In The Reaper & the Hollow
series of one-shots by Michael Ravencroft, a young Soul Reaper named Amity Blight is sent to investigate a town in Connecticut called Gravesfield, where she meets a mysterious Arrancar named Luz Noceda.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Ability Mixing: In "The Requiem of Luz Noceda Arc", Luz combines her Cero with one if the Kidos that Amity has been teaching her when fighting a Menos.
- Accidental Pervert:
- Luz a couple of times regarding Amity. For example, when she first meets Amity, since Eda had refused to provide the Soul Reaper with underwear for her Gigai, when a sudden breeze hits and lifts her dress Luz gets an eyeful.
- When exploring the asylum, when the Hollow shows up Amity gets thrown into Willow and accidentally grabs her breast, which she's quick to apologize for.
- In the past, when Gus was trying to help Luz figure out how to remove her bone armor on her chest, Eda surprised her by mentioning how Quincies like him are allergic to Hollow energy, and Luz managed to dispel it, causing him to get an eyeful.
- In "Where We Go From Here", not only does Amity accidentally see Willow naked when she goes to see her for advice about having slept with Luz since the Fullbringer sleeps in the nude, but Gus, trying to check up on Luz and Amity after hearing what happened at the party, accidentally saw them having sex and was traumatized.
- Adaptational Species Change: Amity is a Soul Reaper in this AU, Luz is an Arrancar, Gus is a Quincy, etc.
- Age Lift: Luz and Amity are 19 in this universe, or at least the equivalent of 19 in Amity's case.
- Amazonian Beauty: When Amity sees Luz naked (they were testing Luz's hierro and she decided to take off all of her clothes), she notes that Luz is fairly toned and muscular, and has large breasts.
- Attempted Rape: In this AU, when Luz was at camp one of the counselors tried to rape her as a punishment for her defying them and their abusive behavior, but Luz fought back and escaped.
- Bilingual Bonus: Luz, as in canon, occasionally slips into using Spanish phrases and words, only some of which are translated.
- Briar Patching: Willow gets Chad's goons to take her into the woods to beat her up instead of doing so in the alley, making it seem like she was accepting her fate instead of putting them in the prime environment to use her Fullbring on them.
- Chekhov's Gunman: It's mentioned in "Revelations" that one of the counselors tried to rape Luz as a sick kind of punishment, only to get arrested after Luz fought back and escaped. In "The Requiem of Luz Noceda Arc". it's revealed that said counselor, Jackson Forbes, was murdered in prison and eventually managed to become a Menos-level Hollow calling himself "Grom", seeking revenge against Luz and everyone she loves.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Luz might be a bit of perv in this universe, but she makes it a point not to do a "friendship grope" to anyone but her friends (or in Amity's case, someone she really wants to be the friend of).
- Composite Character: Eda/"Marilyn" gets some traits from Urahara here, being an apparently exiled Soul Reaper who's running a shop in the human world.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In this universe Luz did go to the camp instead of Vee, and while the basilisk enjoyed it in canon, here the counselors were abusive and horrible to her, and when Luz was nearly raped during a punishment she fought back, escaped, and managed to find a cop and get them arrested. A few years later, after undergoing bullying, she ran off during an argument with her mother and got struck by a car and died, before eventually managing to become an Arrancar after being eaten by a Hollow.
- Dragged Off to Hell: When Luz wants to finish off Grom, Amity has her use the Soul Reaper's Zanpakutō, knowing that it would summon the Hellgate and send him to his eternal punishment.
- Even the Girls Want Her: When Emira and Edric are flirting with the other Soul Reapers, it's noted that a few female ones are reacting to it as well.
- Even the Guys Want Him: When Edric is flirting with some assembled Soul Reapers, there are some male ones that are as responsive as the female ones reacting to him.
- Fake Relationship: Luz, attempting to deflect her mother's worries, claims to have a girlfriend, and ropes Amity into pretending to be said girlfriend. Camila sees through it pretty quickly though.
- Halloween Episode: The third entry in the series was supposed to be released on Halloween to fit in with how the kids are exploring an abandoned hospital, but it was delayed a few days.
- Heroic Willpower: "Revelations" shows us that, after she tried to help Eda and was Swallowed Whole by a Hollow, Luz pulled off her own Soul Chain before she was digested in a bid to escape (having known what to do thanks to Gus, a Quincy in this AU), chanting "Kill the Hollows!" to herself in an attempt to try and retain enough of her self to stay focused on doing just that, hoping that Eda could purify her after they were defeated. It worked spectacularly, with Luz somehow jumping to Adjuchas level immediately and finishing off the attacking Hollows before submitting to Eda to be purified, only for something that happened to cause her to become an Arrancar instead.
- Inexplicably Awesome: Besides the fact that Luz managed to skip a couple of Hollow Evolutionary Levels to become an Adjuchas immediately, and then became an Arrancar, she can somehow absorb ambient reishi to feed in order to offset her hunger when there aren't any Hollows to feed on, which Amity notes as being completely out of the realm of normal Hollow abilities (being closer to what a Quincy does). Her best guess is that it's an adaptation unique to Arrancar.
- LGBT Awakening: In "Where We Go From Here", Willow helps Amity realize that she likes girls (particularly Luz, given they slept together). In addition, the latter then talks with Camila about how she found out that Luz was bisexual.
- Mugging the Monster: Some of Chad's goons attempt to attack Willow in payback for Luz throwing Chad after he grabbed her chest while trying to keep her from a drunk Amity. Even without Hunter intervening, them getting beat up by her was a clear conclusion.
- Mysterious Past: We're initially completely in the dark as to how Luz became an Arrancar, when she came to Gravesfield, and why she became its protector. The third story confirms that she was a normal human who grew up in the town alongside Gus and Willow, but the details of her transformation are still unrevealed.
- These details are finally revealed in the Origins Episode, fittingly titled "Revelations".
- Naginatas Are Feminine: Luz is a female, if tomboyish, Arrancar that has a naginata for a Zanpakutō.
- Never My Fault: Grom seeks revenge on Luz for his demise, even though all she did was report his Attempted Rape after she fended him off, and it was other prisoners that killed him when they learned what he tried to do. Luz lampshades this when Grom confronts her and blames her for his fate.
- Chad blames Luz for the incident at the party, despite the fact that he started it in an attempt to keep Luz away from Amity.
- Origins Episode: The fourth story, titled "Revelations", has Luz tell Amity how she became an Arrancar.
- The Power of Hate: In "The Requiem of Luz Noceda Arc", Grom's hatred of Luz is because after he failed to rape her when he was her counselor at camp, he got arrested, sent to jail, and was killed by some of the other inmates. After he becomes a Hollow, this grudge is strong enough that he actually manages to maintain his mind and develop a unique form while still a Gillian.
- Relationship Upgrade: "Where We Go From Here" has Amity and Luz become an Official Couple.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: While Luz won't strip for anyone on the street, when Amity wants to test her hierro ability she's very quick to end up in her birthday suit.
- Stalker without a Crush: In the third story Amity, trying to get answers as to why the Willow in Gravesfield looks and acts so much like her former friend from the Soul Society slums, follows the girl around in Soul Reaper form, causing speculation that she's got a crush on the human before the record gets set straight.
- Hunter stakes out the store, apparently due to both looking for Eda and because he got some bad information from local youths.
- Superpower Lottery: Luz is an Arrancar with Vasto Lorde levels of power, and a Resurrección with strong and versatile capabilities with her glyphs, but beyond all that she can actually use ambient reishi to feed instead of eating Hollows.
- Take a Third Option: Adrian couldn't decide whether to make Edric or Emira his Lieutenant, so in the end he just made them both co-Lieutenants.
- Town with a Dark Secret: In addition to the witch hunts that canon Gravesfield had, the town in this universe has had other nefarious happenings in the past, like horrific experiments going on in the asylum before an escapee managed to call attention to it and get it shut down. And that's not even counting the Hollow attacks.
- Trauma Button: Luz was deeply affected by the Attempted Rape incident at camp. When Grom reveals that his identity when alive was Jackson Forbes, the counselor that was behind the incident, she goes from about to kill him to terrified, allowing him to get the upper hand by trapping her in her worst fears.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Luz expresses some angst a few times at the idea that, being an Arrancar, she'll outlive her mother and friends eventually.
