Title: As N Approaches Infinity
Author: Corisanna
Rating: T
Genre:
Status: WIP
Library Category: AU
Pairings: None so far
Summary: Despairing as yet another timeline goes horribly wrong, Homura wanders into Karakura. There she discovers that while the spiritually-aware people of Karakura were distracted by Ichigo Kurosaki and Xcution, Kyubey contracted the Kurosaki sisters as magical girls. Drawing the attention of the shinigami could be just the advantage Homura needs.
Words: 204,523 as of 02.01.2017
Link: fanfiction.net

Story starts for Bleach after the whole Fullbring mess, before any of the Quincy bullshit started and for PMMM a timeline before canon. Basically, another timeline went FUBAR, everyone died early this time and the deaths hit Homura particularly hard this time and she just felt like getting away from this city. Narrative coincidence leads her to take the train to the Bleach town, where she stumbles upon the Kurosaki sisters dealing with a witch, who have become magical girls during the time Ichigo had no powers, unknown to their family and friends.

Being emotionally exhausted after countless times of relieving the deaths of Madoka and her personal failure to prevent any of the misery, she falls into the Kurosaki family orbit and things take off from there, mainly with the hope she might get some allies for the whole Madoka situation.

Things take off from there.

So, I like this story. It can't be counted among stories like Fargo and PMHM but it stands on its own being an engaging read, managing to hit the tones of both source materials. Homura is not quite her jaded self yet (although I think that's to the detriment of the story a bit) and thus a bit more open to people and not quite ready to easily sacrifice the whole world for Madoka.

Weaknesses of the story is that it definitely has shades of it being less of a team-up against a greater evil at times and more of a Bleach cast steps in to save Homura and her friends. It's not totally that as the "it gets worse" theme applies and things escalate and the Bleach side finds itself extremely unprepared. The blend of the two settings is done rather competently as well. It has the inherent hope of Bleach with mainly the Kurosaki's being genuinely good people willing to help but also the misery and hopelessly of PMMM at times, when that isn't really enough to sway things, even with powerhouses like Ichigo on their side.

Spoiler

It's an interesting exploration but I can see why some might be put off by the notion of the Bleach cast, in its essence, basically stepping in to save Homura and the rest. It does have shades of that. I agree, Homura is also a bit...too open and nice in order to make this cooperation possible. Granted, it needed that but still, I think I would have preferred that at some point, people would stop to see Homura as this nice girl victim who manages to be tough and resolute and see that Homura, as much as she comes to like the Bleach cast and others would actually sacrifice everyone to save Madoka if necessary. I do think that extremeness of Homura is missing in order to really explore Homura as a character.

But I guess that's the point, that this happens before Homura really becomes that girl.

And yet, the story is engaging from beginning to end, gets regular updates once a month or so, writing style is competent and the take on the characters is reasonable and pays respect to both sides without bashing anyone.

Not a perfect story, it has its shortcomings but worth checking out, imo.

4/5 for me.

 

Please read and review. What's with all you people who rate Bleach high above Naruto? Now get down here and post a review.

I'll leave this atop the review board for another week, before I move it.

 

Nothing much I could really say that Nemrut hasn't already. I like it well enough despite having only passing knowledge of PMMM.

4/5

 

Moved into the library based on the review(s) rather than the thread rating.

 

It's a reasonably fun time killer when you're in the mood, but that's all it was to me.

There's certainly some moderately interesting stuff in there, but like most PMMM crossovers, there's way too much focus on people reacting to the plight of magical girls.

By that, I mean prepare for chapters and chapters of Homura sharing her angst to various people, and them getting all angry/depressed/sympathetic for her sake. Then a whole lot of feelgood caring and helping as she finally has people she can rely on.

Spoiler

Also, apparently Kyubey operated for years and no one in Soul Society ever knew about it? What a lazy way to blend worlds.

2.5/5

 

Still following this and while I can't say this is a great story per se since it does take the easy path here and there and there are some story decisions I don't like, it is still fun to follow. Largely speaking, the blending of the two worlds was done rather competently as far as fusions like these go.

Still would have loved to see Homura become the Homura of the actual show but yeah, still a solid story.