Walk Two Lifetimes
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Walk Two Lifetimes |
| Author(s): | coolio101 |
| Date(s): | July 28 (2014)- Ongoing |
| Length: | ~360k words |
| Genre: | Gen |
| Fandom: | Bleach |
| External Links: | WTL on Fanfiction.net WTL on AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Walk Two Lifetimes is a Bleach fanfiction. A OC self-insert written by coolio101 (who is also known for her other well known Bleach SI-OC, To Love a Monster). Currently it has over 5000 reviews (and over 6700 favourites) on Fanfiction.Net. Crossposted on Archive of Our Own in 2015, it holds an impressive reader count. With over 26000 hits, ~1300 kudos, and, over 700 comments. It has a TV Tropes page. [1]
A side story featuring extra scenes and snippets, by the same author, named Sidewalks is also published.
Summary
Surviving in the 78th district of South Rukongai was tough. When you were a ten-year-old girl with a baby to take care of, it was even harder. Getting reincarnated as Kuchiki Hisana after dying of cancer was never part of the plan.
Doctor Christina Dalton dies of cancer and is reincarnated in circa 1820 in Japan as Yukimura Hisana, who in the original canon would later be Kuchiki Hisana, along with the ability to see the dead and hollows (She speculates this is due to her own death.) When Hisana is 10 years old, and the same year her younger sister Rukia is born, their village is struck by a tsunami which Hisana fails to avoid, dying a second death and waking up in the 78th district of South Rukongai.
It deals with themes of canon divergence because of Hisana's vague (due to not being a huge fan of the show in her previous life, only watching it occasionally) but appropriate knowledge of the Bleachverse. One of the major examples being Hisana's thought process of following the same path as canon Hisana by abandoning Rukia (believing that her sister might be better off without her) which then causes a memory of Christina and her brother from her childhood to resurface, after which makes her dismiss the idea, with Rukia being an important supporting character throughout the fic.
Yet at that moment, when I turned to go, all I could think about was a memory from another lifetime, when I was eight and Dave was ten. I'd wanted to play basketball with him and his friends. Dave's friends, understandably, didn't want to play ball with a little girl two years younger than them. When I wouldn't go away, they'd let me play reluctantly. The game was brutal—they'd take turns shoving and tripping me; when I fell down they made fun of my clumsiness. I'd finally left when a basketball was thrown at my face hard enough to almost break my nose. What I remember most however, was when I turned teary, accusing eyes on my brother. He shifted uncomfortably, guiltily, and for a second I was sure he'd say something. Then he turned away, told me to scram and that no one wanted me there.
When my father found out, he was furious. I'd never seen him so angry at Dave. He was grounded for two months, was made to do all the chores, and banned from the T.V. and the computer. Two days after the incident, Dad called me and Dave into his office. With a face like stone, he'd told us, "I don't care if you two get into arguments and fight. I don't care if you get along or if you damn well hate each other. But when it comes down to it, you had better stick by each other, you hear? You're brother and sister; you stand up for each other. Understood?
A week after his punishment ended, one of Dave's friends called me an "annoying little brat" and told me "not to show my ugly face around anymore." Dave stood up and punched him in the face.
I blinked and the memory faded. When had I stopped walking? (Chapter 1)
The characters continue to age however because they live in the soul society, they age differently. Its explained that ageing works differently to the regular world, the older you are, the slower you age. Although most of the fanfic takes place pre-canon, as of the latest chapter, that is no longer the case.
Original Characters
WTL has a wide variety of canon characters included (notably Rukia, Byakuya Kuchiki, Renji Abarai and several of the captains) however it has a lively amount of OCs. (Excluding, in part, the main character.)
-Hisana's family (see Families of Choice article) are almost entirely OCs:
- Tatsuya- The pseudo-leader of Hisana's family. At first, she describes him a "an overly-confident, overly-cheerful, manipulative psychopath", although her opinion of him does shift. (Although not by much)
- Horio- Short boy with rat's nest hair, fantastic at making distractions.
- Kazuki- Along with Kaori and Mitsuo, fulfils the older sibling role. Lively but responsible.
- Kaori- Expert at thievery, and teaches Hisana the basics to live sufficiently, stern and loyal to family.
- Mitsuo- One of the strongest in the group, doesn't talk much.
-Miwa, Hisana's apprentice (in healing) could also be considered apart of her family.
-Excluding Rukia and Renji, the rest of Rukongai's inhabitants shown are all original characters as well.
It's assumed because of the lack of many non-captains/lieutenants or civilian characters in Bleach, a lot of other non-canon characters had to added to make the story more coherent. WTL especially has a lot of OCs. (The creator even tagging so on Ao3)