However, Jun's attempt to tempt him failed.
Why was it that in so many stories involving demons and ghosts, whether in China or abroad, those tempted by them were always wealthy men, scholars, or high officials, but rarely farmers?
Because the more material possessions people had, the more desires they had. As the saying went, once people were warm and well fed, they started thinking about that sort of thing. Someone who couldn't get enough to eat wanted food above all else, not anything else.
A life lived from one day to the next gave this poor man nothing but fear. He hadn't seen enough of the world to support any desires, so he refused. He only wanted something to eat, something edible.
Jun used Sōdō to create a piece of meat and tossed it to him. The man called Koinu ate it just like that, with such relish that it seemed to really taste like meat, making both of them hungry just watching him.
He absorbed the Spiritual Power in the Sōdō creation, and he was full. It was that simple. Once he'd eaten his fill, he grew timid again.
"We won't hurt you. Do you want to come with us?"
"G-go where?"
"I don't know either. I want to build a place where people like you can live in peace."
"Does a place like that really exist?"
Jun shrugged. "Of course not. I told you, I'll build one for you. Are you coming or not?"
Koinu's gaze darted around, clearly unable to make up his mind, so Jun spoke again.
"Whether it works out or not, if you follow me, at least you won't go hungry for a while."
"I-I'll go."
It was a simple, straightforward approach. Eating one's fill was a basic desire of every living creature, and it was that easy to satisfy.
"Your arms and legs are broken. I'll fix them for you."
As Jun spoke, he broke the man's arms and legs again. But that kind of pain wasn't severe for a Bount. He only gritted his teeth, and that was that. He didn't even break a sweat.
Then Jun treated him with Kaido. He found that it wasn't as effective as when he treated a Soul Reaper, but it still worked very well. Koinu watched the wondrous green light—Bount could see Spiritual Power—then looked at Jun and Isuzu, and was actually spellbound.
"Are you gods?"
That was what he asked after Koinu had been healed. It made Isuzu burst out laughing, and Jun couldn't help smiling either.
"If you think we are, then we are."
Koinu knelt before the couple and prostrated himself in worship.
Since that was the case, Jun said, "Your name sounds terrible. Since you're called Koinu, I'll change your name to Inosuke and grant you a surname. This is the southernmost island, so your surname will be Minamijima. From now on, you're Minamijima Inosuke, understand?"
"C-can a lowly one like me have a given name and a surname?"
"Ah~ How could someone who serves the gods be lowly?"
"My deepest thanks!" Minamijima Inosuke continued prostrating himself. "May this lowly one ask the two gods for your divine titles?"
"Uh... I'm the Shimizu God." Jun simply used his surname, and the divine title sounded quite good. He turned and whispered to Isuzu, "What about you? What kind of god are you?"
"You really dare to play along!" Isuzu thought it was a little too irreverent. Born in Soul Society, she was quite timid.
"What are you afraid of? If you don't come up with a divine title for yourself, I'll say you're the god Tsukuyomi."
"Are you crazy?!"
In Japanese mythology, Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi were both great gods, among the most powerful there were, with Susanoo on the same level. How would Isuzu dare let herself be taken for Tsukuyomi? She racked her brains and came up with a divine title.
"I am the Clean Clothes God."
Jun struggled to hold back his laughter. So he was water, and she was the one who washed clothes. Then Isuzu pinched his waist.
Minamijima Inosuke didn't dare raise his head. He was devout now, muttering what seemed to be some Shinto prayers, very ancient things. After worshipping them for a while, his whole mental state changed. Religion really did have a powerful effect on the mind.
"Come with us. You are now an attendant who serves the gods. We do not care about appearances, but we do care about what lies within. Your heart and your will must be worthy of your station."
"As you command."
The two of them brought Minamijima Inosuke onto the island. Actually, things felt a little strange now. All three of them probably knew this inexplicable faith was false, but Minamijima Inosuke had to believe it was real, or he would have nothing. Perhaps that was why the first religious charlatans appeared.
"Do you know the identities of the others of your kind on the other islands?"
"My lord, there's a very powerful fellow on the island over there, but there's no one like him on the other islands. If there's anyone else, they're just like I used to be."
"A very powerful fellow? Interesting."
Jun grabbed Minamijima Inosuke and used Shunpo to reach the largest island nearby. This act was taken as another divine miracle, but Jun paid it no mind. Following his Bakudō search, he found a small cave with four Bount inside.
One was a man, and three were women. The three women wore nothing, while the man was bare-chested and wore something resembling samurai clothing below the waist. There was also a sword in the cave.
"Who are you?! Get out of here~~!!"
The man was terrified. From the look in his eyes, Jun sensed that he knew about Soul Reapers. In fact, most Bount knew Soul Reapers existed, and most had seen others of their kind killed. Jun took a few steps closer.
"Yaaah~~~aaah!!"
The man suddenly raised both hands, let out a great shout, and thrust them toward Jun. He actually managed to push out a burst of Spiritual Power.
"Oh my~ He can actually release Spiritual Power."
"So that's how it is? That's what he meant by powerful. Interesting."
The man was breaking down. He shouted even louder and gave another forceful push, producing a burst of Spiritual Power a little stronger than the last.
Before Jun could say anything, Minamijima Inosuke stepped forward from behind him and shouted proudly,
"Evildoer! How dare you attack the gods! Kneel and admit your mistake now, and you still have a chance to live! If you still refuse to admit it, you won't get a chance to regret it!"
"If you admit your mistake, the great Shimizu God and Clean Clothes God will forgive your offense! They'll even give you food and let you become a divine attendant! Kneel and worship!"
This newly recruited divine attendant was quite useful. The man opposite them was dumbfounded. He clearly didn't believe it, though who would? The three women huddled together, too afraid to move.
Jun saw how filthy the three women were and said to Isuzu, "Those women haven't bathed in a long time. Help them clean up."
"You're not allowed to look!"
"Tsk~ You're only saying that now? If I wanted to look, I'd have seen everything already. Besides, they're not attractive."
Isuzu clapped her little hands over Jun's eyes, then used clean water formed from Spiritual Power to wash the three women. This left them stunned, and they crawled over and knelt before the young couple.
Naturally, the man wouldn't stand for it. He was just about to act when Jun used Bakudō to tie him up like a rice dumpling. This miracle was impressive, and just like that, the sect had four members.
The three women were starving, so Jun gave them three more pieces of meat. Good grief, even the man couldn't hold out after that. Still bound like a rice dumpling, he kept kowtowing to Jun and Isuzu. It showed just how miserable life was for the Bount.
And so the sect grew to five members. Jun traveled along the coastline south of Shikoku, and after half a month, the sect had forty-one members in total. The Bount really weren't few in number.
But why were only those few left in the original story? First, some had gone into hiding. Second, there really weren't many left, because as society developed, it became harder and harder for Bount to hide. Where had Kariya Jin and the others hidden in the original story? In an underground tunnel dug out who knew where, nearly reaching the mantle. They had dug all the way to a magma zone.
Then the couple divided up the work. Isuzu led the forty-one people north, avoiding any Soul Reapers they encountered along the way. Isuzu was stronger than most Soul Reapers in the World of the Living, so generally speaking, there wouldn't be any trouble.
After Jun gathered information from these people, there were many uncertain leads. He followed them one by one to find all those Bount.
As he searched, Jun reached what should have been Nagasaki in later times, but in the Sengoku period was Hizen Province, territory of the Ōuchi. In a hollow between the hills there, Jun discovered a small village formed by more than a dozen Bount.
When Jun landed in the village, the dozen or so Bount were scared witless. Some immediately began crying, while even the strong-willed ones waited there for death, not daring to move.
"I'm not going to kill you."
"Huh?"
"Do you know where there are any others of your kind?"
"W-what are you going to do?"
"Gather you together. Build some houses while you're here. More than forty others of your kind will be coming soon."
"Wait!"
"What is it?"
"Uh..."
Jun's patience was wearing thin. Most people in this era had little education and couldn't express themselves clearly. He really didn't have time to play guessing games with them.
Moreover, while gathering those forty-one people, Jun had discovered that no matter what he was doing, the first step was to demonstrate violence. Only then could he move on to the second. Those were the rules of this era.
So Jun slammed them all to the ground with his Reiatsu and used Spiritual Power to place a rune on them that didn't actually do anything. Then he said,
"I'm not here to ask for your opinions. Now tell me what you know about the other members of your kind, and then build houses! Don't even think about running. That mark will let me find you."
After Jun handled things this way, matters went much more smoothly. He got five or six leads, and the Bount quickly began building houses.
Just like that, over a year and three months, Jun and Isuzu found 372 Bount. Then they established a small town in a canyon north of Inabayama on the island of Shikoku.
Jun also found Kariya Jin, an overage adolescent with delusions of grandeur. He was quite eager to resist Jun, but unfortunately, neither now nor in the future could he possibly be Jun's opponent.
Not one of the people who appeared in the original story was missing. It wasn't that Jun was playing favorites. After finding them, he didn't feel as much like continuing the search, and he really had conducted a blanket search of all Japan. That was enough.
Nearly half of the three years had passed. He couldn't spend all his time just looking for people. Jun's goal wasn't to collect Bount, but to help this group develop.
"Starting today, I'll teach you to read and write, and to discover and control your powers. But first, I need to solve the problem of feeding you."
Food really was a major problem. Bount could endure hunger; at their limit, they could go more than ten years without dying. But after that, a single meal required a truly enormous amount of Spiritual Power.
Jun and Isuzu's own Spiritual Power was nowhere near enough to feed more than three hundred Bount. Just by eating, those three hundred-plus Bount could devour a Soul Reaper.
There was another problem: with more than three hundred Bount gathered together, the fluctuations in Spiritual Power were enormous. If Shikoku hadn't had so many mountains, with its towns and cities mostly along the coast, fluctuations on that scale could never have escaped the Soul Reapers' notice.
But even if they could hide from Soul Reapers, they couldn't hide from Hollows. Some wild animals could also become Hollows after death. To Hollows, those three hundred-plus Bount were a sumptuous feast, and they flocked toward them like mad.
It was precisely because of this that Jun managed to solve their food problem to some extent, because they could eat Hollows. Hollows were Spiritual Power too.
But sooner or later, they would eat all the Hollows. Resources were scarce in this area, making large-scale livestock farming difficult. Besides, Bount didn't need to eat physical food, and the era was too backward. If this were modern times, a Bount working at a slaughterhouse could eat until he threw up.
So Jun came up with a bold idea.