[whatasob]

im actually pretty sure that kaien and ichigo have nothing to do with one another, due to conflicts in my beliefs.

Spoiler:

i think that there's a cycle between hollows/shinigamis and people in the real world, so that if u die in the real world, you become a hollow or shinigami, and vice versa. therefore, if kaien died in SS, then ichigo would be born. while this theory holds for the moment, it clashes with my belief that ichigo is SS’s lost king. the chapter with ichigo and hichigo’s little exchange of a king and his horse was too provocative for me, and i’m really confident kubo wouldn’t have used those exact words by mere coincidence. so by that logic, either arroniro isn’t ichigo, ichigo isn’t the king, the reincarnation model isn’t accurate, or (the most likely weak link for me) the two have nothing to do with one another, despite how physically similar they may appear.