Manga Volume One
These detailed manga synopses are written assuming that the reader already knows something about the characters, so I won't get into detail when I talk about them.
Please note: It took me quite a lot of time and work to write and revise these summaries. I hope you'll appreciate them, and if you wish to use them for your web pages, please give me credit, or quote the source putting a link to this site. Thanks.
Since the synopses are quite long, I've divided them into four sections, following the division of the Italian volumes.
Manga Volume One
Nanako is recalling the day when she asked Takehiko Henmi to become her "older brother": she describes the young universitary student with shining brown eyes, inspiring her feelings of trust... and often falling from the step of his desk! When the young girl asks him to become her "brother", Takehiko is at first amazed, and his amazement increases when Nanako tells him her family name: Misonoo. The young man accepts and while a very happy Nanako goes away, he looks at her, thinking that that girl is the daugther of the woman his father married after divorcing from his mother: even if they are not blood-relatives, the girl is his sister! Takehiko recalls a day when he met little Nanako, playing with a small red shovel, asking him who he was while he looked from behind a hedge...
Nanako is dressing to go to her new school, her mother insists that she wears a uniform, even if Seiran Institute allows students to wear in the way they prefer... The girl greets her father, and then goes away with a big smile, ready to plunge into a new world...
On a very crowded bus, Nanako loses her balance because of a sudden brake, and bumps against a tall girl. Her heart starts beating fast, and she's impressed by the bracelet the stranger is wearing. Nanako realizes that the bus reached her stop, tries to reach the exit, when a strong hand grabs her wrist and pulls her out of the bus. Nanako finds herself in the arms of the tall girl, who gives her the book she had lost on the bus. Nanako is impressed by her warm and deep voice, still echoing in her mind while the stranger goes away...
At Seiran, Nanako realizes she's not in the same class as Tomoko. A beautiful girl comes near Nanako, and introduces to her. Her name is Mariko Shinobu, she notices Nanako is from another school, and shows the newcomer her painted thumbs (in Japanese school make-up is often forbidden). While they walk together, everybody starts greeting Prince Kaoru, who comes back to school after a long illness. The charming girl, by one year older than the others, kindly smiles to everyone, cheering to the girls surrounding her. Nanako wonders how a strong and healthy-looking girl like Kaoru could possibly be ill.
At the welcome ceremony, everybody is impressed by the President of the Student Council, a girl of stunning beauty: Fukiko Ichinomiya, otherwise called Miya-sama, who's followed by the members of the Sorority. Mariko says she wants to become a member of that organization at any cost, and explains Nanako that the Sorority is a female student organization, present also in American universities, where the older students choose the members considering their social status, education, good look, personality, health and strength. It's one of the oldest traditions at Seiran. Lady Miya explains that this year there will be only 10 new candidates to become members of the organization.
Nanako and Tomoko jokingly comments that they don't belong to that world. At home, Nanako writes a letter to Takehiko, telling him about the Sorority, her aspiration to live quietly without harming anyone, and about the girls she met.
Takehiko tries to write back - to no avail - until Takashi comes and comments that the world seems to be small sometimes, as Nanako is prof. Misonoo's daughter. Then he reveals, to Takehiko's astonishment - that the professor will keep a seminar at their university the following year.
At their first day of school, Mariko manages to sit next to Nanako, who's surprised by the girl's strong determination, and also by her red lips. Mariko explains her that she bites them in order to make them redder, and invites Nanako to do the same. In the same time, Saint Just comes in the classroom with a guitar, and is welcomed by adoring girls. Kaoru jokes with her, and then Rei starts playing and singing a song talking of roses. Nanako recognizes her as the girl she met on the bus, and is again delighted by her voice. While she tries to tell this to Mariko, Rei looks at her a bit annoyed, and goes away greeting Kaoru. On the door, she finds herself in front of Lady Miya, and the two coldly look at each other.
Lady Miya has a list of the new candidates. The first is Mariko, then she calls Kaoru, who decides not to accept. Fukiko is surprised and asks the reason why, Kaoru says that she's against the existance of the Sorority, but the official reason is that she isn't healthy enough to be accepted. Fukiko accepts her decision and proceed to call the last candidate: Nanako Misonoo. Aya Misaki starts protesting, saying Nanako isn't worth to be a Sorority member. Mariko tries to protect Nanako, and Aya tells her that she isn't worth either, as she's the daughter of a pornographic writer. Kaoru blocks Aya, saying that one cannot choose their own parents. Mariko slaps Aya, surprising everyone, and asking for the older members comfort. Miya-sama tells Misaki that, even if there is another place available - Kaoru's one - she's personally against Aya's admission. Aya runs away in despair, and when Kaoru protests to Fukiko that every year the younger students have fights to join the Sorority, she says that fighting strengthens the character and that's necessary because of the hard selection. Then she gives Mariko and Nanako their invitation to the party where the real selection will take place.
Tomoko isn't too happy about Nanako's selection, as this would not allow them to see each other too often. The following day in the classroom, everybody make comments on Nanako, saying that she hasn't got the necessary qualities to be a Sorority member, she's an outsider and maybe she cheated. Kaoru finds a letter saying that the selection isn't regular, and slams it on the table looking coldly at Aya...Nanako takes it and when she reads that she shouldn't be a Sorority member because she isn't the real daugther of prof. Misonoo, struck by all this hatred towards her, she runs away in tears. She bumps against Rei, falling on the floor with her, and cries on her chest, while Rei is visibly resigned. When Nanako calms down and apologizes, Rei asks her to retrieve the pills that fell on the floor, and while she goes away, Nanako notices that Rei smells like a man.
At home, Nanako's mother tells the girl that Fukiko Ichinomiya called to tell her the party has been delayed by some hours.
Nanako goes to Seiran at the established hour, and sees Kaoru training at basketball. She's surprised when Kaoru stops and touches her breast obviously in pain. Kaoru notices Nanako, greets her and asks why she's there at that hour, since all the Sorority members have already left. Nanako is very surprised, but Mariko comes running and leads her to the older members.
Miya-sama looks at Nanako coldly, remarking she's very late, then asks her a few questions about the clubs she has chosen to attend (Nanako decides to follow the ikebana's one, since it's the same Fukiko follows), and the books she reads. At the end Nanako feels very down, surprised that someone tried to hinder her admission. The following day, everyone is surprised at seeing that Nanako is among the ten students of the first year chosen to be members of the Sorority! Nanako is surprised too, since she didn't even take part in the party. Tomoko is sad, and says goodbye to Nanako saying she will not be the same as before.
At school Nanako is reading a passage in English and everyone in the class says they cannot ear a single word. After a while Kaoru gets really mad, forcing Aya to move and sit on the first row of seats. At cooking class, however, Kaoru is not equally efficient: she cannot even manage to break an egg! On the contrary, Nanako is very good. Her ability gives Aya the chance to comment that Nanako probably inherited her ability from her mother, who's the owner of a restaurant near the university: Prof. Misonoo was married and had a son, and used to go drink there... Mariko starts having a fight with Aya, while Nanako is upset at discovering that her father has another child, but most of all is upset because her mother has been insulted. Kaoru tries to calm her down, but Nanako runs away.
Tomoko is walking, thinking she should apologize to Nanako. Mariko stops her, and tells her that Nanako has a message for her: she cannot be friends with her anymore because she's a member of the Sorority. Nanako and Tomoko now belong to different social classes, so she must be friends with better people. Tomoko goes away disgusted.
Mariko and Nanako are preparing for the initiatory ceremony. They see Saint Just passing by and putting some pills on her hand. Kaoru rushes and slaps Rei, saying she's crazy at taking all that stuff, Rei slaps her too, takes some other pills and teases her, saying that Kaoru's face is so cute, so full of energy.
At that moment, Miya-sama and some other Sorority members appear. Fukiko invites Rei to help them at the Sorority, and giggles while going away. Rei is almost paralyzed, and Kaoru asks her when she intends to get rid of the bracelet.
At the Sorority building, Fukiko asks Rei to keep a table steady, then, secretly - but Nanako spots her - pushes down a tool for ikebana full of needles. It falls directly on Rei's hand, hurting her quite seriously. Rei contains her pain, then retrieves the object and coldly looks into Fukiko's eyes. Then she takes a handkerchief off her pocket and asks Fukiko to take care of her hand with that. Miya-sama asks Komabayashi to take care of Rei's hand, but Rei protests that Fukiko must be the one. At that moment, Nanako approaches Rei and starts healing the wound in her hand. This irritates Miya-sama, who exchanges some very cold looks with Rei, who leaves the room.
The oath ceremony begins. Everyone swears to follow the rules of the association, then receives a handshaking from the older members. When it's Nanako's turn, she sees Fukiko hitting her with the tool she used to hurt Rei. Luckily for her, this last part was a nightmare...
At school, the following day, Nanako cannot find her gym suit. She asks Tomoko to borrow hers, but her former friends coldly denies her help, telling Nanako she must be ashamed for being so snobbish. Nanako is really frustrated, also because a student from Tomoko's class asks her to sign a petition aiming at expelling Nanako Misonoo from the Sorority, since her admission was not regular...
Nanako runs away in tears, recalling her friendship with Tomoko, then meets Mariko who gives her a gym suit she borrowed from a second-year student. In the locker room, Nanako sees an open locker, but while she's trying to look inside, Kaoru rushes and closes it violently, then takes Nanako's wrist and squeezes it, asking her what she saw. When Kaoru realizes she's unwillingly hurting Nanako, she apologizes and kindly invites Nanako to leave the room. The younger girl realizes Kaoru smells like sandal.
While Nanako is walking in the corridor, some girls from the third year stop her. They want Nanako to leave the Sorority, because her admission was a scandal. Nanako asks them if they're threatening her, and is slapped for this question.The girls say they were candidates for the Sorority too when they were in the first year, but they didn't become members. However, everything at that time had been regular, so they had accepted the decision: if Nanako has a conscience, she should refuse to be a member elected not regularly.
Nanako notices how in the same person hate, cruelty, and then sweetness and sadness could be present. While walking, she opens the doors of the clock tower, and realizes that many other girls had shed their tears in that tower! A feeling of relief invades her, and she stops to read a poem written on the wall among the other inscriptions: it's Verlaine's poem dedicated to the rain falling on the town. Nanako keeps going up the stairs, and reaches a trap-door. She opens it, and sees Saint Just, who looks back at her, a lighted cigarette in one hand and a knife in the other. Nanako thinks Rei is a real rebel. Without saying a word, Saint Just throws the knife, which flies very close to Nanako's head and hits a silhouette drawn on the opposite wall. Rei asks Nanako to bring her back the knife, and Nanako realizes that the silhouette looks a lot like Miya-sama.
Rei thanks Nanako, then throws another knife at the wall. Nanako is surprised at Rei's accuracy, how she coldly hits the area of the heart of the silhouette. Rei tells Nanako she is leaving, and then thanks her for taking care of her wound. Nanako is very happy because Rei recognized her. Saint Just offers Nanako her help to go down the stairs and stretches her arms, but Nanako starts trembling, her heart running, she feels paralyzed. She moves a bit and then grabs the handrail. Rei looks at her for a while with a questioning look on her face, then blows her a kiss with her hand and says goodbye. Nanako cannot understand what happened to her, why she feels so nervous and confused every time she's close to Saint Just...
At the library, Kaoru sees Nanako looking for a book, and suggests her looking at a particular shelf. Nanako is surprised she knows what she's looking for. Kaoru explains that, since Rei was at junior high school all the new students in the first months of school always looked for books on French Revolution talking about Saint Just. Then she reassures Nanako, saying that reading books is important, no matter what the reason. Nanako notices Kaoru really likes reading, expecially when she gets up and scolds some girls who chat loudly in the library.
While Nanako walks along the corridor, Mariko spots her and puts her hands on her eyes from behind. Nanako thinks it's Tomoko and says her friend's name. Mariko gets quite mad and bites Nanako's ear! Nanako turns in pain, and Mariko invites her to her birthday party. Nanako gladly accepts, Mariko is really happy and tells her she reserved the Hall of Roses at the Royal Hotel. Nanako is really stunned at this.
The established day Nanako reaches the hotel, feeling a bit embarassed and out of place.
To Part Four *new*