@Khrysaor @Brackass It also doesn't have to work either of those ways, the thinking that rebirth occurs right after the time period of a past life may not be the case. We don't even know how or if it even works in real life, nevertheless in fiction where the rules can be always be different. As an example take a look at other mangas where people are "reincarnated" into past eras or even parallel universes. If you want to stick to the concept of rebirth, you can also check out the manga Spirit Circle (pretty good but not as amazing as this one) which has an interesting concept - people can be reborn into any time period (past or future) because souls exist outside of the plane of time. As an example, one of the main characters lived out his future life before being reborn into the modern era, and then later into a past era. After death, souls exit the plane of time and can re-enter at any different point in time. Any of these concepts can be true because it's fiction including the one where there may have been intermediate lives in between, but I like to think that the were directly born into their current lives because they skipped through the time in between. In the end though, it doesn't matter because it's fiction and regardless of which one is true, it doesn't affect the plot.