Crimson Veil

**an article prescribed by Sekiro of the mist and Lockdown118.**

**Date Started:** March 7 2023
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Users Involved:** User:Lockdown199, User:Sekiro of the mist
**Setting:** soul society
**Characters Involved**: Genji Haku, Hajime Otani

## Division 11 Is The Best

Hajime was sitting the roof of the division 11 bunker silently thinking to himself how he was lucky he passed the exam and got into one of the best divisions, he he got up and flipped down to the ground where he went inside the division 11 building and at there waiting for a fight to inevitably come so he can watch.

Heavy footsteps and shouts echoed through the halls, something that anywhere else in the Seireitei, would be cause for alarm. However here in the 11th, It was as natural as the sound of birds chirping. As the boy gets closer to the the barracks sparring room, they roar with intensity.

What he found was one shinigami pinned on the floor with a wooden Tanto across his neck, While the holder of the short weapon was sitting casually on top of the fallen member and looking bored out of his mind.

"Auaaa" A loud sigh escaped Genji's mouth, Looking down at the shinigami he had just beat in a sparring match he couldn't help but be let down. "Now this is embarrassing, How's a kid i fought in the past better than ya, Ehhhh." he said.

"Cut em some slack, The kids next in line to be captain of his division," one of the other officers responded. referencing the fact that the *kid* everyone was talking about, was none other than the Current lieutenant of the 10th, Ryujin Suiiki.

Genji laughed, "Guess that means our mission is to beat a kid before we can be of use to the Zaraki." Saying this the entire room burst into laughter. A roaring concession of carefree joy that was almost as much of a tradition among their corpse as practicing Zanjustu.

Hajime laughs with the crowd, he gets up and gets in line to fight, he knows that if Genji can beat a lieutenant he can beat him too but he doesn’t care and just wants a fight.

He picks up a wooden sword and walks into the ring and stares at Genji “ok I want a fight too, I’ll be your next opponent” and he gets into a battle stance.

Looking over at the new face. Genji raises an eyebrow, Quickly getting up and showing his last opponent respect. He Walks over to the center of the mat, "New guy I'm guessin, Whats ya name?" He ask while pulling a second Tanto out from behind his hip. as he takes up a stance similar to hakuda users, a move that takes anyone who hasn't witnessed his fighting style by surprise.

the boy smirked “I’m Hajime, Hajime Otani I have spent 10 years here in the academy, I’m currently seat 20, since I barely pasted the final exam, but I’ve gotten a lot stronger since then, I’m probably at 15 or 14 seat by now just haven’t had the chance to prove myself” after this long speech he shunpos forward and brings the sword down on his opponent.

as he came in close, Hamime would notice that Genji's eyes tracked his every movement. A smile crept on his face as the blade was inches from his face. Then, faster than the boys shunpo, he weaved forward, bringing up one of his tanto to parry the strike. The strength of this alone almost stopped the blade. And as it did Genji zoomed inward, flipping his other sword into the reverse grip before hooking it around Hajime's neck. He then sent his foot forward and tripped the boy, once again following the movement, however this time he brought the bottom of the blade down on the back of his head in a light *tap*.

The sequence only took seconds, however it was too fast for the boy to react. "Hate to break it to ya kid, but this ain't the academy, we ain't so soft on the uptake in the 11th." Saying this he stepped away from Hajime allowing him to catch his bearings before continuing.

Hajime lay there in awe “t-thank you, now I know how far I have to go” Hajime being unable to stand rolled out of the ring and climbed up on a bench, “I will surpass you Genji, just wait I’ll unlock my Shikai and be the strongest”

"I aint where you should set your bar. Aim higher. We are the 11th Division, Aka the best damn division." With that the barracks roared with exited shouts of agreement. All of them their shared that same sentiment, after all that's why they joined, the 11th was undoubtedly the best division for those who not only wanted a fight but also the comradery that came with it. They followed a long line of tradition and held principles that set the bar for the rest of the Gotei as far as a solider is concerned.

Hajime smiled “don’t worry I’m just setting my first target, once I’m pass you I’ll go for the lieutenant, after that the captain,…. After that maybe even the 1st division captain”, with this lots of people cheer other gasp, Hajime gets up holding his head “once I get a mission I’ll prove that I’m stronger then a 20th seat”.

Genji acknowledged his words but didn't respond. Even if he had wanted to there was no time. Because in the midst of their celebration, the door slammed open, revealing a large burly man. **"Genji! You got an assignment."** the man bellowed.

Of course no one was alarmed by this, though Genji in particular raised an eyebrow and he walked over to the guy and leaned in. the man told him the contents of the mission while remaining out of earshot from the rest. It didn't take long before Genji nodded and walked over to Hajime.

"Yo Hajime, you ever been to the world of the living?"

## Hollows at Mardi gras

On the streets of New Orleans, two men stood out from the numerous partying thanks to the festival. The constant sounds of trumpets and music, the lovely smell of food, all of it came together as the city celebrated Like no one could stop them.

Genji purchased a bowl of cajun crawfish and began chomping away at it. He is seen in his Gigai, as he walks over Hajime before offering him some. "Hot as hell out here huh," He says joking about the weather. Despite seeming carefree. He keeps his eyes peeled for any odd activity.

"I'm sure I ain't gotta remind you why we're here right?"

Hajime takes the bowl and speaks while eating “ahhh yeah something about hollows, you didn’t tell me all the details yet, also I never used a Gigai this feels weird” Hajime finishes the bowl of crawfish and rests his arms behind his head

"No one gets used to it, anyways. Soul society's been getting reports of discrete hollow activity. They sent us undercover to inspect the area of concern and root them out." As they walked Genji's eyes calmly darted from place to place, inspecting several figures and buildings they could pick out of the crowd.

Hajime notices Genji’s eye movements “oh we’re doing a scout mission, cool well I’m not really perceptive but I’ll try to keep a eye out for odd stuff” Hajime looks around for suspicious things.

The more he looked around, the more Genji seemed to morph into hunter looking for prey. "That's one way of looking at it. I prefer so see it like seek and destroy"

Not too far away from them a figure loomed in the distance. At first it looked small but, the more it came into view, it grew in size to be gargantuan in size. Its eyes glowed like pearls but the rest of its body was obscured in shadows. The figure then turned and disappeared, not alerting the two shinigami of its presence. But now it was on the hunt, just as they had been. Unfortunate for them. Only one party new what they where hunting.

Hajime looks around seeing nothing out of the ordinary “I’ve never been in the living world before, this is cool so much stuff, I wonder what I did when I was alive”. Hajime looks around “I feel like if a hollow was here we’d know, there pretty recognisable and we could feel there spirit pressure”.

Genji pulls out what looks like a phone. And spends a few moments looking at it, whatever he seemed be looking for though, he obviously didn't find it. smacking his teeth, Genji looked over at the younger shinigami. "Tell you what, How about we split up" ill take the broad area while you stay here on the streets."

Though He didn't wait for Hajime's response. In fact before the kid could respond he took off down an alley leaving him to his own devices

Hajime stood there for a while “……………Bye?, I’m gonna eat some food” Hajime goes and buys for food leaving Genji to go do the work, Hajime goes to a ramen shop and checks his pockets “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Genji has all the money, how am I going to get food now” Hajime looks around “this is a very bad idea” Hajime shunpos around faster then humans can see and steals money from wallets “I’m a bad person, but it’s for a good cause” Hajime goes back to the ramen shop and buys three bowls eating them all in ten seconds flat. “That was delicious, wonder what Genji’s doing”.

Footsteps echoed as the sound bounced off of the buildings in the dark alley. Covered by darkness, Genji ran though the ally. A homeless man crept out from behind a dumpster, rubbing his eyes as he had just woken up from sleep. The old man looked around before seeing Genji slowly shrinking as the distance between them became greater. The man tried to get up and chase after the man hoping he could get a fix. But without him even taking three steps he sees the mans body crumble to the floor. It horrified the homeless man and caused him to scream and runaway in fear.

Now back in his true body, Genji stepped on the air as he vanished from the regular folds of reality that humans knew. Quickly his body flickered out of existence before it appeared leagues away from his last position. Hopping from place to place Genji cleared multiple city blocks in the span of a minute, no matter where he went though he couldn't find any clues to hollow activity. It didn't sit right with him, for the city to be in such a bustle as it was hollows wouldn't be able to resist. IT wasn't like them to hide and wait. That took levels of sentience that their kind wasn't known to have.

Unless.

A couple of paces away from him the shadow from earlier crept its way into the light. Genji's was still none the wiser, looking around for something that wasn't there. The shadow began to move slowly from place to place, as as it did it picked up speed. Quickly it closed the gap between them without even alerting the shinigami of its existence.

It began as rustle, Genji turned his head abruptly, but he found nothing. The sound grew though, in fact it changed. Was it far or close, he couldnt tell. It reminded him of watching The high seated officers within the soul society fight. They would dart in and out of existence and had such control over their spiritual energy you could never tell their next move. But right now he shouldn't have had that same feeling. So why did he, once again he was pulled back into the present as the shadow got closer. But it moved so fast he couldn't even keep up with it. Genji turned his head and his eyes widened in an instant. The reflection of a monster grew in the blacks of his eyes as the shadow loomed over him.

*Crash*

About 30 minutes before this Hajime feels Genji’s spirit pressure rise and looks around for him, “oh shoot he might be in trouble” Hajime runs over to a ally breaks out of his gigai and shunpos over to Genji’s spirit pressure and lifts up a car “I feel like something is there, I don’t sense any other spirit pressure but there definitely is something there with him” Hajime arrives where Genji is and stands there in the air throwing the car at the monster before it hits Genji “ I did it Genji I saved you”

The car imploded right on contact. Sending debris and ash everywhere in the vicinity, a display which looked like fireworks to the humans below. Many of them looked up in awe as multiple others followed in concession. Genji himself looked bewildered as the explosion dissipated. Just a second ago he could've sworn something was there attacking him, So where was it.

Looking around Genji reached behind him and placed both of his hands on his zanpakuto. Then out of nowhere his face distorted. Then his body, followed by his limbs. Faster than either of their eyes could see. Genji was shot towards the side, before crashing into a building.

Emerging from the shadows, two glowing eyes locked onto Hajime and stared into the boys soul. The creature they belonged to slowly walked out into view, revealing itself to be a demonic looking hollow. It was lined with several thick spines and had a tail that looked like a club. A hollow. It made no sense, for a hollow to be able to mask itself so well that even now neither of them where able to sense its spiritual energy whatsoever. And as it stalked forward the younger shinigami would be struck by a sense of fear that would overwhelm all except the senior officers of the gotei.

”WHAT THE HELL, how is this hollow this strong but able to hide this spirit pressure” Hajime dashed at the hollow punching at quickly at it the hollow but it was able to easily move out of the way “It’s so fast, I can beat it with speed, I must use my strength” Hajime shunpos to Genji helps him up and says “I’m really slow, I’m more of a strength and sword fighting focused guy, I feel like your going to have to deal with this things speed so I can hit it”

Genji was bleeding just from being side charged by the hollow. Thankfully it was nowhere critical, Still being caught of guard like that didn't bode well. He grimaced as weight returned to his body, right in the spot he got hit. Still Genji pressed on without any complaints. "It don't make sense but who cares." as he spoke The shinigami reached behind him before flashing two twin tanto blades. With them a smile grew onto his face

A small aura of gold began to emit off of his body, it illuminated the shinigami in a light that made him look like a miniature dying star. "okay, Lets have some fun.**Coil, Shi No Dira"**

The blades exploded with golden light as Genji poured his Reastu into them. Causing them to morph in his hands and grow exponentially in size. They also morphed in shape, becoming Cylindrical in shape, before taking on the diamond form of a head. As the golden light dispersed, It revealed an obsidian snake coiled around Genji as the man once again reached for his back and pulled out two tanto that where almost identical his zanpakuto.

Genji might have been a senior officer, but he was no lieutenant, nor was he anywhere near the level of captaincy. And thanks to that he could enter the world of the living without any limiters placed on him through Gentei Rein, Which meant he could turn the dial to 11 right from the get-go.

Meanwhile the hollow looked on with a menacing glare. It showed no signs of fear even with The shinigami it had previously attacked gaining a boost in spiritual energy. To it, they where flies, For that reason it saw no significance in their existence besides getting rid of them.

”A Shikai, you have a Shikai, well now we’ll wipe it out no problem” Hajime takes out his short sword and gets into a fighting stance, “on your call Genji” Hajime waits for Genijs next move.

Genji almost barked back in retort, "DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THAT THING. We have a chance, not the upper hand! Shikai dont't mean a thing if the opponent is as strong as this thing. We are not Lieutenants or captains. I already got hurt what makes you think it cant do it again! Like i said before, your not in the academy anymore. Chances are either you complete the mission or your dead. Do not make the same mistake twice hajime!"

With that Genji sprung forward, With shi no dira in tow. The snake wrapped itself around genji to provide the shinigami protection as they got in close. Genji then poured his Reiastu down into the tanto until they emitted a short light. The shinigami then brought them forward in a swing that crossed strait onto the path of the hollow. Coincidentally, the snake moved its body away from Genji's sword path. Just then a bright slash appeared in the air headed strait to the hollow.

Snapping its head back, the hollow bawled at a pitch that rung out into the surrounding skyscrapers, the buildings hailed in response, Glass shattered all through the city block, electronics went haywire. It was like the beast was yelling out a battle cry that shattered spirits.

Moving forward, it launched itself strait toward the slash, One of its limbs raises in the air before a pulsing red aura burst forward, Drooping around the holllows shape like a foggy pool of blood. It then slashed forward, causing a three pronged tear in the world, Genji's slash was not only stopped dead in its tracks, but torn into shreds like it was twain. The hollow then vaulted in the air, clearing genji and aiming to treat Hajime to the same fate as the other shinigami's attack.

”OH SHIT” Hajime tries to Shunpo away but the hollow catches up and slashes at Hajime who tries to defend with his sword, Hajime get flung into the ground making a crater.

”owwwwwwww” Hajime sat in the crater in pain, He looked over to his sword and saw it shattered into pieces with some pieces in his own skin, “oh shimata, my sword is broken” Hajime slowly stood up from the crater holding his bleeding stomach, Hajime shouts to Genji “HEY MY SWORD IS BROKEN, SHOULD I RETREAT OR KEEP FIGHTING”.