Title: Arana
Author: Ryuugi Shi
Rating: M
Genre: Action/Drama
Status: Abandoned
Fandom: Worm/Bleach
Pairings: none
Summary: Taylor dies at the end of Worm and awakes as a hollow.
Link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/bleach-worm-arana.305947/

Arana is on the border of being too short for review, but I think it just manages to make it.

Taylor rises as a spider-like hollow and her administrative powers have adapted to her new state. We see the setup of the story, and just enough content to hint at where the story might go and what it would have been like.

The overall tone is creepy cute. Ryuugi has a lot of fun with the prose which helps to get that tone across. Imagine spider-Taylor controlling hollows with her power:

It isn't just the tone that Ryuugi has fun with, but the characters and dialogue too:

I loved that callback to the elevator in Worm's epilogue. Something remarkable to me is that this story evokes the same feelings that I had at the end of Worm. It's about Taylor's perseverance and her undying love for her friends: the Undersiders. She may be separated by circumstance, but they're always near her heart.

The Bleach'verse in a post-Worm world is very bleak. The dead have swamped the world and many hollows, including Taylor, have never seen a Shinigami and she doubts that they exist.

I think that Ryuugi had fun writing this, and I would've loved to see where he planned on taking the story. Even though it's cut short, the story ends on a good note. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

 

It's very short but it is a post Worm story and I absolutely loved the talk between Taylor and Lisa. It got very emotional at the end and Taylor's words just felt right there. There is no doubt that Taylor loves her friends and this story showed that, whilst combining Worm and the Bleach stuff in a rather cool way.

I guess the story did kind of end, but dunno, it doesn't feel complete.

So, yeah, good atmosphere, writing and a solid take on the characters. Kudos for being a post Worm story, of which there are not nearly enough.

4/5

 

This was revived recently and the plot is actually ramping up.

I think the story is alright so far, and shows promise in its future plot. The writing is good, if a bit too flowery at points. Note that the latest chapters have some stuff/spoilers for Ward.

3.5/5 rounded up to 4.

 

Read the first 2 arcs before laying it down. Liked the story, but realized that it's likely never going to get finished so I'll probably just read it arc by arc. Don't know much about bleach other than through a handful of other fics. But, this story is kinda depressing. Long walls of text that don't really go anywhere while talking about how monstrous everything is. Idk. Only thing that really irks me is the naming scheme of everything. I assume that is bleach canon, but the names are really jarring.

 

lol, @Ryuugi Shi what are the odds this becomes your fourth story to actually be finished? You gotta prove him wrong!

 

Started following this a couple weeks ago and really liked it, but the last few chapters were annoying as hell.

I like where it is going but the execution dragged on and on Taylor's transformation so I decided to just skim until it was over. Looks like the fic is back on track now with Taylor's fight against Szayel and hopefully it'll lead to a greater immersion into canon Bleach.