For the 1999 Action RPG, see VideoGame.Revenant.
A Bleach fanfic done by Serocco and Sledgesaul, taking place after the end of the Winter War against Sosuke Aizen and the Espada. Taking place as an alternate continuity from the still-ongoing series, it starts off with reintroducing the main gang, going about their daily lives and meeting newer buddies in the process, before things start taking a more dramatic route. Structured in a similar manner to a western animated series, with each chapter being as long as a single episode. Heavily detailed in its writing, for good or ill, it gives minor characters more active roles in the story, expands on some of the series' lore and adds several new layers to the characters in question, while attempting to wrap up several plot holes the real series left off on. It combines aspects and plot points from the original series' lore, from the movies to games, fillers and the manga, combining each into a traditional storyline, where readers are collecting pieces of a story, but the more you investigate and explore these themes, the more the plot changes as you find things out. The ambiguity of the Shinigami and the issues with Hollows in general are darkened upon and detailed further. As minor characters grow more prominent, the standout examples are Senna Kisaroku and Homura Shizuku, who struggle with scattered memories of their past lives, but whereas the latter manages to become a Hollow-type Fullbringer, the former ends up dealing with life as a Visored-type Fullbringer.
Notably, a generous amount of moral ambiguity is present amongst both the characters; the protagonists are often thrown into situations where they have to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and the right thing for the wrong reasons, while having to deal with their own personality flaws and hidden psychological issues. By contrast, rarely are the antagonists ever fully villainous, often with sympathetic motives and/or respectable methods to compliment their dispositions, but reasons are not excuses, and the lesser of the evils is still an evil. By contrast, even the nominally entertaining villains have serious psychological issues, unusual philosophical beliefs, frequently unnerving sociopathy, and/or methods for their madness to show that they are not the sort of people you'd want to meet in real life.
A link to it would be here if we had one
It provides trope examples of:
- Action Girl: Nearly every female character.
- After Boss Recovery: Happens to Ichigo with Ginjo. There are several times where their brawls are put to a temporary halt, either through an unexpected interruption, a sudden separation, or in part exhaustion. These periodic "cooling off" segments are used for the two to recover and contemplate for a bit, before continuing with their fight.
- And I Must Scream: During his imprisonment, the Hogyoku slowly ate away at Aizen's spirit energy, hideously deforming and distorting Aizen as a whole, until he became little more than a husked vessel for the Hogyoku's sentient consciousness.
- This is also the reason why the Spirit King is even the Spirit King to begin with.
- Anyone Can Die:
- This is one of those stories where you'll start off wondering who'll get killed next, into concerning yourself more with who'll survive by the end of the series. It started with background characters, where their sole existence is to give a small outlook on their lives, before gruesomely dying shortly thereafter to show the consequences of the constant spirit fighting. It later went on to include lesser-known, often manga-only or filler Karakura students (Satoshi Terasawa or Kyoko Haida), then it went toward Ichigo's own classmates, and it was finally cemented by the time Kokuto murdered Yuzu, shortly after Grand Fisher tortured her. Although plenty of characters are brought back, they end up dying just as frequently here.
- It later extended into the Shinigami; nearly every named manga-canon and anime-only Shinigami gets killed in near record-breaking efficiency. Particularly once the real war arcs begin, it's now very much a Dwindling Party for all those involved.
- Ascended Meme: Usually as stealthy Take That!(s); in particular, how Aizen's finger attracts all attention in the room to him, how certain characters get called by their
Fan Nickname(s) by other characters, how several other character are borderline molesters or sex deities, how the Hollows tend to get the short end of the stick in fight scenes, and how the Shinigami are likely to win nearly every battle they face. - Ascended Extra: Many, most prominently Nelliel, Tatsuki and Senna, all of whom join the Five-Man Band in due time. Ashido also qualifies, who fills in as the protagonist for the arcs focusing on the Soul Society.
- Author Appeal: The gorgeous looks and sex scenes of certain characters are explained rather well.
- A Wizard Did It: This will take a while. For starters, the Hogyoku granted Blanks with the ability to develop their own identities and personalities, provided the Toju with the means to maintain their own existence and identities, reformed the Valley of Screams into a functioning city for the Blanks, created Sanctum as a home for the Quincies, assisted Arturo in reforming the deceased Arrancar, created a new dimension for the Toju to reside within, removed the near-immortality of the Bounts, and created a new gun-wielding superhuman species.
- Back from the Dead: Arturo finds traces of peoples' spirit energy, gathers the reiryoku into a vile, amplifies their energy with his own and gradually reforms the bodies back to how it was prior to their deaths, and since they've been revived and reformed, they end up getting a boost in power, completely new abilities to compliment the ones they already have, and notable changes in their personalities, but their memories aren't the same. Most, however, are brought back through Arturo implanting his memories of a particular Arrancar into a Blank, prompting the Blank to turn into that specific individual - the Hogyoku helped maintain their existence.
- We'll elaborate here. Aisslinger Wernarr, as an example, is a lot less condescending and smug than he was in-canon, had his appearance turn more skeletal and eerier, and gained the ability to literally erase the spirit energy making up a soul by disemboweling them with his claws; as soon as he touches them, their spirit energy begins to dissolve and disappear. Furthermore, while Loly Aivirrne's appearance remains unchanged (besides her boobs growing more and her build getting curvier), she gets around ten more poison-based powers, loses her infatuation with Aizen and gets over her usual vindictiveness (note that she wasn't dead - more like dying, once Arturo found her). By contrast, Lilynette Gingerback becomes her own person, completely separate from Starrk's soul, with her own abilities and released form, but retains a good portion of her original personality, and earns herself a very much appreciated growth spurt. Another example comes from Ggio Vega; he loses his Tigre Estoque El Sable form, gets a more varied set of abilities in his largely-unchanged released form, grows around six inches taller, gains a rather lean six-pack, and seems to have developed more respect towards his opponents and teammates.
- Going even further, apart from getting more water-based attacks, Findor Carias loses his arrogant demeanor, becoming more pragmatic in general, along with turning more fearful of combat (similar to Shuhei Hisagi). As another example, Avirama Redder gains the ability to use his Hollow mask to change up to four different bird-like forms, and although he still enjoys the excitement of combat, he recognizes that war is far from the paradise he once thought it was, managing to develop a weird sense of pride ("It's all I've ever known - let me die as I am, not what someone else wants me to be") and honor ("Always remember what you've done, and never forget a face that went against yours") from it, but he's still susceptible to performing frequently brutal deaths, and simultaneously gains a rather distorted philosophy to compliment it ("War Is Hell when it happens to me; War Is Glorious when it happens to others").
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Many times, usually when hordes of Hollows or legions of Exequias storm in.
- Badass Crew: The Fullbringers from Xcution.
- Bait-and-Switch Boss: All fingers pointed to the Central 46 as the main villains for the fourth season, until they were quickly usurped by their failed puppet general.
- Battle Aura: Done for intimidation, incapacitation, destruction and brawls.
- The Beautiful Elite: Nearly every character is described as being very attractive.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence
- Big Bad: The Hogyoku.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: More so than in the real series. Almost nobody is exempt from a couple of shady or downright vicious acts, despite however sympathetic their motives may be.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The exact extent of characters' injuries is thoroughly detailed here.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Hogyoku is an interesting case. It's evolving from a sentient device into a independent individual in its own right, and as a result of forming a personality of its own, the Hogyoku's suffocating presence ends up developing into The Corruption, where among other things, it grants other beings with individuality and corrodes that of others with individuality, manifested as an aura of black energy. It isn't reiatsu; it's a reflection of the Hogyoku's "soul", which is essentially corrupting the universe at large, but only as a consequence of it becoming its own person.
- Body Horror: Mostly involving the Hogyoku.
- Boss Rush: The Fullbringers and Bounts versus the Visoreds and Shinigami.
- Bishounen Line: Once the Hogyoku gets Demonic Possession as one of its trademark abilities, it can hideously deform and derail whatever appearance it takes the form of. However, the more it can stabilize the transformation/possession, the easier it'll be for the Hogyoku to assume more humanoid appearances in due time.
- Character Development: Several characters experience this throughout the course of the fic. For example, Apacci becomes less temperamental, Sung-Sun turns less snobbish, Rudobon is more calculating, Harribel isn't as stoic, and Mila Rose turns into The Lad-ette.
- Character-Magnetic Team: Ichigo's band gains newer members over the months.
- Chekhov's Gun: Several statements or objects end up as this.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Many major characters are mentioned or introduced several chapters before their actual roles in the stories are revealed.
- Clothing Damage: All of the male characters, naturally, but a few female characters get this too.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: As an example, bluish-purple is the color given to the Hogyoku while it was still an orb.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Bansui Amatsuki is interested in studying ways to suppress the Hollowfication process, thereby eliminating the need for the Shinigami as a martial force, so he kidnaps prospective fighters to test his experiments out.
- Crapsack World: What happens in the Seireitei, the Rukongai and Hueco Mundo is given more detail. It's not pretty.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A lot of these are prominent.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Happened many times during Arturo's invasion, for starters.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to the real series, at least.
- Diabolical Mastermind: Gyokaku Kumoi wants to get rid of his rivals in other noble houses in his bid to gain more money and power, masquerading as a steward and forming his own crime organization to do so.
- Eldritch Location: The Royal Dimension, which also happens to be the Spirit King himself.
- The Empire: The Soul Society is portrayed as one, to an extent.
- Fanservice Pack: Apart from Lilynette and Karin, Senna and Homura have curvier builds here than they did in-series.
- The Federation: This was the Quincies' form of government, from when they began populating Sanctum, to after they joined The Alliance. Quincy clans are identified by their costumes and the type classification of their spirit bows/arrows, and most clans are managed by a council, comprised of courtiers. Each courtier is selected to manage a particular operations associated with governing an organization (economics, labor, security), but no single courtier is strong enough to defy the others. Apart from passing judgment on convicts, maintaining stability and settling disputes, the councils serve as an advisory committee to the Quincy clan leaders, whom are determined through varied means, ranging from bloodline and popular vote, to Klingon Promotion, meritocratic success or the full development of their abilities.
- First-Name Basis: Apart from the Arrancars doing this to each other, the in-universe shippers point out how Ichigo refers to Rukia, Renji, Tatsuki and Senna by their first names, which is a sign of closeness in Japanese culture - Hilarity Ensues almost immediately thereafter.
- Full-Name Basis: Several antagonists exclusively refer to every other character by their full names.
- Hotter and Sexier: Goes hand-in-hand with the Darker and Edgier nature of the story, without being vulgar or ridiculous. Sex-related jokes (both subtle and implicit) make up a good portion of the humor, conversations about sexual matters happen once or twice, characters' orientations are more explicit, the attractiveness of certain characters is detailed rather fondly, suggestive comments make their way in some dialogue, promiscuity is rather prevalent, and sex scenes are either heavily implied or outright shown.
- Knight of Cerebus: The first few chapters were comedy-general, focusing on reintroducing the main characters and showing how their lives have been since the end of the Winter War. Things quickly turn darker by the time Kokuto shows up.
- Lampshade Hanging: A lot. An example would be the in-universe Shipping; the Die for Our Ship, Real Women Never Wear Dresses, Shipping Goggles (along with anti-), and Ship-to-Ship Combat phenomenons are generally Played for Laughs, even mocked by the characters themselves, although there are a few disturbingly accurate examples of just how bad it gets on a daily basis.
- Last-Name Basis: Tons of characters call each other by their last names, from the Karakura students to the Shinigami officers.
- Magic Skirt: No matter how short the skirt, no matter how much it swirls around, and no matter how high she goes, almost no girl has ever gotten a panty shot here.
- Ms. Fanservice: Every female original character fits the bill, though several series-original girls get elevated to this as well.
- Multi-Stage Battle: A number of location-changes occur during Ichigo's battles with Ginjo.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The newest brand of the Central 46 added several new laws after Aizen's defeat, in order to prevent another such rebellion. Said new laws range from from allowing only the Central 46 to promote prospective officers, to reserving the right to demote or dismiss any ranked officer to the Central 46 (when reasonable doubt as to their loyalties or capabilities arises), even forcing all academic applicants and non-captain officers to undergo character aptitude exams as a means for abckground and biography checks (failure to comply results in non-admittance for the applicants and demotion for the officers). Furthermore, the Central 46 made it so that any being deemed traitorous to ruling body of Seireitei must be killed on sight without repercussion or clearance; capture and/or interrogation is no longer mandatory.
- Propaganda Machine: While the Central 46 play this straight, Ganryu Ryodoji inverts this by basically calling out the Seireitei for its handling of society, until he starts using actual propaganda by twisting and stretching out the truth in regards to specific Shinigami leaders, discrediting them just enough so that he isn't outright lying, but as appropriately as he can to get more unanimous support.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Arrancar are portrayed as a deconstruction.
- Really Gets Around:
- It's once said that Rangiku gets uninhibited once she's really drunk, but she's somehow sober enough to pick the attractive ones only.
- Cirucci once showed a picture of two men (one on the left, one on the right) getting whipped by her, along with one in front of her, one behind her and another beneath her, when she meant to show a picture of Aaroniero when he attacked her.
- In one scene, when she was bored, Haineko went out of her way to... persuade good-looking people to "help her clean up". The next scene shows her leaning on the bed, half-asleep, next to five men and three women, with her hair down and messy, while wearing a loosened kimono that exposed her thighs, shoulders, curves, stomach, arms and half of her boobs (the only things keeping the kimono on), with no bra and a small panty-skirt that's just so tight enough to heavily emphasize her 'important areas'.
- When Orihime was walking past a hallway, she noticed that the door leading to Loly's room was half-opened, accompanied by lustful feminine giggling, loud thumping noises, exhausted panting and heavy moaning from at least two different men. Peeking just a bit to see if Loly herself was there, Orihime noticed a set of torn clothes, broken handcuffs, unwrapped ballgags, a broken baton, three exhausted men laying on the floor, three more men strapped to the wall, and Loly violently riding a fourth man, coyly winking at Orihime. Cue Orihime holding up a notepad that says "Make up your mind!"
- Rogue Protagonist: Hitsugaya is accused of being one during that thing with Kusaka, but he made up for it by the end.
- Rotating Protagonist: The serials centering on Ichigo's gang is known for switching the focus on a different character, from Ichigo to Orihime, then Tatsuki to Senna, Homura to Ishida, and so forth.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Birstanne, courtesy of Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
- Don Kanonji is the first major casualty.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: The Shinigami are still fully-clothed under the senior captains, while the Arrancar still wear provocative outfits. However, half of the Fullbringers (primarily morally ambiguous) tend to wear skimpy clothes.
- Sequential Boss: The Hogyoku, once it gets Demonic Possession and the ability to perform the Bishōnen Line.
- She's All Grown Up: Lilynette is brought back as an incredibly hot young woman, while Karin and Yuzu went through some sorta growth spurt at 14, and now look 18.
- Shout-Out: Several references to Avatar: The Last Airbender, One Piece, Full Metal Alchemist 2003 and Naruto.
- Tournament Arc: Not so much an arc, but it does take up two chapters, determining who the newest seated officers get to be.
- Underwater Boss Battle: All types for Nejibana, once it gets accidentally resurrected and turned into a being onto itself.
- Urban Warfare: A small taste of this is given during the thugs' attacks on the Shinigami outposts in the Rukongai, later fully occurring by the time the Arrancar launch their invasion of the Soul Society.
- You Will Not Evade Me: Amatsuki makes damn sure none of his opponents run away during a fight against him.
