After Isuzu graduated, Junichi was the only man left living in the women's fourth dormitory, all by himself. Yet although the academy had opened a sixth dormitory for the incoming students, it had not made Junichi leave.
Jun was rather exasperated. Morning, noon, and night, he kept running into crowds of girls. On top of that, he now looked like a new student, so those who had just enrolled or hadn't been at the academy long didn't know him at all. Quite a few people began asking who Jun was and why a man was living in the women's dormitory.
And so Jun's reputation ran into a little trouble. Although she still held the combined record for Reishi Sense and Reishi Quality, she hadn't graduated after all these years, and people began to gossip.
They called him a fake genius, a tomboy who was really a girl, a hentai who liked the women's dormitory, and a coward deliberately putting off graduation. None of it was pleasant.
Some even speculated that Jun's record might be fake, that her parents had helped her complete her Reishi Quality before she enrolled. They said her talent was utterly trash, and that she had put off graduating until now because she was afraid she couldn't pass.
The rumors multiplied, but Jun didn't care in the slightest. She merely changed her training routine.
With Isuzu's graduation, their morning Hakuda and Zanjutsu practice came to an end. After Aizen graduated, those sessions had become Jun teaching Isuzu. Jun herself was already extremely strong and had long since reached the level required for a Menkyo.
So Jun now spent every day at the Journal Hall, officially becoming its keeper. She would read the journals for a while, then make preparations in a corner, cast Tōzanshō and Kyokkō, and enter her own Tōzanshō to train in Kidō. When she grew tired, she would come out and read some more.
It wasn't a bad life, really. Jun lived like that until she gradually lost track of time. Then one day, a new student knocked on the door of the women's fourth dormitory, but there was no sound from inside.
The little girl pushed the door open and saw that it was pitch-dark inside. She didn't dare go in, so she sat on the threshold to wait. After quite a while, a girl passing by spotted her.
"Why are you sitting here? Did you come to the wrong dormitory?"
"Hm?" The little girl stood up and checked the sign. It was indeed the fourth dormitory, so she nodded. "No, this is right. The acting headmaster said I was supposed to live in the women's fourth dormitory."
"Huh?" The passerby was even more baffled. "Nobody new has lived in this dormitory for a long time. Did that pervert graduate?"
"???" Naturally, the new girl had no idea what she meant.
The passerby didn't feel comfortable going inside to check, so she said, "If he hasn't graduated, he'll be at the Journal Hall at the southern end of the grounds. Go look for him there."
"Just keep walking south?"
"Right. At the very end, there's a place that looks like a warehouse. That's it. Go on."
"Oh, thank you, miss."
The little girl thanked her politely, then jogged south. The Journal Hall was easy to find. She arrived and looked around, but there was still nobody there.
There was a light on inside the Journal Hall, though, so the little girl pushed open the door and went in. With nothing else to do for the moment, she looked around. There were many bookshelves in the hall, each bearing a sign. Some said "chronicles," others "comedies," and others "insights." The little girl looked them over, took out a few journals containing comedies, and began to read.
Some of the things recorded in the comedies were amusing, while others were beyond the little girl's understanding. But she wasn't especially fond of reading, and after a while she grew bored and left the Journal Hall.
The little girl looked around and discovered an empty space behind the Journal Hall. It seemed deserted, so she walked over.
"Hm? Someone's here."
Jun was inside the Tōzanshō, practicing Hadō number eighty, Heart-Piercing Thunder, when she suddenly sensed that the alarm had been triggered. She connected to Bakudō number forty-five, Eye of Heaven, which she kept ready at all times, to see what was happening outside.
"Hm? Such a little girl." Jun saw a girl about the same age he had been when he first enrolled, feeling her way around.
Jun cast Kyokkō, Bakudō number twenty-six, on herself to become invisible, then dismissed the Tōzanshō. She went a little farther in, lit a small glow of spiritual power, and walked back. Before long, she ran into the little girl.
"Why are you here all alone?"
"Brother?" The little girl looked at Jun, studying her carefully before asking, "Is that you, Brother Jun?"
Only then did Jun realize the little girl looked very familiar. When she called out to her, Jun knew. "Jun! Is that you, Jun?"
"Brother~~!" Jun threw herself into Jun's arms and burst into tears.
Jun picked up her little sister and gently patted her back. "Don't cry, don't cry. There, there~ don't cry."
"Brother~~" Jun couldn't help crying as she called out, "I missed you so much~~"
"I missed you too, Jun." Junichi lied with a perfectly straight face. In her fifty-two years at the academy, she had barely remembered that she had a little sister. Otherwise, how could she have failed to recognize her?
Jun carried her sobbing little sister back to the Journal Hall. After crying for a while, Jun grew a little tired and whimpered in her arms, refusing to get down.
"Why did you enroll so early?"
"Mmm~ you enrolled even earlier than I did," the little girl murmured.
"I didn't have a choice, did I? But why did the Ise Clan let you enroll? Have they been treating you badly!?"
Jun shook her head and looked at Jun, her little face somewhat unhappy. "Dad—no, my Ise Clan dad treats me very well. For a while, he was especially fond of me, and he's still good to me now. It's just that I heard the servants saying bad things about you a few times, and it made me very unhappy."
"Uh." Jun was quite depressed. So what had happened to her had such a far-reaching effect: her failure to graduate had even affected her little sister. And from Jun's words, she gathered that when her name had spread as a genius, Jun had also received excellent treatment. That was good enough; the good and the bad canceled each other out.
"You're amazing, aren't you, Brother?"
"Of course!" Jun might lie to anyone else, but not to her own sister. She scooped her up and continued walking. "Come on, let's go home and wait a while. Which dormitory are you in?"
"The women's fourth dormitory."
"Oh~ that's good."
That settled things for Junichi, and she had also learned something: the academy wasn't unaware that Junichi was living in the women's dormitory. They might have thought she would graduate before long, only to find that she kept hanging around and wouldn't leave.
"Haha, maybe that's why. It really has been hard on the academy," Jun laughed inwardly.
Her sister's arrival brought Jun a new experience in life. Before, it had always been others taking care of her: Yuzu, Nana, and Isuzu. Now Jun was taking care of her sister. As it happened, her training was no longer so urgent, so she made all kinds of delicious food for Jun, filling the dormitory with mouthwatering aromas all day long.
Of course, food wasn't the main thing. Jun also took charge of her sister's education. After all, quite a few instructors weren't as capable as she was at present. For the first few months after enrollment, though, she still let Jun attend the open classes on her own. As mentioned before, the people who taught those classes at the start of the school year were all great experts and senior teachers.
Jun went to great lengths over her sister's Reishi Sense, providing food, drink, and entertainment of every kind, as well as guidance on sensing Reishi. But Jun might have been unable to take in so much information; after all, many of her sister's views differed from the mainstream. Her sister took seventeen days to achieve Reishi Sense, which was fairly good.
Reishi Sense wasn't the issue; the time it took to form a Reishi Quality mattered more. After Jun taught her sister everything she needed to know, her sister completed her Reishi Quality in four sessions over eight days. That talent was the genuine article, and very impressive.
But Jun didn't reveal her sister's abilities. Once her sister had completed her Reishi Quality, Jun began taking her to her own training spot every day for one-on-one lessons.
Poor Jun's little sister began living the same kind of life Jun once had at such a young age: Hakuda and Zanjutsu training in the morning, Kidō training in the afternoon, and a packed schedule from morning till night.
But to Jun's great relief, her own sister shared the same tenacity. No matter how grueling Jun's training was, the little girl stuck with it.
Time passed, and May arrived in Jun's second year at the academy. Aizen became an instructor again, and Jun promptly dumped her sister on him with a parting remark.
"This is my own little sister, and she's the only one I have. You know what to do."
And so, for the first time ever, Aizen taught at the academy for three months. Once was followed by twice, and from then on, Aizen became Jun's private teacher during his teaching period every year, without exception.
It could be said that Jun wore herself out worrying about her sister during her final years at the academy. She gave her the best of everything and provided extra lessons to an unimaginable degree. Jun felt she might not even treat her own children this well in the future.
Then, in the blink of an eye, six years passed. It was Jun's fifty-eighth year in Soul Society, the year of her final graduation season at the academy. If Aizen hadn't mentioned it, Jun would have forgotten.
"Man~ time really flies~. I'm about to graduate," Jun said, sitting in the doorway after dinner and sipping from a cup of tea.
"Brother~ why are you sitting here? Hee-hee." Seeing Jun like that, Jun copied her, bringing over a cup of tea and sitting down beside her.
"Jun~" Jun stroked the top of her sister's head. Over those six years, she had truly come to accept her sister's existence. Things were different from when she had first transmigrated. Decades had given her plenty of time to think, and she had some ideas of her own, giving her some leeway to make good arrangements for her sister.
"What is it, Brother~?"
"Aaah~" Jun sighed. "I'm about to graduate. If I don't graduate now, I won't be able to become a Soul Reaper."
Jun blinked her big eyes at her and said innocently, "Then just graduate. You're so strong!"
"Uh." Jun was at a loss for words. Her sister knew exactly how strong she was. The girl hadn't quite understood it in the first few years, but later she had gradually learned what level Jun's strength was really at. From then on, she had worshipped Jun like a god.
"What's wrong? Say something, Brother~"
"Tch~ who's going to take care of you after I leave?" Jun asked a very stupid question.
Jun blinked her big eyes a few more times, her face innocent. "I'll take care of myself."
"I'm worried."
"Then I'll graduate with you."
"What?"
"I said!" Jun stood up, stared fixedly at Jun, and shouted, "I'm graduating with you, Brother!"
"You..." Jun stood up too. He certainly wouldn't agree.
But Jun didn't back down an inch. "I can graduate now too. My abilities have only just reached the level needed to graduate, but I really can do it. What's wrong with me graduating?"
"You're still so weak!"
"How am I weak!? I've gotten this strong in only six years, and I can graduate already!"
"You..."
So what was so good about living together? Distance made the heart grow fonder. The sister who had arrived crying and could only trail after her brother was gone, replaced by one who dared talk back to him.
But Jun had never told her sister about the cruelty of this world. She hadn't let Jun know what had happened to Yuzu; she wanted to give her sister a happy life, free from danger. Yet at this moment, Jun realized she couldn't do it. Whether she left Jun at the academy or they graduated together, she couldn't give her sister a stable world for decades to come.
So Jun sighed and patted her sister's shoulder. "Ah~ all right. Come with me. There's something I need to tell you."
That night, Junichi drank alcohol for the first time. Jun had her sister pay respects to the older sister she had never met. Jun cried bitterly and also came to understand her sister's thoughts a little, though of course she couldn't experience them as directly as Jun had.
A few days later, the siblings went to the office together to submit their graduation applications, leaving the acting headmaster completely dumbfounded.
He knew Jun was certain to graduate. For years, the joke whenever acting headmasters handed over their duties had been about when Jun would finally graduate. But he hadn't expected Jun to apply as well.
"Um, Shimizu, your sister Ise has only been enrolled for six years."
"Yes, I know. What about it?"
"But what you've submitted are graduation applications."
"Yes. My sister can graduate already. She's a genius."
"Huh?"
"She's a genius, more of a genius than me."
Jun had no intention of paying the acting headmaster any more attention. She took her sister by the hand and left the office. Once the graduation assessment was over, the name Ise Jun would become another record: the one who broke the record for the shortest time between formal enrollment and graduation.
Jun was also wondering whether Gin Ichimaru and Tōshirō Hitsugaya would still be able to break that record in the future.
Incidentally, the record Jun was about to break was still held by Shunsui Kyōraku. The siblings had broken all of Kyōraku's records. They really owed their conveniently acquired big brother an apology.
Hahaha.