Although it was interpreted as a torture device, everyone still got to play with the Gigai, and it was indeed quite fun because it gave them a real sense of being alive.
Then, some problems arose on Chun's end. Problem one: how to make money; problem two: more Gigai.
Dolfen and Lilynette adored the Gigai; the two girls longed to experience life in the human world, even in Edo period Japan, which they felt was far better than Hueco Mundo, where they had lived for centuries.
There are many ways to solve the first problem. While I was alive, I did farm Gigai. As for the artificial body, saying it gives you the feeling of being alive is only a matter of perception; its physical strength is far beyond what humans can match. You could cut the Gigai into a machine that consumes Spiritual Power.
Furthermore, it doesn't involve the kind of physical and mental strain that humans experience. It won't get fevers or colds caused by germs, nor will it get joint strain-related illnesses like lumbar disc herniation or bone spurs. Heart disease or cerebral thrombosis are even less likely.
With unlimited stamina, how could you possibly lose to the average player in a farm management game? Making money isn't difficult, but I just don't want Isuzu to work too hard; I'd rather be tired myself.
However, while it's not difficult, the development period is still quite long, which leads to the second issue: creating Gigai.
This involves the Sōdō, so only Jun can do it; no one else can. Jun also tried to Kidō to the Arrancar, but because of the Hollow Hole, the Arrancar seem to have a very different Reishi core Origin from the Soul Reaper, and their control over Spiritual Power is not interchangeable. Therefore, the Kidō is out of the question, and the Sōdō is even more out of the question.
Therefore, Jun decided to call his apprentice and his apprentice's wife over, since they also had Gigai.
"We are the Soul Reapers, not here to compete with the living for resources. We won't do any speculative or profiteering things. I believe farming and animal husbandry are the best things for us to do!"
"Okay, okay, Master, what should we plant and raise?" Before anyone else could say anything, Aozumi agreed first. Born into a wealthy family, she wanted to try new things and also harbored a desire to become a strong, independent woman.
"We grow a lot of things. Let me show you: sorghum, corn, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, chili peppers, Sichuan pepper, soybeans, and bamboo."
"If you're looking to raise them, I won't find anything too difficult for you. It's this one."
"Yay!"
Junichi pulled something out, causing the two women to scream in terror. What Chun had pulled out was a large rat. "Don't be afraid," he said, "It's not a rat, but it's still one of our kind. It's a bamboo rat, it grows up eating bamboo."
"Isn't that still a rat?"
"There's a huge difference. The key is that raising these things doesn't get you dirty. Otherwise, what would you do, take care of pigs, or... raise something else? With Japan's barren landscape, what kind of pigs could you possibly raise?"
If this were a modern society, Japan could raise other things, but what kind of animals could you raise in the Edo period?
"Oh, and you can even keep snakes."
"Master~, Master~, don't you have any other things to take care of?"
"Raising dogs and pigs, that's it, oh, you can raise rabbits too."
"Let's raise rabbits then!" the two women decided first.
"Hmph, naive," Chun scoffed. "Kōga! You raise bamboo rats, and let your teacher's wife and your lover raise rabbits!"
"Hey! How do you raise it, Master?"
Come and learn from me.
He went to great lengths to generate revenue, traveling over 100,000 kilometers to China before finally finding everything he needed. The Edo period was a terrible era, extremely xenophobic, especially in the capital region of Edo, which was incredibly difficult to navigate.
Foreign crops are nowhere to be found. There's no corn, no tomatoes, no chili peppers, no Sichuan pepper, Chinese cabbage —it wasn't originally from Japan; it was introduced from China. So, there are only two things here: rice and beans. It's unbelievable!
Then the bamboo rats were also entirely imported; they don't exist in Japan, at least not in the Kantō region. They were brought directly from China.
Why do I want to raise bamboo rats? Because they're really easy to raise. They eat bamboo, especially hard bamboo, and they'll survive. Not only is the survival rate high, but they also produce meat quickly. Their reproduction rate is truly befitting of the rodent family; they're comparable to rabbits next door.
So the master and his disciples left several detectors in the city they were guarding. If a suspicious activity was detected, an alarm would be triggered, and they would rush over to the scene. Then they hid in the mountains and began cultivating their own land.
Several terraced fields were cleared, and everything was prepared for planting. Then, all the felled timber was chopped; what could be used was used for planks, and what couldn't be used was pieced together to make fences. Finally, two large wooden houses were built.
During this time, they went out and wiped out three waves of invading Void creatures. Finally, they finished everything, including the pig farm. Chun stole two more piglets, and rabbits were everywhere on the mountain. There were even wolves in the mountains. The bamboo rats were also taken care of.
Then, after explaining how to feed and raise him, Jun went to Hueco Mundo to make Gigai. Incidentally, because he had Gigai, Jun sent the Arrancar back to Hueco Mundo first, planning to come back to the World of the Living later when he had Gigai.
Because Hollow and Shinigami spiritual power are not interchangeable, otherwise, using only Hollow spiritual power, it would probably have taken only a few days to create a prosthetic body. Using only his own spiritual power, it took him a year to create five prosthetic bodies.
I returned to the World of the Living many times during that time, otherwise all the creatures would have been starved to death by these Soul Society -born grandparents. Having spent so much time in the Soul Society, as I've mentioned before, I have an aura of divine energy. I thought I wouldn't eat anything because I didn't eat myself, and I left the rabbits, bamboo rats, and pigs starving—it was a pitiful sight.
They planted the seedlings but ignored them. Deer even came into their yard and ate the seedlings. The two women watched and cheered, thinking, "So our seedlings are just for feeding the deer?" This infuriated them!
They caught the deer and kept them in an enclosure, which attracted wolves. They killed them, and sold the wolf pelts and meat in Edo Castle. The wolf pelts fetched a good price, since Jun was over 1.8 meters tall. Although Gigai didn't look like a hunter, his height was exceptionally tall for that era, making him quite intimidating.
He took the money and bought some rice, noodles, and vegetables, but when he got home, he realized there was no stove at all. Soul Reaper doesn't need to eat!
Building a stove was difficult; iron was strictly controlled at the time, so there was no way to cheat. I stole iron ore from the gun shop and made a set of cooking utensils myself. I also stole oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar from the castle tower. Life was really tough.
Fortunately, the meal he cooked was quite good, and his lover, apprentice, and apprentice's wife also enjoyed it. Real food is just different from the fake stuff in Soul Society; it finally gave these three a sense of real life.
So after a year, the rabbits had six litters, the bamboo rats had four litters (still not as many as the rabbits), the pigs had just grown up, two more deer were caught, and a dog appeared out of nowhere and was kept as a pet.
The above pertains to animal husbandry. Regarding planting, after saving seeds, the soybean harvest from two mu (approximately 0.16 acres) was less than 300 jin (approximately 150 kg), sorghum a little over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg), and Sichuan pepper, even at a slightly better rate, less than 400 jin (approximately 200 kg). The Chinese cabbage has just been planted, and the chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns have seeds; we can plant more next year. The same applies to tomatoes.
Yuan Longping Old Man countless lives! If modern society only produced this much, how would China feed its population of over a billion?
How do you feel about the past year?
"Waaah~ Chun, I want to raise bamboo rats, and rabbits, rabbits!"
Isuzu and Aozumi looked pitiful, and Chun smiled helplessly as they looked at Kōga. Kōga also looked troubled. Why? Because the smell of rabbits was too awful! Anyone who has raised rabbits knows that when a rabbit urinates, the stench is unbearable, and it's extremely difficult to clean; the smell is just too strong.
After a year, the rabbit shed was so unbearable that no one could go there anymore; the smell was absolutely awful. Even after changing the cages several times, it didn't help; the rabbits themselves were just as contaminating the environment.
"We still need to raise rabbits, but eight litters are too many. How about this, we'll only raise five litters. We can slaughter the extras for our own consumption or sell them; rabbits produce meat quickly."
"Eh? You want to eat rabbit too?" The two girls are up to their old tricks again.
"Then you two can take care of it, no matter how much it costs, you two have to support it, okay!"
Upon hearing Chun's harsh words, the two women's expressions immediately changed. Aozumi quickly said, "Eat, eat it all, it's alright. Master, is the rabbit delicious?"
Without hesitation, Chun slaughtered a few rabbits. He braised the meat and made soup, and since he had chili peppers and Sichuan pepper in the heads, he went to the city to look for more. Although he was missing a few seasonings, he still managed to make a spicy rabbit head dish.
After eating several rabbit heads, the three of them almost slaughtered the rabbits with their eyes on them. Jun quickly returned to Hueco Mundo to continue his work on creating Gigai. A year for creating Gigai is a time frame, while a year in animal husbandry is just a way of saying how long it lasts. In reality, only a little over half a year had passed.
So, by the middle of the following year, five more figures appeared in the courtyard: the adorable Dolfen, the dashing Tier Harribel, the lazy Starrk, the childlike Lilynette, and Oka clearly didn't seem like a good person.
When Zegrod first started making Jun's Gigai, he came to the World of the Living once, lived for a few days using Jun's Gigai, and then returned. According to him, everyone was afraid of him, so it wasn't fun.
There's really no way to blame Old Man Zegrod, nor can you blame the residents of the Edo period. You see, the form of Gigai is the form of its soul. Old Man Zegrod was over 2.3 meters tall, with a white beard and a physique—was that a normal person? Even in modern times, he'd be surrounded by onlookers; in this era, he'd be mistaken for a monster.
The current Oka is similar; this orca gentleman is over two meters tall, with those defined muscles. I wonder if the Maeda Keiji was as muscular as him? Judging from his appearance in later games, he's probably far from it.
So when Oka entered Edo Castle with the carcasses of several wolves, the entire city was in an uproar. Following the instructions Jun had given him, Oka claimed to be a hunter from the nearby mountains, and instantly gained the shogun's approval. Unlike Zegrod, this one looked more like a man, a warrior! Even nobles were trying to recruit him.
However, Oka refused all of them, but also said he wouldn't refuse to hire anyone. If there was any hunting need, as long as the price was right, it was all negotiable.
And so, a large family of nine suddenly appeared in the Jianghu era, embarking on their own self-sufficient and interesting life. If it weren't for the occasional Hollow invasions and the need to leave their Gigai to rest in Hueco Mundo due to insufficient Spiritual Power, they would probably have forgotten that they were Soul Reaper or Arrancar.
This kind of life was really comfortable and interesting. Some Soul Reaper stationed in the World of the Living came to visit and learned the pure breeding techniques. They even applied to the Soul Society for Gigai to play with. In short, from then on, Soul Reaper stationed in the World of the Living had a great way to entertain themselves.