The Bount had a stable home, which made them extremely happy, having always lived a life of constant wandering and fear. Although it was a cave and they had no contact with other humans, they were all very content.
Chun's thinking is a bit ahead of its time. Only after the Bount have overcome their psychological hurdle of crisis will they possibly want to go outside, and even then, only the daring kind.
They had no spare capacity, so there was no question of a next generation, nor would they be arrogant due to their inexperience. They had witnessed Soul Reaper and the void; they understood the dangers of the world.
Therefore, they prayed for power and studied extremely hard, including the Kariya Jin.
Kariya Jin has changed. He's no longer so cynical and has begun to actively cooperate with Jun's teaching. He even volunteered to be Shiro-chan for researching and developing Bount powers. In this process, Jun begins to truly understand Kariya Jin's past.
Kariya Jin's real Eugene Barrier Barry, the son of a missionary who had traveled from Europe. Just as his ship and his father's were about to dock, everyone on board was struck by abnormal Reishi.
When they awoke again, the ship had drifted back to sea. The crew was bewildered, initially thinking they had encountered Sea Serpent or something, but upon inspection, they found no one dead. The brave captain then continued the voyage, and they landed in Japan three days later.
However, by this time, many people on board had become aware of the changes they had undergone. The captain explained that this might be a blessing from the sea god, as they discovered they no longer needed to eat, experienced little to no pain, and recovered from injuries much faster—many benefits indeed.
So the crew members were very happy. Although Kariya Jin's father was a missionary, he was also a doctor, a very impressive person for that era. He didn't believe in any sea god, so he wanted to do his own research.
In fact, the stories of those ancient missionaries we see reveal that faith in God and scientific research are not contradictory. Many missionaries were even key figures in scientific discoveries because they attributed everything to God, thus they were unafraid of anything strange and possessed a strong spirit of exploration.
Kariya Jin became his father's assistant, but their research had barely begun when Soul Reaper descended, slaughtering all the Bount. Soul Reaper and his father frantically fled for their lives, reaching the mountains. Kariya Jin's father then pushed Kariya Jin off a cliff Kariya Jin.
Kariya Jin didn't die; he was Bount. But he lost his father and his purpose. At that time, he was just a real child, wandering aimlessly through the mountains and rivers, afraid to return to human settlements, lest he encounter Soul Reaper again.
Then he bumped into Soul Reaper, a female Soul Reaper, Aijima.
Unlike other Soul Reapers, Aijima treated Kariya Jin exceptionally well after learning he was Bount, even helping him control his powers, though with little effect, but it was something she had to do.
Kariya Jin was already sixteen years old at the time, and being Europe, he was quite precocious in matters of the heart. During their time together, he discovered he had fallen in love with this gentle female Soul Reaper, but then Aijima suddenly disappeared.
Will you suddenly disappear too? Just like her?
"So you haven't fallen in love with me too, have you?"
"Fart!"
Haha~
Jun laughed, Kariya Jin's face turned red. Jun decided not to tease him anymore.
"You've misunderstood her. Aijima didn't want to disappear; she received an urgent message to return to Soul Society."
Couldn't she have told me?
"She probably thought she could come back," Chun smiled helplessly. "Aijima is a researcher, and I'm a combatant. She and I are different, but the biggest difference isn't combat ability, but our understanding of human nature. She thought she could help you."
"So after she returned to Soul Society, she explained the current situation of the Bount and proposed that Soul Society accept you, accept all the Bount as residents."
"What!? Her?" Kariya Jin was somewhat incredulous.
"That's exactly what she did, but as I said before, the upper echelons of Soul Society consider the appearance of Bount to be filthy and to defile their greatness. So, Aijima's proposal was like slapping them in the face right in the face, hard and loud!"
"What happened to her?"
"Fortunately, those people still had some humanity. They didn't kill Aijima; they just exiled her. Aijima is in Hueco Mundo now, but nobody knows exactly where. Soul Reaper have to be extremely careful to survive in Hueco Mundo. If they make even the slightest mistake, they're doomed. So unless it's a chance encounter, they're impossible to find."
Kariya Jin fell silent. After listening to Kariya Jin's story, and combining it with the information he already knew, he roughly understood why Kariya had ended up the way he was.
He fell in love with Aijima, but Aijima left without saying goodbye, and he felt betrayed Aijima her.
Then, several hundred years later, at this point in time, Kariya Jin's abilities still haven't awakened. According to the original timeline, he can only helplessly watch his kind being killed by the Soul Reaper, while he himself is forced to hide and flee.
At some point in the future, he finally awakened and gained power. He began searching for his kind and helping them gain power, but by then, five or six hundred years had passed since then. The Soul Society had truly named the Kariya Jin (Bount) after them.
Yes, in Jun's current timeline, the Soul Society didn't name them Bount at all; Jun named them that himself, and only Isuzu knew it. In the original work, the name Soul Bount only appeared after Kariya Jin completed his awakening and helped many of his kind awaken as well, and they went out causing trouble and were discovered by the Soul Reaper.
At that time, the Bount became enemies of the Soul Society, and indeed they were enemies, because Kariya Jin commanded them to kill and obtain Bount, and he himself was one of the most enthusiastic killers. From that moment on, Kariya Jin became a complete scoundrel; he was a villain, and there's no way to whitewash him.
In contrast, the current Bount are powerless, constantly on the run, and can only wait for prey to be eaten by the souls of the dead and animals when they are extremely hungry.
Later, the Bount gained power and went on a killing spree, devouring human souls to strengthen themselves.
This is a perfect trope: a bullied rabbit transforms into a ravenous wolf after gaining power, Kariya Jin is the hungriest wolf king.
Therefore, the Bount were relentlessly attacked by the Soul Reaper, and their numbers dwindled drastically. Knowing he had failed again, Kariya Jin led his remaining troops to continue their hiding, until the events of the original story...
The future Kariya Jin is not worthy of pity, and neither is the current Kariya Jin. His personality is extreme; he's fairly intelligent and has some strategic skills, making him a good fighter, but not a good leader.
Fortunately, the Bount have now been gathered together, and they have a new leader they have jointly elected. Miki Ichirin was once a very good businessman, insightful and courageous, steady yet energetic, making him an excellent leader.
To be honest, the term "Bount" isn't very flattering, since they no longer hunt souls, so Chun simply called everyone together.
"You, the name 'Bount' was given to you by the Soul Society. You should understand its meaning now. It's a very aggressive and insulting name because I don't think you would hunt souls. We can develop peacefully, right?"
They exchanged glances, then waited for Miki Ichirin speak. The slightly overweight Miki nodded. "Shimizu God is right, we need to change our name, but we must retain the title 'Bount.' That's the name of our enemies. If anyone here chooses to hunt souls, they must be banished, not killed. We don't Bount!"
"Yes! We don't Bount!", "I don't want to kill anyone~", "I just want to live a good life."
Everyone has their own thoughts, and some people genuinely don't care about this, but given the current environment, they basically agree with the decision.
As for whether Bount will be born in the future, or whether they will split into two opposing groups, Chun is not sure. But if that day ever comes, Chun will take responsibility to kill all the Bount, leaving none alive!
"Shimizu God, what should our new name be?"
"This... um," Chun pondered, a wicked name forming in her mind, "Let's call you the Undead. You are immortal and ageless, but you have actually died once. You are the torches rekindled by the souls of the dead, the embers of immortality."
"Undead, immortal embers, what a cool name!"
"Undead! Undead! Doesn't that mean we won't die? Haha! I don't want to die! Long live the Undead!!"
"Long live the Undead!!"
"Long live the Undead!!"
The sheer morbid humor succeeded: the Undead, the race of the protagonist in the game Dark Souls, beings who can be resurrected from the dead, whose flames Undying and whose embers never perish.
However, the reason why Chun chose this name was actually a decision she made after conducting research.
Bount Undead, their existence stemming from humans' mastery of Spiritual Power. However, there are also other types of humans who wield Spiritual Power —not two, but Quincy and Fullbring.
In the original work Uryū Ishida is Quincy, Yasutora Sado and Orihime Inoue are Fullbring users. Later, there are also the characters from the Kūgo Ginjō.
So what's the difference between the Undead, Quincy, and Fullbring? The difference between the latter two is still unclear, because I haven't seen a Quincy or a Fullbring yet. However, I do know the difference between the former and the latter two.
Because the former are dead, Undead are transformed from the dead. When they were impacted by that mutated Spiritual Power, they died, but their souls were activated, and they came back to life.
But their bodies are dead, reduced to things like stone and wood, which is why they can't control their Reishi flowing through their bodies. They still need Reishi to activate their bodies; this is the biggest difference.
The dead are resurrected, and their souls Undying —that's what immortality is all about. It's so similar to the Undead in Dark Souls! I naively thought these were the Undead. Maybe one day these Undead will lose their humanity and become Zombies —that would be so relatable!
The Undead have gotten back on track. They've concealed the Cave entrance, left an activatable Rending Space Realm and Space-Breaking World within the Cave, and created ten Crest connecting to the Void Rending Space Realm, allowing them to teleport in and out of the cave at a certain distance outside.
The Space-Breaking World Hueco Mundo connects to Hueco Mundo, and it is sealed. To break the seal, one must use the Spiritual Power released by a single person in a single instance to achieve the required level. This is because it is believed that whoever can break the seal will possess a certain level of strength to survive in Hueco Mundo.
Furthermore, this Space-Breaking World only allows one person to pass through at a time—the one who breaks the seal. It refuses entry to incompetent idiots who act impulsively and want to do everything.
After doing all this, Jun went to Hueco Mundo to leave a message. After Starrk came to pick Jun up, Jun went to Hueco Mundo for a few more months. The three years were coming to an end, and the young couple returned to Soul Society with a lot of reluctance.