Shutara Senjumaru did not fight Gosuke Shigure in the end.
How could she fight Gosuke Shigure? How could she possibly be willing to raise a hand against him?
After all, she had waited for a long, long time for his return.
At the beginning, she had not dared to hope at all; it had been nothing more than a quiet, stubborn obsession.
Compared to that, being able to see the person from her past again was the greatest surprise she could have imagined.
As for what Gosuke Shigure had hidden from her?
That mattered even less.
She had waited for centuries already—what difference did a few more decades make?
In the end, she received both the answer and the result she had longed for.
Gosuke Shigure had already sealed away Shibito. Because of his rebirth, his soul had undergone structural changes; he no longer possessed the Tsunayashiro clan's original methods for stabilizing the blade's soul-manipulation ability. Now, his ability to awaken Shibito depended entirely on the residual soul-mass that Tokinada had devoured in Hueco Mundo, the spiritual energy that clung to the blade after the slaughter.
The moonlight fell once more.
On the grass, Gosuke Shigure and Shutara Senjumaru sat together.
It was not Gosuke recounting his tale—
It was Senjumaru speaking to him.
She told him the story of Tsunayashiro Shusui's death.
"After your accident that year, I was shocked," she admitted quietly. "You were so powerful, and yet you suddenly died…"
"At that time, I was still very weak. I didn't have the strength to avenge you. But I discovered something by chance—your reiatsu lingered in this world. You had already undergone soul burial, yet something was binding your spirit, preventing you from passing on, keeping your soul wandering between worlds instead of returning to the Soul Cycle."
"So I began creating something… unorthodox."
"A method to defy extinction."
"A way to attempt your resurrection."
"By constructing a vessel—a body—I thought I could reshape a form for you, then guide your wandering soul back into it…"
"…But in the end, I failed. Not only did I fail to bring you back, but even the remnants of your reiatsu finally dispersed."
As she spoke, she explained the moment when Gosuke Shigure's spiritual presence vanished.
"About two hundred years ago," she said softly.
After hearing Shutara Senjumaru's account, Gosuke Shigure slowly understood what had occurred.
"No," he said. "You didn't fail."
"Perhaps," he continued, "you actually succeeded."
He had a suspicion—one that clarified how he had been reborn.
"Shibito is a Zanpakutō belonging to the soul-system class. Because I was a member of the Tsunayashiro clan, it must have been preserved along with my death. Afterwards, the clan performed their forbidden rites, feeding countless souls into it. The immense spiritual power hidden in that blade kept me from truly disappearing."
"Then, because of your experiment, the fragments of my soul reorganized."
"In your eyes, my reiatsu vanished because you failed. But in truth, that disappearance was the beginning of a new cycle of life."
"My new life began exactly two hundred years ago."
After hearing this, Shutara Senjumaru gradually understood everything.
She now recognized the role Shibito had played in Gosuke Shigure's reincarnation.
It could be said that without the blade's accumulated power, Gosuke Shigure's rebirth would never have been possible.
The Zanpakutō's soul-system manipulation had functioned differently than any ordinary spirit weapon.
Although several details remained uncertain—his rebirth still felt like a miracle born from overlapping coincidences—none of that mattered to her.
What she cared about most was that the person from her past had come back to life.
"It's enough that you returned," she said quietly.
Gosuke Shigure nodded.
"I agree. To live again… it's something to be grateful for."
After all, anyone who can live would never complain about escaping death.
Then another thought crossed his mind.
He looked at her and said, "Strictly speaking, my body is only about two hundred years old from birth. That would make you older than me now."
In his previous life, Tsunayashiro Shusui had naturally been older than Shutara Senjumaru…
But in this life, the roles seemed reversed.
Senjumaru's expression froze instantly.
There was nothing incorrect about what Gosuke had said.
In terms of age, she was indeed older than him—
—but no woman wishes to acknowledge such things.
"No," Shutara Senjumaru replied smoothly, "you are still older."
Her logic came effortlessly. "My body has been reforged and purified by the Soul King's power. Technically, I am only a few decades old."
"Is that so?" Gosuke asked, slightly surprised.
"That's right," she answered without hesitation. "Exactly so."
They talked for a long time afterward.
Though they had not seen each other in many years, in Gosuke Shigure's previous life, the two of them had been extremely close.
Now that they had recognized one another again, it was only natural to fall back into their old rhythm.
Shutara Senjumaru did not hide her purpose for coming to Seireitei this time—she had come to oversee Kirio Hikifune's elevation to the Royal Guard. In other words, she could not remain in Seireitei for long.
Gosuke Shigure was not surprised.
He said to her, "As far as I know, the Royal Guard has something called the Superhuman Gate."
"Yes," she replied.
As a long-standing member of the Royal Guard, she naturally knew of it.
The Superhuman Gate—the Kōtotsu-bypassing transitional passage linking the Soul King's Palace to lower realms—allowed a Royal Guard member to travel between the Palace and the world below with speed.
But it had strict time limits.
Once the window closed, the gate sealed again.
Senjumaru immediately understood his meaning.
Even though the gate had a time limit, as long as she returned within the allowed window, she could still come down to the world at any time and see Gosuke Shigure again.
Even if their visits would be brief, it was far better than remaining completely separated—Soul King Palace above, Seireitei below, worlds apart and unable to meet at all.
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