The days following the battle of the shattered wall, as the assault came to be known, were relatively peaceful. It appeared both sides had to take the time to lick their wounds and regroup after the devastating battle.

Torin, Rida, and Aurora were released from squad 4 shortly after being sent there. Torin, being the fastest of the three, had actually managed to observe most of Hikari's battle, and he retold it to his friends with equal parts awe and horror.

Reconstruction of the wall became a top priority for the Gotei 13, Squads 7 and 12 were both assigned to the duty of repairing the wall. Squad 3, or what remained of it, was ordered to take half their able men from every one of their patrols and assign them to guarding the breach while the other two squads focused on repairing the damage.

Torin stepped into the battlefield of the previous night, and for the first time, he took a good look at the scene of the battle. His knees went weak at what he saw, and he stumbled backwards. Turning away, Torin began to vomit uncontrollably.

Torin thought back to the meeting in which the squad captains had informally gathered to decide how to run damage control while a formal meeting was arranged. As Torin had been leaving Shunsui had pulled him aside.

-back at the meeting-

"You've never seen a real battleground right?" Shunsui asked, his voice unusually grim

Torin shook his head "no, the last war was before my time, 300 years ago we fought the quincies, but I wasn't even born then" he replied.

"You need to take a look at this one then" Shunsui said "let the image burn itself into your memory, it's important you understand the nature of war. You must understand this to understand why it must always be avoided."

"But I know that!" Torin protested "why do I need to learn it?"

"When you've seen the aftermath of this battle, then come to me, and if you still feel the same, tell me then." Shunsui said ominously.

- present-

Torin gasped for breath, he had been throwing up so much he had nothing left in his stomach to lose. "I see… that's what… he meant" he panted as he stood on shaky legs. Torin steeled himself, then turned back to the battleground.

There were bodies everywhere, the ground was littered with broken blades and smoking craters. Some of these craters had dark red puddles at the bottom which Torin knew was blood. The stench of death hung heavy in the air.
Torin's mind shut down at the sight of the entire battlefield before him. Instead it forced him to look at smaller parts of the nightmare. Torin walked trhough the mounds of the dead, seeing many members of his squad, all of which he knew by name.

There was Mitsune, a fiery red haired woman with the personality to match, and Heset, her loving fiancée, they were set to be married in a week, then they were going to be given a permanent leave of absence so that they could start a family. Now that would never happen.

Torin saw Haku and Maku, the identical twins, they were diehard pranksters, and had welcomed Torin to the division with a stinkbomb tripwire. He smiled at the memory of that, but it was gone seconds later. They had been much admired for their tag team zanpakto, but that hadn't saved the,. They died together, surrounded by enemies.

Torin continued on, seeing each and every casualty. There were lovers, brothers, couples, even totally unrelated people who had fought to save each other and died knowing they had failed. There were individuals who had died in a blaze of glory, and others who had died with a blade to the back. Some died quickly, others died a slow painful death, their bodies mutilated or burned almost beyond recognition.

Torin's mind soon couldn't even handle these individual scenarios. It simply started compiling a list of the dead, gathering names like a machine.

"Miku, Hanagichi, Chouza" Torin thought as he mindlessly stumbled along "Keichi, Shiza, Makoto"

Torin walked about an hour before reaching the end of the bodies belonging to his squadmates. Torin was about to collapse, when he heard a weak voice cry out "help…"

Torin rushed over and threw aside a piece of rubble, beneath it was a man whose body had been half crushed.

"Mori!" Torin exclaimed

"Ca… captain" Mori coughed "please… help me…"

"Don't worry, I'll get you to the 4th, Captain Unohana can patch this right up" Torin said, but he knew all too well that it was far too late for that. Maybe, just maybe if Unohana had been on scene at the moment of the injury, she could've fixed it. Mori had been losing blood steadily all night, the rock that had crushed him had slowed the process, but the damage was done.

"good… I don't… want to die… not yet… I wanted to… see the world you… told me about" Mori wheezed "I'm glad… I can get to…"

With that, Mori's head fell back and his eyes glazed over, he had died.
Torin sank to his knees, overcome by emotion. "What… what is all this?" Torin asked as he began to shake uncontrollably. "What did I accomplish? Why did I fight so hard? Despite everything… so much pain… so much anguish… death… people crippled beyond recognition"

Torin couldn't bear it anymore, he threw his head back and screamed "WHAT IS THIS!?"

"This is war" Shunsui said as he appeared beside Torin.

"Captain Shunsui" Torin said in surprise

"This scene here… it is the true nature of war" Shunsui said "do you understand now?"

Torin shook his head "this… this can't be understood… it defies comprehension, laughs at reason, and spits in the face of common sense" he said.

Shunsui nodded "that is the correct answer" he said "it is those who think they understand who are the most ignorant of the truth"

Torin stood again, albeit weakly. "I see" he said "and you came to explain this to me, thank you"

Shunsui smiled grimly, he had been right about Torin after all, the boy was truly was wise beyond his years. Still he wondered though, was he prepared to face the source of this war?

"You should know one more thing" Shunsui said "Crisis revels in what you see here. He is unique amongst arrancar, he doesn't feed on other hollows, he feeds on negative emotions like fear and pain, they make him stronger. And he will not rest until the entirety of the Soul Society is like this battleground"

Torin stiffened "why tell me this?" he asked

"Because amongst all of us, you are the one with the greatest chance of stopping him" Shunsui replied.

Torin's eyes widened, he tried to say something, but Shunsui continued.

"Of course, Yama-ji, Jushiro, and I will do all we can as well" Shunsui said, his usual cheerful demeanor returning "So I doubt we'll need you to save the day."

Torin sensed that Shunsui was done being serious and relaxed a bit, he had learned a valuable lesson, now it was time to move on. "What, YOU'LL fight? But Shunsui, wouldn't you rather just drink and take a nap?"

Shunsui smiled at the young captain, he was mature indeed "Yare yare, you might be right about that" he said "but for now let's go, there's that captain's meeting soon, Yama-ji will be upset if we're late"

Torin shuddered "wouldn't want to make HIM upset, that's for sure" he said, and the two captains left for the meeting with a shunpo