Left in front of the dormitory by Acting Headmaster Takasudai, Jun had no other choice. He went up and pushed on the door. It opened easily, revealing a rather dark interior. The candles hadn't been lit.
Jun wasn't entirely sure what time period it was in Soul Society, but it was probably about five or six hundred years before the story began. In any case, everything in Soul Society was very backward at present. Streetlights did exist, but like indoor lighting, their only source of light was candles.
Jun had nothing on him to start a fire. To be precise, he hadn't even noticed that candles needed to be lit in Soul Society until he arrived at this dark dormitory. The candles in the funeral hall and the streetlights in the Seireitei had always been burning, so he had never paid any attention to the question of lighting.
So Jun didn't go inside. It wasn't because he was afraid of the dark, of course. He just thought that barging in so rashly might look suspicious. He had no intention of doing anything, but if he got caught, it would be hard to explain himself.
"Tch, evening? How long do I have to wait?" Jun remembered that it hadn't been noon yet when he arrived. It was probably only around two in the afternoon now, so there were at least another four or five hours until evening. That was a long wait.
So Jun sat down on the threshold and began sorting through the information he had gathered during this time. Since it was difficult to ask around, what he had learned was actually very limited.
Putting it in the order he had learned it, the first thing was the Soul Reapers with the surname Shimizu, the family Jun now belonged to: the Eighth Division's eleventh and twenty-seventh seats.
He had also learned about the seated positions in the division. As far as he knew, the Eighth Division's Intelligence-Gathering Unit currently had fifty-eight seats in all, meaning a total of fifty-eight people. Doing a little calculation based on the original story, the total number of Gotei 13 members probably hadn't even reached a thousand yet. Including the Kidō Corps, whose numbers were unknown, there might have been at most twelve or thirteen hundred Soul Reapers.
Next, he now knew that the Eighth Division's captain was a still-young Shunsui Kyōraku, though his exact age was unknown. He had also learned about the ages of souls in Soul Society. When souls in Soul Society grew normally, they only continued until they reached adulthood, at around twenty years old. After that, they managed their age themselves as they grew.
There were also clear comparisons in the original story. The three elders of Soul Society had been mentioned before: Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Chōjirō Sasakibe, and Retsu Unohana. All three were old monsters who had survived the first Thousand-Year Blood War, but their apparent ages also differed greatly.
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto looked at least eighty, unmistakably a decrepit old man at a glance, provided he kept his clothes on.
By a conservative estimate, Chōjirō Sasakibe looked over sixty and was an old man himself. But he admired Yamamoto and had once changed from a challenger into a follower, so he looked much younger than Yamamoto as a form of respect.
Then there was Fourth Division Captain Retsu Unohana, who looked forty at most but was actually over a thousand years old as well.
Next were Shunsui Kyōraku and Jūshirō Ukitake, the first Shin'ō Academy students to become captains. They were veterans among the captains during the original story, so their appearances had changed to those of men around forty.
Byakuya and his peers, meanwhile, looked very young. Among the Visored, the older generation of captains were all quite advanced in age, yet their lieutenants looked fresher-faced than the last.
So, in fact, a soul's actual age in Soul Society didn't match their apparent age. Once they had finished growing into an adult, they could do whatever they liked with their appearance. Generally, they adjusted their apparent age according to their position and wishes. For example, lieutenants should try not to look older than their captains—Tōshirō and Rangiku didn't count—and juniors shouldn't look older than seniors. That was how it worked. Of course, if you didn't care about that, being like the sunglasses-wearing Seventh Division lieutenant from the original story, Tetsuzaemon Iba, was fine too.
He also knew the Eighth Division's former and current lieutenants from the original story. The former was the single-braided beauty Lisa Yadōmaru of the Visored, and the current one was the glasses girl Nanao Ise. Of the two, he still didn't know where the former was. The latter hadn't been born yet, because the Ise Clan currently had only one adopted daughter: Ise Jun, who was Jun's younger sister, Jun Shimizu.
That was all the information he had for now. Jun had been sitting there for a while, thinking about it. When he came back to his senses and looked up, the tip of a blade gleaming with a cold light was right in front of his eyes.
"!?"
"All right, Nana, he's just a child. Put your sword away."
"But who knows if he's a dwarf?"
"How could a dwarf look like that? Dwarves have really big heads."
The speakers were three girls. Um, they were all older than Jun. Judging by their appearances, they were all at least sixteen or seventeen. The youngest looked about the same age as Rukia in the original story, while the oldest might have been eighteen or nineteen.
The one pointing the sword at Jun, who had also spoken second and insisted on calling him a dwarf, was flat-chested, petite, and a tsundere. Um, were all girls built like that tsunderes?
The first to speak, who had urged the tsundere girl Nana to put away her sword, was a D+. Speaking of which, why was he using that to identify the girls? Maybe because it made them easier to remember. Jun couldn't actually make out the three girls' figures, but this one still had noticeable curves beneath her loose clothing, which said it all.
Her expression was somewhat gloomy. In fact, she seemed angrier than the tsundere girl, though she hadn't shown it in her words. Her personality was unknown.
The third was the adorably airheaded girl who had argued about what dwarves actually looked like. She had a very distinctive shade of gray hair and somewhat narrowed eyes, and her personality was obviously adorably airheaded. Her cup size fell between the other two. But considering the tropes that "narrow-eyed characters are all monsters" and "adorable airheads are black-hearted underneath," she might have been a boss for all he knew.
Speaking of which, why was he thinking so much at first glance? Shouldn't he be asking a question?
So Jun asked, "Who are you, big sisters?"
Jun even put on an innocent act, making his eyes sparkle as he stood up, revealing an adorable difference in height.
"Huh? You really are a little kid. Why is there a little kid here?" the tsundere girl asked curiously, circling Jun once.
The D+ girl's expression had improved a little by now, but she frowned at the question.
The airheaded girl bent down to look Jun in the eyes and asked, "What's your name, little brother? Why are you here?"
"I'm Jun, Jun Shimizu. I'm a new student who enrolled at Shin'ō Academy today. Acting Headmaster Takasudai brought me here. He said this was my dorm room." Jun pointed at the dormitory beside him. Though he said all this, he had already noticed something.
"What!? You're a boy, right?" the tsundere girl exclaimed, making Jun even more certain of what he was thinking.
"The acting headmaster brought you here?" D+ asked.
Jun took one look at the three of them and knew D+ was the one in charge, so he replied, "Yes, the acting headmaster brought me here."
"I'll go ask him. You two wait here for me." D+ promptly decided to go find the acting headmaster.
But the airheaded girl suddenly spoke up. She was now tilting her head as she studied Ciel. "If the acting headmaster brought him here, surely there can't be a mistake, right? Nobody would tell a lie that's so easy to expose."
"Uh..." D+ was at a loss for words. She knew the airheaded girl was right, so the three girls looked at one another, then at Jun.
"Is this your dorm room, big sisters?"
"Of course it is! Can't you tell? This place isn't next to the long dormitory buildings for boys. It's for girls!" the tsundere girl snapped at Jun.
"I'm a man. I don't want to live with girls. I'm going to ask the acting headmaster to change my dorm." Jun also had the character setting of being a man. And, truth be told, Jun thought the acting headmaster had done an excellent job, but he really couldn't just accept it like this. Three beautiful girls and all were wonderful, but the pressure to survive was what mattered. A land of warmth and tenderness was a hero's grave!! Damn it!!!!
But Jun had only taken a few steps when D+ grabbed him. "If anyone's going, it should be me. You only just enrolled. How long would it take you to walk that far? I know Flash Step, so I can go and be back quickly."
Just as D+ was about to leave, the airheaded girl spoke again. "Why is little Jun Shimizu here? It isn't the enrollment period today, and isn't he a little too young?"
Her words made D+ and the tsundere calm down. After taking another look at Jun, they finally realized that his age really was an issue.
"How old are you?"
"Ten." That was a hundred in actual years; Soul Society counted age by outward appearance.
"Ten!?" The three girls looked at one another again, and D+ asked, "How did you enroll?"
And so the questions and answers began. Jun answered every question the girls asked. Gradually, the story emerged of heroic parents who had died a glorious death and their young eldest son who was determined to become a Soul Reaper. Jun was beginning to get used to this routine, while the three girls were so moved that they wept buckets.
"I—"
"It's all right. We big sisters will take care of you, Jun-chan. You don't need to change dorms. Just live with us, and we'll protect you." Before Jun could finish, D+ pulled him into her arms.
"Yeah, you can just stay here, Jun-chan. I don't mind," the tsundere said, no longer acting tsundere.
The airheaded girl stood to the side, silently wiping away her tears. When D+ looked at her, she nodded. The three girls had reached an agreement, and there was no need for Jun to express any further opinion. Three to one, the girls would win no matter what.
So, as the three young ladies led Jun into the dormitory, he couldn't help feeling glad that his age and identity were so useful.
"Mm, just as planned."