Formal Summary: After spending so much time in Soul Society and Hueco Mundo, Ichigo returns to his normal life, thinking that all awaits him is his boring life in Karakura Town. However, he is proven wrong soon enough when he gets an anonymous invitation to join a loose-knit group of people who are knowledgeable about spirits and meet on Twitter to share information and have a conversation, and also to hire the services of others for shady jobs involving the supernatural.

Once again, Ichigo returns to the hidden world of spirits with his online 'friends' who want someone with his experience and knowledge. Through his operations in his hometown, he sees for himself the hidden underground world of Karakura Town and its denizens who are anything but ordinary.

Legend: Online handles/pseudonyms will be in Bold and their Tweets are in Italics, below their handle. The number next to the Handle denotes the time elapsed since that Tweet was uploaded. The "a" is used in place of the "at" symbol found on email addresses, as this symbol is not accepted by this website. Here's an example:

Handle a Handle 1h

Tweet tweet tweet tweet.

Of course, italics are also used for other purposes like flashbacks, but you can differentiate them easily based on context. Note that this story does not take place entirely on the web. The characters will be operating both on the web and in real life in this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. I also do not own the various brands that I might mention in this story, particularly Twitter. This disclaimer applies for all chapters and it is the only one I will be writing for the whole of this story.

City of Adventure

Chapter 1: Joining the Network

Have you ever had a dream where you were Superman (or whoever your favourite comic-book superhero is) and you did all sorts of things like fly around the world, beat up a bunch of baddies and flew off into the sunset with a pretty girl in your arms? If you have, then you ought to know what a bitter experience waking up the next morning is. I mean, more bitter than usual.

Well, stop whining! Your feelings of bitterness come and go within a day, at most. But my own feelings of bitterness have lasted for much longer. That's because I didn't wake up from a dream like anyone else. Being 'superman' was my reality – for about a year, and now, that reality is over, swiftly replaced by my other reality – that of being an ordinary senior in high school (which I happen to be walking towards right now). Surprising? Yeah, I guess it would be, to an outsider. Maybe I should explain further.

I am Kurosaki Ichigo, Substitute Shinigami…well, former Substitute Shinigami. After my final fight against Aizen, in which I had to invoke the Final Getsuga Tensho in a last-ditch attempt to end him once and for all, I lost all my powers. That was just two months ago. I was unconscious for a full month after that, and soon after I woke up, I had to say goodbye to my friend Rukia, who was the person most responsible for my brief foray into the world of spirits.

For a while after that, I stopped seeing spirits. That really sucked. I didn't have many friends in school, so I sort of compensated by talking to spirits. I always got a kick out of helping spirits find their way and by beating up those who disrespected them – well, the kicks came more from the latter, but let's not split hairs. Going about this town, the global centre for spiritual activity, used to be exciting for a spiritually-aware person like me. Anywhere I went, there'd be a spirit loitering about, usually. All that went away for a while.

For a while.

I did start seeing spirits again soon after that. Well, not really clearly, but I could see their outlines and I could definitely sense them there. This was a good sign – it meant I was slowly regaining my spiritual energy, which had been lost back when I performed my final attack on Aizen. But still, it wasn't enough. Back when I was in my prime, my spiritual energy exceeded even that of a Gotei-13 Captain. Right now, it wasn't even at the level of an unranked Shinigami. If a Hollow were to come out of Hueco Mundo and start attacking me; well, let's just say that ant stands a better chance of survival against a person's boot than me against a Hollow. Maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe.

But it's not like I'm doing nothing. By myself, I try training to do something with what little spirit energy I have. I've tried flaring it (in the hope that exhausting my energy will spur it to increase), and even releasing it in small blasts. But it's nothing substantial, unfortunately. But I've been more successful in other areas. I resumed my martial arts lessons – not at the dojo where Tatsuki and I used to train, but instead, at a new centre which taught MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). The lessons were fun, and I was able to learn quickly and even meet new people there, including a rather interesting bombshell the same age as me, who I just barely managed to beat in a bout. I also went to the gym and jogged regularly.

And that was my escape. I was no longer the man I used to be, so I tried to make up for it by becoming a tough fighter using my human body instead of my spiritual one; by using my polished fists and powerful legs instead of a massive sword. But I still knew that it was still not enough.

I lacked the power to protect anyone.

I had to sit back and twiddle my thumbs while Ishida and the others protected this town in my stead.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think they're bad at their job or anything. It's just that…I'd rather be up there with them rather than being stuck on the ground walking about, waiting for them to come back and tell me all about it. Actually, that's flawed; they don't even tell me about it, really. For some reason, they never say anything about spirits around me.

"Man. This sucks,"

"What does?"

I give a start and look behind at the person who spoke: Arisawa Tatsuki.

"Hey Tatsuki,"

"You look glum as ever,"

"Shut up,"

"Hey Ichigo,"

"What?"

"Wanna go grab a coffee after school today?"

"What's that all of a sudden?"

She simply frowns. "Just answer the question,"

"Well, I don't mind, I guess,"

"Good! 'Cause I've got lots to talk about!"

I raise an eyebrow, but she pays no heed and we walk along in silence. I start thinking about Tatsuki – I put her at a distance when I became a Shinigami. At that point, we were already pretty distant anyway, but I knew she'd want to get herself involved in some way or another. To prevent that, I shut her out. I wonder if that's what she wants to talk about? I guess I'd better prepare something to say to her in that case.

"Yare yare,"

After school

We both, as promised, met after school.

"Ichigo, let's go to the commercial district for a change!"

"What? Why?"

"'Cause I feel like it!" she sings. What the hell was with her today? She seemed to be in an unusually happy mood.

"I guess we're going by bus?"

She turns around to face me with a big grin. "Nope. We're going by bike. My bike,"

"What?"

"Just come! It's parked nearby!"

She runs off and I follow suit, cursing. Really, what's with her today? We soon reach a parking lot near the school – where a black motorbike is parked. It's big, but not too big for Tatsuki.

"Wait – you have a bike? Since when?"

"Since I got my licence as soon as I turned 16!" she says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Hop on!" she says, tossing me a black helmet.

"Are you sure you can ride that thing? I don't want tomorrow's headlines to be about two teenagers getting caught in some kind of horrific road accident!"

She laughs off my concern. "It's alright! I really do have a licence for this baby!" she takes it out of her wallet and waves it in front of my face. Sighing again for the millionth time that day, I put on the helmet and sit behind her. She revs the engine a few times and takes off. It starts off slow to clear the parking lot, but once we're on the road, she rides like a demon, ripping through the roads like the Ghost Rider. In a very short time, we're in the highly urbanised Commercial District of Karakura Town (really, the 'town' part of the name is a misnomer; they might as well call it Karakura City). People are walking about the streets, darting in and out of buildings, and the roads are packed. They look pretty similar, all with black or dark brown hair and fair skin. But that just makes the oddities stand out all the more. I easily spot a guy with blue hair (seriously? What kinda punk is that?) and a woman with green hair. I didn't get to see their faces, though, since we were going so fast. Soon, we reach a Starbucks outlet and she stops so suddenly that the back of the bike is suspended in the air for a second before it falls back to the ground under gravity's influence.

"Damn! I really thought I was gonna die!" I breathe in and out histrionically once I'm on the ground.

"Oh stop whining!" she laughs as she takes the helmet back and hangs it on the bike's handle. We both step inside and place our orders.

"So…what'd you want to talk about?"

"Oh…a bunch of stuff. You see, I decided to run for a Student Council position,"

I laughed. "You? In Council? Seriously?"

"Well, yes! And I think you should think about it too!"

I immediately stopped laughing. "That's a terrible joke, Tatsuki. A delinquent like me, going for council?"

"Your grades are fine. As long as you keep from beating up anyone, you might be able to get in," she shrugs.

"That sounds unlikely. It's hard for me not to get in fights,"

"Well, you could at least try! You always look bored. You ought to try something new to take up your time,"

"I don't have the time for that kinda stuff," I mumble. Suddenly, her gaze turns cool.

"Or rather, you're just stuck in the past and unable to move on,"

I frown at her over the rim of my cup of coffee. "What're you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you losing your powers, Ichigo,"

I was lucky I didn't have any coffee in my mouth at that time. I'd definitely have spat it out if I did.

"How'd you know about – "

"That doesn't matter!" she impatiently waves my question away. Of course it does matter, idiot! But disregarding my unspoken retort, she continues, "I know what you're trying to do. You're still trying to see if you can go back to the world you used to be in. You're trying to regain your powers to go and fight Hollows again,"

I was speechless. This really threw me for a loop. How was she this knowledgeable? I never told her anything about the world of spirits!

"How much?" I asked when I finally got my voice back. "How much do you know?"

"Everything," she says emphatically. Sensing my disbelief, she says, "Kuchiki Rukia met you about a year ago and made you into a Shinigami. After that, she was arrested and sentenced to death, but you went to Soul Society and rescued her. After that, you had to go to war against Aizen Sosuke and his army of Arrancar. During that war, Orihime was captured and you had to go and rescue her. After that, you fought with Aizen personally and defeated him, but at the cost of your powers,"

"Who?" I croak. "Who told you all this?"

She just shrugs. "That doesn't matter, Ichigo. The point is, I know you're suffering. You've lost your powers, so you can no longer be a part of the circle of friends you used to fight together with. You're feeling left out." She pauses significantly. "I can help,"

I look at her cynically. "How the hell are you gonna help? You don't know what it was like being a Shinigami! To be able to protect my friends! How're you gonna help me like this?" I gesture wildly, my emotions high.

The glare she gives me is so intense I actually gulp.

"There's no way I can understand all that, Ichigo. But that's not what I meant. I was talking about being the one who was left out because I was…too weak," she hangs her head, letting her bangs fall, forming a curtain over her eyes. She then shakes her head and faces me. "I was in that same position once. My friends were on a completely different level; a completely different world. They didn't tell me about their world, 'cause they believed it was too dangerous for me. And now, the same is happening to you,"

I gasped. So that was it. The others – Ishida, Chad, Inoue, and even Urahara-san – they were keeping the news from me 'cause they wanted to protect me. Or they didn't want me to worry. My fists clench. Those idiots.

"If you're angry at them, think of how angry I was at you," Tatsuki dryly reminds me.

"Yeah…I'm sorry, Tatsuki," I rub my temples. "I knew then – and I still think so now – that I couldn't tell you everything about me. But I shouldn't have kept you completely in the dark either. I didn't realise it earlier, but now that I'm in the same boat as you, the truth is right in front of my eyes,"

She nods curtly. "I still haven't forgiven you, though." Her expression softens. "But that doesn't mean I don't think of you as a friend anymore. You can come and talk anytime,"

I nod.

"But seriously…how did you know?"

She smiles and sighs. "NOT telling you!"

I glare at her and she says thoughtfully. "But maybe you'll find out one day. Yes…you'll definitely find out soon,"

The way she was saying it, it was like she knew precisely when and how I would find out how she came to know about me. I asked her to elaborate but she simply winked at me.

"Don't worry too much, Ichigo. Your friends are doing a fine job of protecting this town. Have faith in their abilities. And, yes, I know that doesn't cheer you up too much. But I think you'll soon get an opportunity to get…more involved – in whatever way you can,"

I open my mouth to ask more questions, but she holds up a hand to silence me.

"Trust me, it'll all work out fine, ok?"

I stare at her expressionlessly for a while, before a small smile breaks out on my face.

"Fine. I'll do as you say, and wait. Maybe this 'opportunity' you mentioned will come soon,"

She smiles approvingly and we finish our coffee before she drops me off back at home.

Karakura Clinic

"I'm back!" I shout as I enter our home. There's no reply. Maybe my sisters are off at their after-school club activities for today. What about the dad? Well, who cares about him anyway? I go straight to my room, but just as I place my hand on the door, I hear some sound and I stop.

Was I just imagining it? I twist the doorknob, but then, I hear the same sound again. Curiously, I walk over to my dad's room. I hear it again, and once more after that. It's a short sound, rather like the message tone of a mobile phone. But he couldn't possibly be receiving this many messages, right? The door was ajar, and the lights were off. I carefully open it and step inside. He's asleep, sprawled on the bed. Shaking my head at his laziness, I walk over to his table, where the noises are coming from – is that his laptop? I open the lid completely and stare at the screen.

He's logged onto Twitter and people in his group are tweeting rapidly – the sounds are the notification alerts. Oh. So that's what it was.

Wait, seriously? My dad was on Twitter? I had no idea the bastard actually had any friends. Laughing silently, I turn the volume down to stop the notification sounds. I should've left at that point, but I'm too curious. What sort of people does my dad associate with over the web? I try to stop myself, but I can't help it!

I look at the screen. Here's what I saw (it was a little confusing at first, 'cause the recent ones were on top and the older ones were below, so I had to read from bottom to top):

Hiroshi Akane a RedStar 10s

Of course, I am! BWAHAHAHA!

Maebara Mamoru a Mammy 40s

So who else is attending the live screening of Don Kanonji's Show? #spiritsarealwayswithyou

What the hell? He was friends with people who watched Don Kanonji's show? My lip curled in distaste. I was just about to leave but then a new Tweet came up and I checked it.

Maebara Mamoru a Mammy 10s

Just witnessed a Hollow attack just outside the Commercial District!

And, just after that, someone responded.

Sawashiro Misaki a Misaki 10s

No way! I was just there a while ago!

I refreshed the page over and over until the next response came up.

Maebara Mamoru a Mammy 10s

So was I! I was just returning from my early day at work! That boy with the arrows sure is reliable! #TheQuincyCross

My mind was spinning as I left the room. These guys all knew about Quincy? And Hollows? I thought I was special for being able to see spirits! Snapping out of my daze, I shut myself inside my room and took out my iPhone™ and said clearly, "Call Ishida,"

Siri responded with her usual accuracy and initiated the call to my Quincy friend.

"Hello?"

"Ishida, it's Ichigo here,"

"I know. What'd you want?"

Ignoring his brusque tone, I ask him, "Did you just finish off a Hollow in the Commercial District?"

He pauses before saying, "Yes. Yes, I did, in fact. It was just barely two minutes ago. How did you know about that?" he sounds worried.

"Never mind how," I've got other things to ask him. "Did you tell Tatsuki about all the things I did after becoming a Shinigami?"

"What? No, I didn't. I don't even speak to Arisawa-san," he replies. What? So Tatsuki didn't find out about me through him?

"Is that so? D'you think Inoue might have told her? Or Chad?"

"Maybe. Although I doubt it," he says dubiously. "None of us really felt like telling anyone about our wartime experiences for obvious reasons."

"I see,"

"But seriously, how did you know about the Hollow I just took down? Where are you anyway?"

"Me? I'm at home!"

"What? But how? Who told you?" he demands.

"Oh, I found out on Twitter," I say.

"What the hell? On Twitter? What's that supposed to – " Before he can finish, I end the call. How am I supposed to explain to him if I myself don't know what's going on? I toss the phone onto my bed and walk around my room aimlessly. I can't concentrate; it's useless trying to do homework at this rate. Thank God it's Friday!

Days later

"Kurosaki!" Ah – it's Ishida.

"Yo,"

"Don't just say 'yo'! How the hell did you know I killed a Hollow last Friday?"

"Like I said, Twitter!"

"And I don't understand what that means!" he snaps. "Explain yourself!"

"Alright! Alright! My dad's got a Twitter account and I happened to look at it. Some guy tweeted about the Hollow attack. That's how I found out,"

He looks at me in disbelief, but then relaxes.

"I guess there are quite a few spiritually-aware people in this town then,"

"Yeah. Any one of them could've seen the Hollow and tweeted about it,"

He nods soberly, then looks at me inquisitively. "But seriously…your dad? On Twitter?"

"Hey – I was shocked too!"

He shakes his head and walks off. Ishida dislikes social networks. The trend has been pretty slow to catch on in my school, where most people either dislike them, like Ishida, or they just can't be bothered, like me. There're just a few students who actively use them, like Mizuiro (to pick up girls) or Keigo (for stalking). Thank God Inoue doesn't use them, or she'd have every guy in the school stalking her. Laughing inwardly at the thought, I dismiss the memory of my dad's Twitter page. He's entitled to his own life, whether it's on the web or in reality, and besides, it probably doesn't mean much, does it?

That Saturday

"Onii-chan! You've got mail!" my younger sister Yuzu twirls into the house, holding an envelope addressed to me.

"You're getting mail? That's rather old-fashioned," Karin sardonically notes.

"Ah, but you know what they say, Karin-chan! Old is gold!" my dad says enthusiastically. You hypocrite. You're saying that despite being the only one in the family to have a Twitter account? Karin promptly punches him for being noisy.

"Who sent that letter, though?" Yuzu asks, tilting her head curiously.

"It's a girl, isn't it?" Dad demands, his eyes flashing.

"Don't be ridiculous, pervert-dad!" I shout, stowing the letter away in my pocket. When I'm done with breakfast, I slip away to my own room to read the letter in private.

There is no stamp or address. Clearly, the sender simply stuffed the letter in the envelope and left it personally in my family's mailbox. There were two papers in the envelope. The first one went:

Email: Newcomer_157 a

Password: Bg65H7Np

Dear Newcomer,

A warm welcome to KarakuraRei – the only online community of ghost-watchers from the lovely Karakura Town! I am the group administrator Sakurai Youhei, and upon a request from one of our members, I have created an account for you so that you can also be part of this community of people knowledgeable to some extent about spirits and the supernatural. I have heard that your own knowledge in this area is very extensive, so I am glad we have gotten a hold of you. I hope you enjoy your time in this community! Attached are some instructions. Please do read through them before you log in!

Sakurai Youhei

I checked the other paper in the envelope. It went like this:

Instructions:

Once you log in to Twitter using the email and password provided, go to your account settings and change your name to an online handle of your choice. None of our members uses their real name for privacy reasons. Also, do remember to change your password.

When you wish to tweet, please do check your location settings. Some of our members have accidentally given away their home addresses by allowing the location settings to 'add a location to their tweets'. It's alright to let your location be known, but only if you're outside. While we should not be suspicious of our friends in the community, it is a bad idea to give away your address so freely.

Finally, we have a few rules for our community. Don't spam, don't advertise, well, all the usual stuff.

I stopped reading. This administrator seemed pretty lax. The rest of the rules weren't anything much. I started up my laptop and pondered the mysterious letter. Just last week, I'd found my dad on Twitter, and now, I was getting an invite to join a secret society of sorts on the same website.

So…should I join? I was apparently being treated as an expert here, which meant someone probably knows I was a Shinigami and wants me to join. What if it's someone who's hostile?

But maybe I'm thinking too much. Why would an enemy go out of their way to tell me to use a handle instead of my real name, and to be mindful of my location settings? And besides, Aizen is locked up and I don't have any other enemies.

But then it hits me: Whether or not the person who invited me to join this group is an enemy, things work in my favour whether or not I join. If he's an enemy, I could try to keep an eye on suspicious people on Twitter (I don't really know how, though. But I'll figure something out). And if there's no enemy, well, this could be fun. It could the distraction I was looking for.

"Just do it!" I murmur, opening Twitter and logging in. I follow the instructions given in the letter, and soon, my profile is ready. I guess I should tweet something, just to let everyone know about my presence and to thank them for letting me into their club. I type it out in formal Japanese – following internet etiquette.

Miyano Katsumi a Miyano 10s

Good afternoon, everyone! Thank you for the invitation to this society! I look forward to working with all of you.

There, that should do it. The politeness is uncharacteristic of me, but at least it gives me anonymity on the web. And the Handle is some name I just picked at random. There's no way it can be traced back to me. I refresh the page after five minutes and find a few replies.

Oshitari Haruko a Oshitariiiii 10s

Welcome to KarakuraRei, Katsumi-san! I hope you enjoy your time here!

Shibusawa Sanae a HelloSanae 20s

Welcome! It's always nice to see new people here from this great town of ours! I hope we get along well, Katsumi-san!

Maebara Mamoru a Mammy 1m

Welcome aboard, Katsumi-san! Feel free to talk to any of us anytime. Don't be shy, and things will go swimmingly!

I smiled at the response. Of course, I still had a lot of questions, like how much did these guys know about spirits, and so on, but I could think about that later. For now, I was just glad to have this opportunity. Social Networking – not so bad after all!

To be continued

The Shinigami will be appearing, but only later. Most of the people on the chat are not OCs, but actual Bleach characters using online handles (pseudonyms).

This chapter required a little research on Twitter since I don't use it very often. Of course, I could've chosen a different social network to use, like Facebook, but there are so many stories with Facebook in the Bleach Archive, and besides, Twitter is more suitable for this story anyway. If I make any mistakes, please do write a review or personal message so I can rectify it quickly!

Note from the author: We all know that Karakura Town was apparently a very important town in the Bleach universe, but in my opinion, it was really a very boring town by itself. Tite Kubo didn't tell us much about Karakura itself, and about the interesting humans who live in this city but are not particularly affiliated with Soul Society or Hueco Mundo.

Of course, we can't blame him for that, since he is the Manga Artist, and so, he's the one who decides the direction his manga is going to take. But still, it bothered me, so I decided to write a Fanfic exploring the town itself. The formal summary is given below. I sincerely hope this story, City of Adventure, catches your attention, and that it interests you enough to follow it from here on. Enjoy!