It took all of Hisako's willpower to avoid breaking down from the brutal heat, her encounter with Shigeru, and the growing certainty that the rest of her family would never be found. She didn't want to remain in a world capable of wreaking such boundless cruelty, which led her to wonder whether dying would really be so bad. Wherever Eiko and the others were, she wished to go there too, if only to be free from this pain and hopelessness.

However, Hisako knew that doing so would leave her father without any surviving children, and she couldn't imagine how much more wretched that existence would be. So, for his sake, she tried to suppress her morbid urge and focus on cooking rice over the fire that he had lit with one of the matches from a soldier outside the morgue.

The smoke and intense glare of the flames stung her already dry eyes, but she persisted. Such was her clouded mind that she didn't notice her father had stood up until his hoarse voice called her name. "Hisako, look over there! Is that..."

"Huh?" Hisako raised her head and turned to face in the direction he was pointing. A small figure could be seen in the distance, shuffling towards them. She blinked, then managed to discern that the figure was a young boy whose tanned skin and heavy-lidded eyes were as familiar as the back of her hand.

"Osamu?" she uttered, finding the sound of her little brother's name strange after so long.

Osamu's despondent eyes widened in recognition before he half-ran and half-limped off the road. "Hisako! Papa!"

"Son!" Their father opened his arms to wrap the boy in a hug. The sight was enough to bring tears to Hisako's eyes, and she extended her hand, wanting to embrace her brother as well. "Where you have been? Where are your mother and sisters?"

"By the river," Osamu replied as Hisako's hopes lifted. "I couldn't find Mama, Setsu, and Eiko. I thought they were with you."

Hisako's heart sank while her father shut his eyes for a moment. "That's all right. We'll keep searching, but what matters is that you're here now." He let go of Osamu and looked down at the boy's blistered and scarred legs. "You're not hurting, are you?"

Osamu shook his head. "Not as much as before. The other children helped me."

At those words, Hisako finally lost her composure and rushed forward to throw her arms around Osamu. He grunted in surprise as she allowed herself to cry at long last. "Don't you ever leave my sight again. Do you hear?"

******

The months following the end of the war passed by at a slow and torturous pace. Kenji never returned home, and the discovery of their mother and Setsu's bodies led to a solemn funeral near the wreckage that had once been their house. Hisako became Osamu's caregiver and began to come to terms with the likelihood that her older brother had perished in battle and Eiko would never be found.

Hisako spent many nights in bed with tears streaming down her face before morning came and she would have to rise to prepare breakfast. Their father went to work helping to rebuild the city while she kept Osamu out of trouble until he was able to return to school.

They fell on hard times again a year later, and Hisako made the difficult choice of prostituting herself in the hope of improving her family's situation. The American soldiers that were stationed in the city seemed quite fond of local women like her, and this would have continued for months if it weren't for her father finding out. After overcoming his shock and anger, he'd thrown himself on the floor to plead for her to stop, then promised that he alone would be responsible for her and Osamu's well-being.

At the time, Hisako had accepted out of relief, but the overwork eventually took a toll on their father. He fell ill and began to cough up blood, causing her to fear that the same would happen to her. She took him to a doctor, who then directed them to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, where the way he was treated like a specimen to be studied caused her to seethe in rage.

He fought against his illness for almost three years before finally reaching a point of no recovery and passing away in the summer of 1950. Hisako and Osamu had his ashes buried alongside those of their mother and Setsu, beneath the gravestone that also bore the names of Kenji and Eiko.

As the sun set, the two siblings trudged home hand in hand, both of them weighed down by grief and knowing that while they were in good health now, the effects of the bomb could very well become apparent in their bodies and seal their fates when they least expected it.

******

By miracle, the two of them remained alive for the entirety of the following year, and then more until a whole decade had passed since the bombing. The city continued to be rebuilt as Osamu finished his schooling and vowed to become a doctor, while Hisako found herself bonding with their new neighbor Etsuji and considering marriage at long last.

Nevertheless, her fear of giving birth to sickly children persisted until Osamu returned from his medical training in Kyoto and spent weeks convincing her that giving up now would be an act of defeat after everything that had happened.

"We have to create a legacy," he eventually told her. "If we don't, nobody will remember our stories and tragedy may just repeat itself. Take it from this medical student."

Hisako took those words to heart and settled down with Etsuji to start a family. The void in her heart that stemmed from Osamu's long absences was soon filled to a degree by her newborn daughter Chiharu, who she hoped would grow up healthy and never know the pain she'd felt from losing almost everyone dear to her.

One day she would be ready to leave this world for good, but now all Hisako wanted was to remain alive for the sake of those who were left.