NOTE: Some parts of the timeline may be jumbled in no particular order. It depends on the effect I'm trying to achieve by jumbling them. Good luck and enjoy.

The Shifting Age (Prologue)

by Deep Color

'Project:Little Boy' Part 1

August 6, 1945

Tsuzuki checked his watch --- 8:55 PM --- and shivered at the recollection of this morning's meeting. Earlier, Iwada, or Kicchan as he liked to call the man, had talked to him in private. It was something about… the perfect opportunity, was it? He couldn't remember much; the shock from the news of the mission was too strong at that time, it blurred almost everything of the succeeding five hours.

August 3, 1945 (8:55 AM)

An overhead projector flashed three distinct words across the white screen. Three words that rang no bells for any of the eighteen Shinigami present in the Castle of Candles' spacious meeting room. It read:

Project: Little Boy

A distinct air of mixed derision and tension filled the room as soon as the words were seen.

"They bring us all the way here to capture a boy!" a tawny-haired, built man disbelievingly whispered to his partner who sat next to him—a rather lanky man with beady black eyes. He hit his own forehead with the balls of his palms in utter mockery. He caught Tatsumi frowning at his behavior.

"And a little one at that…" the partner said, barely controlling his rude laughter.

Across the long, rectangular meeting table stood Chief Hanagawa, the Summons Division head. He made as if clearing his throat, subtly implying what did not need words, dead serious in his expressions as he proceeded to explain the major task to the division Shinigami.

"Project: Little Boy, is probably the biggest 'clean-up' we'll be doing in the history of the world," he began sternly. "Nagano, have you noticed anything special with the people in this meeting?" he asked, his eyes locked on a dark-haired Shinigami by the corner.

The dark-haired man shrugged, wondering why there was a need to state the obvious. "Why, we're the Summons Division, Sir. Meifu's 18 best Shinigami, working in nine pairs to patch up what other Cho's have had trouble with," he answered promptly.

Chief Hanagawa straightened up and gave Nagano a slight nod to acknowledge his answer. "The Summons Division is a collection of Meifu's best Shinigami; therefore, we are leading the mission. The nine Shinigami pairs are to be anchored around the target vicinity—Hiroshima and its neighbors—from the city itself to as far as one kilometer around it, at at least a hundred meters' interval from the next pair." On the white board behind the OHP screen, Chief Hanagawa drew a vague circle in reference to Hiroshima.

To illustrate, he drew nine stars in and around the circle, then proceeded on to placing dots around and in between the nine stars. "These dots are where all the other Shinigami are supposed to be stationed—behind the Summons Division and in the farther outskirts of the area. We are getting all of Japan's Shinigami to help in this mission. A matter of national concern, if I may say so."

No one dared ask a question about the missing plot of the Project. Tsuzuki Asato could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing, his mind going haywire from all the questions it was asking itself.

Just how big is this mission to require the hands of all of Japan's Shinigami?

Sitting quietly, his partner, Tatsumi Seiichiro could only wait for more details. The Chief did not seem to want to spill the beans on the real matter any time soon.

When it was time for location assignments, the two Taisen-Cho Shinigami were first in the list, "Tsuzuki and Tatsumi --- Zakoba-Cho, around 600 meters from the bridge in Hiroshima river---" Tatsumi bent his head down to scribble this in his notebook.

The Chief's voice hung around in the stillness in the room as he designated each of the nine pairs in detail. "Konoe and I are to be stationed at the market, 1.2 km away; Nanase-kun and Miyuki-san, the bank of Hiroshima river, 1 km from the center of the city..." he went on. When he was down to the last pair, he shot Meifu's best pair a meaningful and trustful look. "Lastly, Iwada and Kasano --- The Bank of Hiroshima, Hiroshima City."

Tsuzuki strongly recalled, how it seemed that not one dead soul in the room knew what to make out of their assignments, or whether being assigned to a spot close to Hiroshima was a good or bad thing. Still, he found himself being pretty neutral about the whole thing up until…

Just when the confusion was getting unbearable, the Chief tucked his glasses safely inside his breast pocket, patting it several times before clearing his throat to finally speak.

"As you all know, it is tradition in the world of the dead to allow a soul to say a few last words before its judgment. Several people have leaked vital information to us through this. Apparently, they were killed for posing a threat to leak information on government plans. This all happened halfway around the world in the United States, but the information concerns us most especially," he paused, waiting for the rest of the room as they tried to put two and two together.

"There are bombing plans on Hiroshima. Atomic bombing plans, I must specify—a gun-type uranium A-bomb nicknamed the 'Little Boy'," still, not a single hair from anyone's head had stirred in the dead stillness of the room.

"It is slated---" he paused, seemingly not ready to believe his next words, "---August 6, 1945. Three days away from today."

All Tatsumi could remember was hearing someone exclaiming "Holy shit!" (probably the idiots from a while ago) and his own heart feeling like it was strangling itself on his arteries. It needed no genius to figure that all members of the audience were feeling a fear that the dead were never supposed to feel, now that they were dead.

"Now, one of these witnesses was a half-Japanese who worked for the American military before he died, David Masamoto, who has recently become Shinigami for the Hawaiian division of the American Bureau," Hanagawa continued. "He told the American Death Bureau to warn Japan about the American military plans to drop "Little Boy" in Hiroshima City, if only for the area of our expertise to touch. Of course, we can never meddle with the affairs of the living, and so our task is to capture all souls of the dead there."

In one heavy sigh, he collected himself and went on. "Being veteran Shinigami, I expect you all to maintain professional distance while completing this mission." To that, a few Shinigami nodded, while a few, like Tsuzuki, were finding it difficult to stay calm, his mind going wild with the prospect of cleaning up a to-be murdered city.

Tsuzuki glanced to his right—his blonde seatmate was doing an awful job at hiding his disappointment as well, having brought his shock out on a piece of paper and a battered pen, now suffering the man's death grip. To his left, there was Tatsumi, who had looked down on his notebook, seemingly finding the neat writings there very interesting. Across the table from him, Tsuzuki spotted a curly-haired woman, chewing on her lower lip; her chest rising and falling a little heavier than it normally took a dead person to breathe.

The Chief cleared his throat once more, finding it rather difficult to speak in a neutral tone, but succeeding, although miserably so. "You must have it by heart that a soul does not leave the body in 24 hours maximum. That is the time limit we are setting for you to capture all the dead souls. Sudden deaths often cause the souls to believe that they are still alive, and therefore find a strong attachment to Chijou, the world of the living—they will be harder to catch. More so after 24 hours, when, in a lengthened hiatus from death to the time of judgment, a spirit becomes stronger, having dwelled on its own long enough to accumulate enough energy to compensate for the body it has lost. Again, they will be harder to capture, especially since we are talking about thousands upon thousands of souls here…"

Tsuzuki thought it was kind of amusing, how many kinds of silence the room had experienced in just that one meeting. There was first the silence of ignorance, silence of anticipation for the news, and then there was a wave of great fear silencing the slightest of whispers. In the end, there was only the silence of anguish and hearts being torn apart by merely two words… Little Boy.

In Meifu, it was rare for anyone to be touchy for deaths other than their own at all, since it was the subject of their job as 'gods of death', after all. Tsuzuki, however, was always of the rare kind.

Noiselessly enough for anyone who wasn't looking to miss, Tsuzuki stood up from his seat to slam his fists weakly on the table. It startled everyone in the room enough to release the tears of shock they were holding back on a while earlier, especially for the female Shinigami in the room. "So… we're just going to stand there and watch and wait for all those people to die, Hanagawa-Kacho?"

Of course Tsuzuki has a reason to be angry, Tatsumi kept convincing himself. He didn't want to be responsible for his senior's actions later on, having people ogle him and whisper murmurs of him being the psycho's partner and all. He didn't even dare look up to meet anyone's eyes right now.

"Tsuzuki is right, Hanagawa-Kacho, aren't we supposed to be a little smarter than that?" Iwada Kinichiro was someone the whole of Meifu easily considered the best Shinigami – in terms of power, intellect, and ability to command respect. And when he had his serious opinion on something, the world always stopped to listen.

Even the Chief felt some sort of incredible respect bordering to fear of the man. "I agree, Iwada-san, but it is has always been in the Kiseki that on that fateful day, thousands will die. We cannot change or manipulate the Kiseki for our human desires of… saving people. We aren't human any longer."

"Surely we can change it this time… We can… pretend to be demons and scare people away from Hiroshima for a while. Or create a barrier over the entire city, not just on ourselves! We may not be able stop the explosion, but we can cushion it. Do you understand? There are so many things we can do to—"

A hand grabbed Iwada's wrist to stop him. Kasano shot his partner a look so intense, one would have thought they were talking through the eyes. And true enough, Kasano and Iwada were renowned telepaths. Kasano then spoke to clear the issue for everyone else who couldn't hear telepathic messages. "Contrary to popular belief, the names in the Kiseki appear only three days before the time of death; this is only to foretell events written down in Destiny. In essence, Kiseki is Destiny. We, as workers of Meifu, are given the privilege to have a quick glimpse into what will be, but only for the reason that our line of work is based on this information of deaths. This is why we cannot do anything, just as Hanagawa-Kacho says. We were only told about this project now because of this reason, isn't it, Kacho?"

"I'm afraid that is correct, Kasano-san. Thousands upon thousands of names appeared on the Kiseki just this morning—which led us to think that the bombing will take place exactly 72 hours, or exactly three days, from when the first batch of names appeared—around 8 AM of August 6th."

The mere shock of the news brought tears to Tsuzuki's eyes without him even noticing them. They were brought to his attention only when they reached his lips and he tasted salt, and at that time, he felt like he could die a second death. He buried his face in his hands and muttered something that sounded like, "No way…"

Tatsumi badly wanted to do something, anything for his soft-hearted partner. He stared at the back of his hand that rested on the meeting table, and was momentarily thankful for the long sleeves of his suit for it covered the goosebumps forming right under the cloth. With the news he just heard, the room suddenly felt a few degrees cooler.

"Be at your posts at early dawn of the 6th and set up more than the usual amount of barriers for your own safety. You are required to dedicate at least 60 of your energy to your barriers. We can't risk losing any one of you."

"Atomic bombs are the strongest explosives ever invented. Sadly, Fuda magic will and can never do the job. I know you all have powers other than and stronger than Fuda, so feel free to use them. I trust that you now understand why I call on the Summons Division to take care of Hiroshima. There are, of course, other stronger Shinigami than some of you here, but your first-rate spiritual powers and stamina can best handle the crucial region of the bombing. Do not shame our Division."

---

Ten years ago, Tsuzuki would have found this pretty easy to handle, what with his partner at that time, too. Now, it was just spelling trouble before his eyes. It had crossed his mind that there would be no doubt that some Shinigami would find that retiring after this mission would be a good idea. And he will be left alone again…

His new partner, Tatsumi, wasn't really making things easier as well. Though already almost 3 years his partner, he was always aloof and detached when he needed him. And he quite liked it that way, too. This way, there would be no attachments of any sort.

But there were times when the blue-eyed Shinigami would go out of his way to do him little but meaningful gestures of that spoke so well of how he felt. Tsuzuki found that he hated the times when he would catch the man staring at him from behind those squared spectacles, a small smile playing on his lips.

Tsuzuki couldn't stand the thought that he was beginning to affect this man too.

If only he could, he wished he wasn't so friendly to people…

And in the morning, he made a mental note, he would make sure to fix that.

-----

"Tsuzuki-san, have you finished the line-up of events in the case we did on Mr. Lee? I need to know the date and time of when we went to go see his daughter… I mean, the eldest daughter, not the youngest, please—" Tatsumi took a glance at his partner who was on the desk next to his and almost laughed, seeing the man silently dozing off in an upright position.

He checked the clock. It was already 9 in the evening, and they were probably the only two people left in the building. He had insisted earlier that Tsuzuki stay overtime to finally finish their overdue reports on last week's cases so that they'd be clear for the Little Boy.

"I guess 'this can wait until tomorrow,' right?" Tatsumi smiled as he stood, reaching to shake his partner awake. He stopped just as his hand reached Tsuzuki's shoulder. "Maybe not," he said to himself.

"Tatsumiii…" the owner of the name found it amusing that Tsuzuki always called him in the fashion of a plea. "Are we done yet?" Tsuzuki opened his eyes half-heartedly, closing them again when they saw that Tatsumi shook his head. "Can't work… Too sleepy… Baked a cake until 3 last night," his neck muscles gave way and he lapsed on his desk, sleeping.

"No, you can't sleep there; you might drool on the documents… Come on up, we'll go to the sofa. You can sleep there until I'm done and we can go home." Surprisingly enough, Tsuzuki followed and let his partner lead him to the cheap office couch near the door. Tatsumi smiled at the recollection of when Tsuzuki got to work this morning, right before the meeting, giving everyone he knew a slice of the too-salty cake he said he'd bake himself the previous night.

When Tsuzuki was down and lying on the couch that was too short for him, he yawned, rendering him a little more awake than earlier. He cleared his eyes of the tears that formed there when he yawned, and took a moment to look at the blue-eyed partner of his. He wrinkled his nose weakly, "I don't… like you very much… you know," he said, knowing full well that his statement had sounded bad, but nevertheless using his sleepiness as an excuse to sound drunk and out of himself. "Always unhappy."

Tatsumi sighed through his nostrils in surrender to his captivating partner as a little smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Nothing to be happy about after dying, Tsuzuki-san, that's all," Tatsumi answered plainly. He got up and went back to his desk, finishing whatever work Tsuzuki had left behind.

/to be continued

Please review, even just to acknowledge that you've read up til this point. It will mean so much to me…