Soul Society is the place where the souls of living beings return after death.
Here, it is divided into Seireitei and Rukongai. Seireitei is the place where the existence called shinigami and some nobles who have been rooted in the Soul Society have lived since ancient times, while Rukongai is the place where ordinary souls live.
Rukongai is divided into four major regions: southeast, northwest, and each region has eighty districts, totalling three hundred and twenty districts.
In these three hundred and twenty districts, countless souls live.
And the breath of the soul is the most delicious food for another kind of creature named "Hollow", that degenerated from the dead.
Therefore, in some places of Rukongai, there will be hollow infestations from time to time.
Some souls are devoured by the hollow due to bad luck, while others are annihilated by the shinigami from among the Seireitei.
Shinigami, hostile to the hollows, although they live in the heavily hierarchical Seireitei, most of them are indeed working hard to maintain the stability of the world where the souls live.
Among the Seireitei, many shinigami are divided into thirteen teams, called Gotei 13, which was an armed group gradually established eight hundred years ago.
The reason for its establishment at that time was to concentrate more powerful forces to deal with a huge war that threatened the entire Soul Society.
The Eleventh Division is the fighting squad of Gotei 13.
The captains of all generations are called "Kenpachi".
Kenpachi is the name given to the strongest shinigami by Gotei 13. Every member of the Eleventh Division respects the captain who bears the name of Kenpachi, and all shinigami who hold such titles carry the duty to protect the Soul Society.
In the wilderness, the smell of blood and wine had not yet dissipated.
Before this, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki, the captain of the Eleventh Division, and many shinigami from his squad faced a Vasto Lorde from Hueco Mundo here. He easily defeated the Menos Grande with his Zanpakutō, which was never even released.
Then, to celebrate this victory, many shinigami of the Eleventh Division held a banquet at the battlefield.
The Eighth Division captain, Kyoraku Shunsui, smelled the aroma of wine from a long distance and rushed over to join the feast.
But no one expected that not long after the reception started, another man dressed in aristocratic robes appeared. He called himself Azashiro Soya, and his purpose for coming was to challenge Kenpachi.
In Gotei 13, the succession of captains follows strict rituals.
For most divisions, the process differs, but the Eleventh Division's succession ceremony is the cruelest of them all.
Its ritual is simple: by defeating the previous captain in combat, you may become the new Kenpachi.
In the past, with few exceptions, most defeated captains died directly in battle.
The goal of Azashiro was immediately revealed. He wanted to become the new captain of the Eleventh Division by defeating Kenpachi.
After understanding the other's intentions, Captain Kyoraku Shunsui tried to persuade Azashiro, but unfortunately, failed.
In the end, it was Kuruyashiki who stood up and met the challenge.
During the battle, the two fought until both were covered in blood, but in the end, it was Azashiro who won.
This result was unacceptable to many officers and team members who had just witnessed their Kenpachi defeating a Menos Grande. How could someone now defeat their own captain?
They wanted to seek justice from Azashiro.
Among them, there was a young man.
But before they could act, their movements were stopped by Kenpachi himself.
After stopping them, Kenpachi Kuruyashiki shouted at the members of the Eleventh Division, "You carry the number Eleven! Don't disrupt a one-on-one duel!"
The air condensed under the overwhelming momentum of Kuruyashiki, making all the members of the Eleventh Division speechless.
"I fell under this man's blade, and that's everything! I won't allow you to deny the iron rules of the Eleventh Division! From today onward, this man is Kenpachi!"
The words that came from the captain's mouth shocked everyone. If anyone had seen him shouting at his subordinates and then blasting away the shinigami who rushed forward to attack the noble youth, they would have thought Kuruyashiki could still fight.
However, his face soon changed. Turning toward Kyoraku Shunsui, the Eighth Division captain, he spoke a few final words — to tell the Captain-Commander to look after Azashiro.
Shunsui nodded, accepting the request.
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki suddenly looked relieved, his eyes falling once again on Azashiro.
When Azashiro asked, "If you had used Bankai directly, you should have won, so then why didn't you?" Kuruyashiki didn't deny it. Instead, he smiled faintly and said his last words: "The Eleventh Division and these men — I leave them to you."
The Seventh Generation Kenpachi, Kuruyashiki, died immediately after saying those words.
Silence.
Only the wind mourned him.
…
In the Eleventh Division barracks, a young man slowly opened his eyes.
"In other words, I've been reborn."
The young man spoke softly.
His name was Gosuke Shigure — an orphan once adopted by Kenpachi Kuruyashiki himself.
When Kuruyashiki was defeated by Azashiro, Shigure was the one who could not believe it.
Unable to accept reality, he had tried to rush at Azashiro to demand justice for Kenpachi, but was stopped by Kuruyashiki's overwhelming spiritual pressure. The weight of that aura knocked him unconscious.
It seemed that the emotional blow had been too great, and when he fainted, something within him broke.
When he awoke, there was something new in his mind — or rather, something old. Two overlapping sets of memories.
The first was from his life as an ordinary office worker on Earth.
The second was from his existence as a shinigami thousands of years ago.
That's right. This was his second shinigami life.
…
In his previous life, when he had first awakened in Soul Society, he had been thrilled to find himself in the world of Bleach. But that excitement faded quickly when he realized he had been born far too early — before the Gotei 13 even existed.
Even so, he had worked hard, training day and night to become a shinigami. After all, being a shinigami was cool enough in itself.
It seemed his reincarnation had brought with it extraordinary talent. His reiatsu was powerful from birth, and his Zanpakutō awakened as something formidable.
Thanks to his familiarity with the laws of this world, he had once become one of the strongest shinigami of that ancient era.
Unfortunately, that era was not peaceful.
Hueco Mundo constantly pressed its attacks, and the Soul Society itself was torn by endless internal wars.
In the end, despite his immense strength, he was betrayed and killed.
By logic, a powerful shinigami like him should have gone to Hell after death. But against all odds, his soul never descended. It retained a single spark of consciousness, endlessly reincarnating across the lands of Soul Society.
And in this life — through some strange accident — his memories of his former self had reawakened.
…
For Gosuke Shigure, reliving his life while retaining the memories of two existences was a gift beyond measure.
'If you can live awake,' he thought, 'no one would choose to die.'
Those things that happened thousands of years ago had long vanished with the wind. His old name, his old enemies, all gone. He could let them go.
Yet after brushing away his former life as a shinigami, he remained something else — an Earthling, a traveler who remembered the story of Bleach itself.
Even if the current time period was still far removed from the main story he remembered, certain names echoed with too much familiarity.
Kenpachi Kuruyashiki.
Azashiro Soya.
And… his own.
The memories of the Eleventh Division flashed through his mind. Because the former Kenpachi had been a lecherous man who liked recruiting female warriors, this version of the Eleventh Division had more women than in the story he remembered.
But whether male or female, there was only one member in the division with the surname "Gosuke".
That was him — Gosuke Shigure.
"In other words," he muttered, realization dawning, "my identity in this life is that of the Ninth Kenpachi."
In the original work, this name was never even mentioned — only briefly referenced in an author interview: Kenpachi Gosuke.
"The weakest Kenpachi ever…?"
*****
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