Being Senya is suffering, I think we’ve established that at this point. But Mizukami Satoshi is anything but a masochist, that’s the thing. Nor a Nihilist. If there was no meaning to suffering, nothing he writes would make any sense. I tend to believe Mizukami loves his characters because I tend to believe he loves the human race. And that’s certainly in spite of all our flaws, which are invariably at the heart of the trouble in all his series. There are no shortcuts or easy answers with him, but the search is always worthwhile.

There are an awful lot of fronts to this battle, and with so many moving parts it’s somewhat miraculous that everything flows as smoothly as it does. Banshouou was never the main event here, the big bad – but his very presence makes him the center of the battle. All of this is entertainment to him – he has no interest who wins or loses. To that end he splits himself apart (just what Inga suggested was the best way to defeat him) in order to take on the katawara army and to give Mudou and Senya a better chance. Arrogant? Sure – but by the evidence he’s not wrong.

But soon, Senya has bigger fish to fry. Yazen sends Nau and Tsukiko to collect him, because it seems Douren and Jinun are just about at the end of their journey. For them this is surely not a bad way to go out, but for Senya it’s yet another heart-rending loss to deal with. Having only now gotten the two of them back in this life, he has to give them up again. Yazen says he can transplant the tiger (Shirokuma Hiroshi) within Douren (Jaki – I think this is the first time we’ve heard the name) and the dragon (Takashi Matsuyama) within Jinun (Nadare of course) into Senya. But that’s not the same as having his (admittedly lousy) father and (excellent) surrogate father in his life.

It’s another burden for Senya to bear, but if anyone should be used to it, it’s him. As Shinsuke tirelessly leads the katawara in their resistance, Senya – newly powered up – is free to return to the front. But that’s not Banshouou – it’s the Tribe of the Void that are at the root of all this. Banshouou of course isn’t keen on letting someone actually strong enough to interest him go fight someone else, but even he isn’t able to stop this new Senya in his tracks. Leaving Mudou to deal with the cloud, Senya keeps moving up to face down his tormentors once and for all.

Senya is drawn into the spirit world – and his chibi form – once more, but it’s not the Tribe that awaits him there. In an out-of-place teahouse awaits a handsome young samurai with a familiar voice (that of Saitou Souma). This is Takeru – Yamato Takeru to be exact. We’re heard tell of him of course – he’s Jinka’s heretofore unseen older twin. But the two could hardly be more different in personality. Takeru offers Senya a bowl of tea, then says it’s poisoned, then that it’s not. He then proceeds to try and sell Senya on the idea of saving the Tribe of the Void. He’d have to give his own life, but in order to save an entire country that’s surely a small price to pay.

Takeru’s motives here are opaque to say the least. He seems to be speaking on behalf of the Tribe, but he also seems at times to be trying to teach the young man before him how to resist them. It’s also soon clear that Takeru has been imprisoned in the spirit world by the Tribe. The discussion between them cuts to the heart of Sengoku Youko thematically. Senya is young and has led an unsettled life, but his experiences have cultivated a strong sense of right and wrong in him. He knows what Takeru is saying violates everything he believes in – and everything that Shinsuke has tried to teach him. Life is precious (including his own), and the Bushido code that fetishizes a glorious death is misguided.

Senya – with Takeru’s help, though it’s unclear whether that was intentional – soon sees through the bluster the leader of the Tribe assails him with. Indeed, even his two underlings seem to be losing their patience with him. Yamato Takeru is the new wild card here to be sure – he seems inclined to try and seize control of his own fate. And at last one can see how all the disparate threads in this epic yet personal story might finally start to be tied together.