany was after World War II.

After the United States developed the atomic bomb, President Harry S Truman decided to use it as a means to end the war quickly and with comparatively less bloodshed. The Allies had a practice of sending planes over the cities that were potential military targets (including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were both major industrial bases) and dropping fliers. The message in the fliers stated that the war was against the Japanese government, not the Japanese people, and that the Americans had no desire to deliberately inflict civilian casualties. However, bombs do not differentiate between military and civilian targets, so it was in the best interest of the latter to get out of the city while they still could. Many civilians took this advice and evacuated the cities, or if they were unable to leave, they at least sent the children away, similar to what the British did during the Blitz, thus lowering the number of people who would become victims of bombings.

The first plane that Kira heard was the B-29 Straight Flush, which flew in first to determine if the weather over Hiroshima was good enough for the mission. That was 7:31 on the morning of August 6, 1945. The second plane that arrived was the Enola Gay, carrying the atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy." Because of the ammunition shortage in Japan and the expected invasion, the military could not afford to waste their weapons on a single plane believed to be nothing more than reconnaissance. At 8:15 AM, "Little Boy" was dropped, and forty-three seconds later, it detonated. Even with the reduced population, total casualties were over two hundred thousand.

I took guesses as to how the blast would affect shinigami. We've seen how materials such as buildings can be dropped on them and hurt them, so that means that they are not completely immune to effects from the living world. That's why the physical force of the wind was still enough to send Kira flying. The effects of seeing a bright flash of light would remain the same, and they would still be affected by the heat, but have some resilience to the latter, due to spiritual pressure acting as armor. I don't think shinigami can get radiation sickness, because that affects living cells, not spiritual particles.

My thanks to Tomas the Betrayer for being the Beta author to this story.