So, I wrote this chapter during the summer and it basically took the whole summer. If you want more, you'll have to review, but I doubt I'm going to work on it any time soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or Bleach.
There is a story about what Ichigo did in those months that he was no longer a soul-reaper.
For the first five months, he was sulking about no longer being a soul-reaper. One night in April before he fell asleep, Ichigo wished that he would be able to protect and save people again.
That night he dreamed of being in a limousine that was driving in a dense fog. He was in a place that a man with an enormous nose called 'The Velvet Room'. The man with the nose was named Igor while the blonde woman wearing blue was named Margaret. Apparently 'The Velvet Room' existed between 'dream and reality' and only those who forged a contract can visit the room.
When he woke up from the strange dream, Ichigo found himself on a train in the middle of the day. He looked into the train window and saw a reflection of himself. He was shocked to find that his appearance had change. His hair was no longer spiky orange, but instead bowl-shaped gray. His eyes were gray like his hair instead of its usual browness. The name 'Yu Narukami' filled his thoughts, so he assumed that is what his name is in that appearance.
Soon enough he arrived at his supposed destination. There was nothing in that town that he found out to be Inaba. A couple minutes passed before a man who looked to be the same age as his father and kind of looked like him appeared with a little girl with brown hair tied in pigtails hiding behind him.
From that man, Dojima, Ichigo found out that Dojima is supposed to be his uncle. Apparently Ichigo's 'parents' were working abroad so Dojima offered to have him stay at his place. One detail that Ichigo didn't miss was that his supposed mother is Dojima's older sister. He had to bite back a retort of saying that his mother was dead.
After having a weird experience at the gas station with that sharp sting in his head, the trio arrived at the Dojima residence. Not even five minutes passed before Dojima had to leave for his work, leaving Ichigo with his daughter, Nanako. They ate with only the TV making noise for a few minutes before Ichigo went to unpack 'his' belongings. He opened a box and came face to face with a jacket and a memory he never experienced spreading through his mind. He sighed and decided to get some sleep, knowing that the year was going to be interesting.
The next day, while he was walking to his new school, a teenager about his age was riding a bike while having an umbrella in one hand. When the teenager crept passed him, Ichigo thought that he looked a lot like Keigo, an old friend of his from Karakura. The teenager ended up wrecking but Ichigo didn't bother helping him.
His home room teacher was some kind of freak, which he figured out that the group Ichigo managed to get away from him because of the girl wearing a green jacket. School had ended quickly, which was when he learned the green jacket girl was named Chie and her friend in red was named Yukiko. Ichigo also found out the boy who looked like Keigo was actually named Yosuke.
On the way 'home', Yosuke had fallen into a trash can so Ichigo decided to help him this time. The boys went to Junes for food with Chie tagging along. At the Food Court, Ichigo learned of the rumor about the 'Midnight Channel'. That night Ichigo decided to try it out to find out that the rumors were true. However, they didn't mention the fact you could enter the TV. After telling his three new friends, they decided they'd try it on a bigger TV, though Yukiko wouldn't be able to join them because of work.
Because Yosuke is such a spazz, the three of them fell into the TV. They had ran away from a freaky looking bear to end up in a bloody room that looked like someone hang themselves in. The bear ended up finding them, gave Ichigo a pair of glasses, and insisted they should leave before the 'Shadows' appeared. Turned out a few monsters did appear with the trio running away from them. Chie ended up being licked by one, knocking her out cold, while the boys were immobilized. They waited for the monsters to attack but then a voice appeared in Ichigo's mind.
I am thou. Thou art I.
The monsters stopped before they attacked as a card floated into Ichigo's hand.
Thou has open thine eyes. The time...is now!
A light surrounded Ichigo as he smashed the card. A creature, a 'Persona' was summoned behind him; a sort of soldier covered in metal that was dressed like a human. The Persona followed each of Ichigo's movement and Ichigo could feel the damage that it took from the Shadows. Ichigo defeated them easily as he realized that that power now belonged to him and he'd have to use it to save others in the future.
The next day a girl Yosuke had a huge crush on, Saki Konishi, ended up being murdered the same way the reporter was. Yosuke believed it had something to do with the Midnight Channel and the TV World, so the two boys decided to investigate while Chie would hold down the fort at Junes. The boys found the bear (Teddy) again, who led them to the place he last saw Saki. They go inside her family's liquor store to find a ripped up concert ticket Yosuke gave her and strange voices that either insulted her or Yosuke. A duplicate of Yosuke then appeared and suddenly turned into a strange Shadow. The duplicate was only defeated when Yosuke finally admitted that that thing was him and Yosuke obtained the Persona 'Jiraya'.
After returning to the real world and heading to their respective homes, Yosuke confronted Ichigo, asking him why he suddenly came to Inaba and looks different than before. Ichigo played dumb which was when Yosuke revealed that he was indeed his friend Keigo. He then confessed that he legally had his name changed to 'Yosuke Hanamura' after his mother married his step-father (the one who is the manager at Junes). He had changed his full name because his step-grandmother would always call him 'Yosuke' and he never corrected her. The friends basically swapped secrets and promised not to tell the others after splitting ways.
Throughout the months the Investigation Group grew larger and larger. It first started growing after Chie and Yukiko officially joined after they faced their Shadows and obtained Personas of their own. It took a little to save Kanji from the TV World because Teddy couldn't get a scent on him. After getting a phone strap he had made, the gang was able to find Kanji and save him from his Shadow. About a month after a new member joined the team; the famous Rise Kujikawa who has taken a break from her career. The rescue mission for Rise is better left unsaid because of the. . . 'activities' Shadow Rise did in there.
After Rise recovered from her adventure in the TV World, their home room teacher was found dead in the same position as the other victims. After three days of a strange boy approaching both Nanako and Yukiko at the store and school respectively, and trying to figure out how 'King Moron's' death ties in with the other victims, the murderer turned himself in; Mitsuo Kubo, a juvenile who had been expelled from a different school before enrolling in Inaba. Although the police had closed the case, the group decided to check the Midnight Channel one last time. Mitsuo appeared taunting the group to catch him if they could.
The gang enters the television world to find Mitsuo in a video game simulation. By the time they track down Mitsuo, they see him arguing with his other self who quickly turns into a Shadow. Although the Shadow was defeated and Mitsuo was arrested, Ichigo couldn't remember the battle or even leaving the TV, but that thought didn't occur to him until weeks later.
His friends went on with their real lives and acted as though the murder incidents never happened. Rise returned to her life as a celebrity, no longer living in Inaba and Kanji and Chie no longer hang with the group. However, that only happened when Yukiko was slammed with hotel business again. Even though Yosuke was still his friend, Ichigo felt completely helpless like he did before; yearning to be able to save lives once again.
On a rainy night, Ichigo was unable to watch the Midnight Channel, let alone pass through the television. When he hears the voice of Mitsuo's Shadow inside his room, he is taunted that his bonds are now "empty", since he is cannot summon his Persona anymore. Ichigo starts to give up hope when the Shadow strangles him, but he hears Yosuke's voice and he is pulled out of the illusion the Shadow created.
Reunited with his friends, Ichigo confidently retorts to the Shadow that he is "far from empty" and summons several Personas representing all of the bonds he has made since for the past few months to attack the Shadow. When the Shadow is defeated, they confront Mitsuo, who shamelessly admits to being behind the three murders, and they are surprised when his other self disappears instead of turning into a Persona.
As summer vacation ends and classes begin, the freshmen and sophomores go on a field trip a week later to Tatsumi Port Island. Teddie, waiting for the gang there, wants to score a date with Yukiko, which she agrees to do so during free time the following day. The next day Ichigo catches up with Chie who is defending a young boy from thugs. After the thugs ran off, she notices Ichigo, who had his phone hidden behind his back as he had called the police. Chie revealed to Ichigo that she wants to find meaning in her self-worth, of which he admires in her.
The group reunites at a night club, seeing Naoto there. As they all enjoy free food and drinks, it seems that they were served alcohol and have been acting out of character during a drinking game. Naoto has a family history of being detectives that help the police and then requests that they reveal their involvement in the murders. Although Yukiko blurts out that that they go into the TV to fight Shadows with their Personas, Naoto believes she is mocking the idea. They return to Inaba the next afternoon with some not quite remembering what happened the night before.
Naoto appears on the news to say that there are incongruities in the murder case and that it is still under investigation. The next day after school, Naoto approaches the gang and interrogates their involvement in the murder case. Naoto tells them that they are not seen as possible suspects, but as pawns in the game. Naoto goes on to reveal that Morooka's murder was the only one that sticks out, as he never appeared on television and never disappeared before his body was discovered, having a blunt force to the head as the cause of death. At night, Naoto appears on the Midnight Channel, and announces an experimental operation to be born anew.
When the group goes to the television world the next day, they are unable to find Naoto. As they return to the real world, the group splits up in search of Naoto. According to Aika, Naoto had gotten into an argument with Adachi of how to handle the murder case. The group heads back to the television world, bringing them to a secret laboratory. When they enter, they see Naoto chiding a doppelganger for acting too much like a child. However, the other self reveals that Naoto is insecure about being seen only as a child, rather than an adult detective, aside from the fact that Naoto is really a girl. This causes Naoto to reject her other self, transforming it into a Shadow.
Yosuke, Teddie, and Ichigo are struck by a beam by the Shadow that causes them to age. Teddie manages to restore their ages using Kintoki-Douji, which allows Ichigo to summon Beelzebub and defeat the Shadow. Naoto accepts her other self, transforming it into the Persona named Sukuna-Hikona, not long before collapsing from exhaustion. When Ichigo returns to his house, Dojima and Adachi inform him about Naoto's safe return, yet Dojima surmises that Ichigo is somehow involved with the case.
A month later, a recovered Naoto reveals that her kidnapping happened in quick succession, likely committed by a lone male. The group concludes that Mitsuo was only a copycat killer, given the circumstances of Morooka's death. Naoto asks if she can join the group to help out. After Naoto offers to have the whole group get physicals, Teddie is shown to have nothing in his body according to his X-rays. Kanji admits to Ichigo that Naoto has inspired him to be himself and help others to see who he really is.
A few days later Adachi urgently calls Dojima regarding a hit-and-run accident which severely injures a woman that occurred at the Samegawa flood plains. The next day, Ichigo finds a photo with Dojima and his late wife with Nanako. Nanako explains to him that her mother had died in a car accident of a similar case. Ichigo immediately sympathizes with her (for he had thought his own mother died by some sort of car incident) and offered to ask Dojima if she could keep the photo.
At night, Nanako, holding a school form, suddenly gets a stomachache, while at the same time Dojima receives a call from Adachi about a sealed letter for him from someone named Ichihara. Dojima immediately heads out, leaving Ichigo to care for Nanako, who explains that the school form was actually to invite parents to a class observation. Ichigo goes to the police station the next day to give Dojima the school form.
They go to the Chinese Diner Aiya, where Dojima explains that his superior Ichihara gave him information about the recent hit-and-run. Dojima also reveals that his wife Chisato died in a similar accident while on the way to pick Nanako up from preschool. That night, after Ichigo gives Nanako her family photo in a frame, Nanako says that she hopes to reunite with her mother in Heaven.
When Dojima comes home, Nanako is upset by the fact that he may not be able to come to the class observation, since he is too caught up in his work. Ichigo tells Dojima that he should spend more time with his daughter instead of constantly trying to solve the hit-and-run. Nanako overhears about this, and she runs out of the house when Dojima tells her that the case is none of her concern. Ichigo and Dojima go out looking for her with no luck, but they realize that she must be at the Samegawa flood plains, being reminded of where Chisato had died. When they find her, Dojima apologizes and promises he will spend more time with her. The following day, they celebrate the three of them becoming a family, and Dojima says he will go to her class observation.
The night of the school's culture festival the gang decided to stay at the Amagi Inn. While everyone was asleep, Ichigo contemplated about the letter he received a week before. 'Don't save anyone anymore.' The one thing he wants to do and someone sent an anonymous letter for him to stop.
Naoto deduces that the sender may already know who Ichigo is, since the letter was personally delivered to him. When he arrives home, he has dinner with Nanako. She later feels sick, and Ichigo puts her to bed, promising that they will make a snowman before he goes back to his parents. Dojima comes home, holding another letter for Ichigo, which states, "If you don't stop, the next one to go in and die will be someone dear to you". Dojima, realizing that Ichigo has become too involved in the case, takes him to the police station for questioning, leaving Nanako home alone.
At the police station, Ichigo reveals the nature of the television world, but Dojima, not believing this, has him stay in the station. The Midnight Channel displays Nanako on television, and Naoto believes this is because the politician was referring to Nanako in the news before. After the boys arrive at the station, Dojima is told by Naoto that Nanako may have been kidnapped by the serial killer, prompting him find the culprit. Adachi locks the boys in the interrogation room not long before the girls arrive. Naoto explains to everyone there that the culprit is hauling around a television set in the back of a delivery truck, which all of them seem to remember happening regarding their prior kidnappings. Adachi says that the suspect might be a retired councilman now working at a delivery company, which Naoto realizes is Taro Namatame, a man who had an affair with Yamano.
Dojima gives chase until Namatame intentionally causes a car wreck and flees the scene. As the group catches up to them, Naoto finds an address book detailing the addresses of the victims thus far that Namatame wanted to "save", including Nanako. However, Morooka was not among the names of the victims. Ichigo sees a red envelope in the back of the truck containing a handmade ring Nanako made to congratulate him on his test scores. Dojima asks Ichigo to save Nanako, since she is all he has left in his life.
The team enters the television world to find a beautiful realm that looks like Heaven, encountering Nanako in the custody of Namatame, who claims that he wanted them all to face their true selves, but why he did it in such a deadly manner is beyond them. Namatame summons many Shadows that transforms him into the Persona named Kunino-sagiri. Ichigo, blocking off the first round of attacks, is then possessed, having an antenna over his head, forcing him to attack his friends, repeatedly switching through many of his Personas. After hearing Nanako's voice, he finds the strength to destroy the antenna over his head and catches Nanako after Kunino-sagiri drops her.
However, Kunino-sagiri then takes control of the others. Ichigo suddenly hears Dojima's voice to save Nanako, giving him the resolve to fuse four of his Personas into a power Persona named Kohryu in order to free his friends, who all combine their strengths to destroy Kunino-sagiri. Nanako then helps Ichigo summon another Persona named Sraosha to purify the area of the surrounding Shadows. Everyone returns to the real world to bring Nanako to the hospital, where she is placed in intensive care.
A couple weeks later on a foggy morning, the news reports that Namatame is being interrogated for his actions, also being hospitalized. Ichigo lets the rest of the team know that they will be able to go to the hospital later to see Nanako, who is still recovering. Later, Adachi tells the group that Namatame tried to hit on Saki, which may have led to her death in the first place. When the group leaves the hospital, they hear people talking about how thick the fog has gotten lately. Much to their shock, when they put on their glasses, they are able to see through the fog, which could mean that the fog from the television world may be leaking into the real world.
When Chie mentions how cold it has gotten, it reminds Ichigo that he promised to buy a new kotatsu for Nanako. They all plan to throw a party for Nanako for Christmas when suddenly Yu receives a call from Adachi that Nanako's condition has taken a turn for the worse. He heads to the hospital and sees Nanako just as she appears to die in front of him.
The team grieves after the apparent death of Nanako. The group enters Namatame's room, seemingly attempting to escape through a window. Namatame's Shadow then appears on the Midnight Channel on the television set, boasting that it will never cease its desire to "save" people. Ichigo first has the intention of pushing Namatame into the television set to face his own fate against his Shadow, but he then changes his mind. Although Yosuke is upset by this, Ichigo is not convinced that they have the full story just yet.
As they head outside, snow begins to fall, and everyone says goodbye to Ichigo and head back to their homes. Ichigo breaks down after remembering the promise he made with Nanako to play with her in the snow, and Yosuke returns to comfort him. The next day, the team realizes that the warning letters that Ichigo previously received were not written by Namatame, who relates his discovery of the Midnight Channel and his ability to enter the television world. After first seeing Yamano on the Midnight Channel and learning of her death, he warned Saki about her appearance on it but failed to convince her of the danger. However, when Yukiko appeared on the channel, he decided to kidnap her and throw her into the television world, believing it was the one place the murderer would not be able to reach. He believed he was successful when Yukiko did not die, repeating this method with the other "victims" that had appeared on the channel. Everyone is overjoyed to see that Nanako has miraculously revived.
Unfortunately Ichigo received a message from his real father a couple months later asking when he'd be home. Although the case wasn't solved, Ichigo had a strong feeling the case wouldn't-couldn't continue on without him. He promised everyone he would be back within a few months to catch the real murderer. The clues would end up being forgotten or cold, but the gang agreed. After saying his final goodbyes to everyone, and giving Nanako a giant bear hug, Ichigo hopped on the train back to Karukura.
All the way back to his original home, his appearance went back to normal, but he couldn't help but yearn to return to Inaba-
Soon.
As soon as Ichigo returned from Inaba to Karakura, the first thing he did was get a job. It was essentially meant to distract himself from thinking about the murder case, but it ended up being a way to raise money for college. His grades and attendance was only good in Inaba because he had thought he might as well attempt to make them good while he was there.
A couple weeks later Yosuke arrived in Karakura.
"My father threw a fit because he found out about the murders." He had explained to Ichigo one day on top of the school's roof. "He and my mom got into a custody battle. Now I have to stay with him for three months every year until I turn eighteen. I came now because I knew you would be here and we can review the case without anyone getting suspicious."
"Can I call you 'Yosuke' or do I have to call you-"
"Keigo," the Jiraya user interrupted. "My father doesn't know about my legal name change and neither does any of my-our friends here. When its just us sure, but other than that no."
After Yosuke-Keigo, returned everything seemed normal to Ichigo; almost like it did before Rukia came into his life.
Then the events with the Fullbringers and Quincy took place. Luckily for Ichigo, he wasn't rusty when he came to fighting. Although he had regained his soulreaper powers and saved the Soul Society again, Ichigo could now focus on the murder case. Problem was the murders happened over five months ago
As soon as he returned home from the Soul Society, he tried to find Keigo. Unfortunately the three months were up and he went back to his mom's place. That was when Ichigo decided to put a hold on it and live his life for now. He even ended up getting a beautiful girlfriend.
About another month passed when he got a call at night from his 'uncle', Dojima. "I got into another car wreck," he told Ichigo. "It's nothing serious, but I need someone to take care of Nanako and the place since I will either be at the hospital or won't be able to move around much. Do you think your folks will mind? I'll pay for the travel expenses."
"That won't be a problem." Ichigo insisted almost giddily. "I'll ask Dad and if he says yes I'll get on a train in the morning."
Of course, Ichigo's father did say yes, but Ichigo would have to call him and his sisters every once in a while to reassure them he was fine.
Two months have passed since Ichigo returned to Inaba, and the only person he called (daily) was his girlfriend.
Then she came to Inaba.