In this page you can find the synopsis of "Manatsu no Door," a very nice, little story published in "Usotsuki na Season" 's tankoubon (but it's unrelated to it). ^^

All synopsis are by Zahara Medina, and cannot be used anywhere else without her permission. As she is just a student of Japanese, any help, comments or corrections are more than welcome! ^^; (And please remember to buy the original manga if you like these summaries, the synopsis are nothing compared to the real thing! ;)

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Manatsu no Door: (Midsummer's Door) [version 1.0] In a hospital, a young girl with chin-length short hair is looking through the window of her room down to the gardens, where a young man is playing with several hospitalized child. He is really good-looking and, what's more important, kind looking. I always am looking forward to... "What are you looking at, Mina-chan? Ah, volunteer Kawabe Yuuki, isn't it?" A nurse appears right behind her, scaring her silly. "That boy, is really cheerful!" The nurse gives a thermometer to Mina and comments on how Kawabe comes after school to be a volunteer with the little kids. If she remembers correctly, Kawabe is a first year high-school student, just one more year than Mina! Mina must recover very fast so she can be friends with him! Mina looks to a side, blushing angrily and denying she wants to. The nurse then starts making plans on how to introduce them both as poor Mina tries desperately to stop her. (^^) Time afterwards, Mina's mother is being reassured by a doctor about the operation (a transplant) and the risks of Mina's body reacting against it, etc... And so, Mina's operation start. Suddenly Mina finds herself in a strange, dark forest. "Where is this?" It's scary, and she wants to go out of there, but no matter how much she runs, it stays the same. Right then the ground below her feet turns semi-liquid and starts sucking Mina in. As she gets deeper and deeper in, her cries for help are more desperate, and, inside the operation room, things start going downhill. Mina thinks about how young she is and how she hasn't even had a lover and... That's it, she decides! She's staying alive! All of a sudden the liquid floor pushes her up and she is free to move again! In the operation room, things are stabilizing as well. Mina looks up and finds a door in front of her, a kind of big, old-fashioned closed door. "That door over there...?" In another place in the hospital, Kawabe is leaving for the day when he notices a strange door in the hall he's walking through, and it's a totally different door from the others, so he goes to it in wonder. Just then, he hears a girl's voice coming from the other side of the door asking for help, so he opens the door in worry and... Mina is on the other side! "Ka... Kawabe-kun!?" Uwaaaaah! He looks at her confused and surprised that she knows his name. Then he remembers why he entered and asks her very worried if she is ok, which she says she is. He comments on the strangeness of the entrance of the room and... Everything it's suddenly filled with plants and flowers! Poor Kawabe-kun is by now wondering what is happening here when Mina, starting to cry, says that God has made her meet him before dying (as a kind of last wish)... But Kawabe stops her, seemingly angry that she is saying such things about dying, and then tries cheering her up. He asks for her name, and since they're on it, Mina-chan, blushing, asks if there is some person Kawabe-kun likes...? "Ah... yeah..." Shock! Poor Mina! And she flat-lines in the operation room. But then he laughs it off and says he was jilted. Then he starts explaining that last year his small brother died and that's why he started his volunteer job at the hospital. But his girlfriend said that it was an inferior job since he would get no money out of it... "How awful!" cries Mina. Kawabe-kun helps them and cheers them all up. Kawabe-kun is a very good person! It's time for Kawabe to blush deep red, but Mina is not finished! She has re-considered it and she will start volunteering at the hospital with him! (And her flat-line has re-considered itself, too, to the poor doctor and nurses' surprise! ^^ ) Kawabe looks at her in wonder and says he is suprised by her... and she is so cute too... they shall make her resolution a promise! And so, he offers her the small finger of his right hand [This is the typical Japanese way of making promises with other people, by shaking their small finger ^^]. But when Mina is about to, she disappears and Kawabe finds himself back in the hospital hall! On top of that, the door is gone! Behind him, he notices Mina's mother very happy commenting with another patient how happy she is that Mina-chan passed the operation... Kawabe looks at her in wonder. Mina...? In her room, Mina is very happy, thinking of the very nice dream she had with Kawabe-kun... 2 months later, the nurse present a new volunteer to Kawabe-kun, since the new girl is supposedly going to work with him from now on. But Kawabe just looks up, not surprised at all, and looks at them smiling. "I know, I've been waiting for you, Mina-chan." The nurse is in shock and Mina-chan covers her mouth blushing deeply as he happily reminds her of the promise they made! It wasn't a dream? Please open... the heart's door... -End of Manatsu no Door-

All images © Ikeno Koi