Here, you will find the synopsis/summaries of the chapters of Home. They take time, so be patient! ^^ (And remember to buy these tankobon if you like the summaries, it's the best way of thanking the authors and the synopsis are nothing compared to the real thing! ^^ )

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! ^^;
Please, go to the Image Gallery to see the covers in full! ^^

NOTE:Use the arrow icons for going back and forth between the synopsis pages, since the synopsis are too big to be put in one page only! ^^
The icons look like this:
And now, enjoy! ^^

Fast Index:

• Vol.01 parts: [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06]
• Vol.02 parts: [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] --the end--

Home: Part 01. [version 1.2] (Thanks to dagb and tpst for their help ^^) A girl with long hair gazes out upon the sea... "Whenever I am experiencing the view of the deep blue sea and the continuing horizon, I think without looking how I want to cross it and come upon this love..." The year is 1614, the place: Sanlucar de Barrameda, Spain. (Sanlucar is a coastal city in the south of Spain, famous for being the oceanic capital for Spain for most of XV and XVI ct. and its wine.) A young handsome man runs down a street and enters one of the houses, "Maria! Maria! Big News!" Maria is half-naked putting on her corset in the middle of the room. the guy can't believe his luck, but the girl, after an angry "Antonio!!" smashes his face with a cushion. Doesn't he know how to knock, anyway? (^^; ) Antonio turns gruelingly to look at the wall (or so Maria hopes) while she keeps on dressing. He tells her that a ship from Orient arrived and asks her if she wants to go take a look. Maria replies that she is to be one of the maids at a dinner party with the foreigners. Does he want to come? She will be pretty near them, then. But he is not going so Maria drops the subject and asks him if he can help her with the back lacing of the corset. He, of course, doesn't loose the opportunity and jumps on her! But Martin, like the good little brother and defender of Maria that he is, stops him by plugging his fingers in a very shameful place. (^^) But he's too little and soon Antonio is lifting him up and yelling at him to stop because he is Maria's fiancee. "Am I not, Maria?" he asks with a stupid smile and putting his arm over her shoulders... Maria . is . not . amused. As she smashes his face again (but his time with her forehead (^^)), she says they're just living in the same house and that it's their parent's idea anyway. Antonio proceeds to pull from the corset lacing while Martin watches in horror her sister's face of agony. But she must get her waist smaller! Juana lent her the dress she's going to wear and it's sooo small! "Juana, Juana, always Juana," complains Antonio. Maria's association with a nobleman's daughter can't be a good thing, he adds. Maria turns around and replies him angrily that Juana is her friend and to stop talking so bad about her! [And now we all know what always happens with these wonderful friends, don't we? -_-; ] After all, it was all thanks to Juana that they could learn how to write and read. They used to play together time ago the three of them, and Juana also wants to meet him ... Antonio is still not having a very happy face, but they are interrupted by Martin, who wants to meet Juana as well. Maria changes into the dress and dresses her hair flowing free with a couple of flowers on top. Martin and Antonio are very impressed at how pretty and elegant she looks, Antonio even makes some comment about his pretty bride... Maria shuts him up and they start quarreling again. Maria should just love him and she says he is absolutely detestable and is always playing around, and, by the way, she saw him kissing another girl. Antonio panics, but, then again, he's such a cool guy that... Bored of him, Maria starts to look around for her mother's necklace. But Toto, the family's cat, grabs it and jumps out of the window with it! Below, Carlos (Maria's father, [Who looks like a Scotsman ^^; ]) is talking with Antonio's mother and giving her some grapes when Toto jumps on his head and then runs away. Maria jumps next. She has no time to aid her poor father lying on the ground because Toto is very fast, but she is really sorry! ;) Maria runs after the cat all through the town until she arrives at one of the main streets, which is packed full with people. When she manages to arrive to the front she is totally surprised as the group of foreigners is parading through the street! They are Japanese men dressed with their strange clothing. But somebody pushes her and she stumbles forward and one of the Japanese men stops her in her fall. She looks up and is immediately taken by him, (he is really good looking ^^; ) These persons are... the ones that come from Orient? But she has no time to think more about it because one of the Spanish guards tells her to stand aside. A very pretty and richly dressed girl arrives at that moment. Maria is very happy to see her, she's Juana. Juana asks Maria if she is all right, and Maria excuses herself and tells about her cat while looking sideways to the Japanese man walking away. Behind all the people, Antonio, with Martin sitting on his shoulders, tries to call Maria and tell her that they got Toto. Antonio is impressed at the foreigners and notices how many people is there to see them. He laughs at the amusing appearance they have but Maria is fast in elbowing him out of his breath. As he coughs, she sees that the Japanese man who helped her is looking her way. Juana asks hopefully if Antonio will come to the dinner, but he says he won't. He then helps Maria with the necklace and tells her to go back home while Juana watches them with an unreadable expression on her face (but I bet you it's sad!). Night falls and the dinner at Juana's mansion starts. Juana's father welcomes the Japanese men and comments about their long trip and how exhausted they must be and asks them to please use his house (and all that typical polite talk ^^ ). The leader of the foreigners stands up and starts talking in a strange language (Japanese) while a monk translates for the Spaniards. The Japanese man replies in kind and adds that Christianity's propagation in Japan is ready to occur, so he would like to have audiences with the King of Spain as well as in Rome and any help would be very welcome. While the monk is translating, Maria is carrying a tray with food behind the Japanese men wondering about them, but the Japanese man makes a sudden bow right at her side (after the monk translates his plea) and she yelps in surprise. Now everybody is looking at her, and Juana's father seems pretty worried that it's her. But Maria excuses herself and he takes the conversation elsewhere and invites the men to start eating dinner. To the Spaniard's surprise, the Japanese men take out chopsticks and start to eat with them. Maria, behind the leader, is amazed at them eating with those strange things and she suddenly realizes the strange hair arrangement of the man. She looks closer in curiosity (and by now you just know she will never, ever, be invited to a formal dinner in that house even if she is to stay cleaning pans in the kitchen ^^;;; ), but the man turns around and she nervously tries to leave the tray over the table, making a little of a mess. The cool young Japanese man who helped her before stands up with an angry expression on his face and yells something as he takes his hand to his sword! Maria is worried and scared and doesn't know what's happening as he is obviously shouting at her. Juana and her father are worried as well but the leader talks to the young man and he bows to Maria (even though it's obvious he is not happy with this). The monk explains that the leader (and the other men) are "samurai," and the escorts of the delegation (like the young man) have a very hypersensitive behavior. Then he explains to Juana's father what a "samurai" is while poor Maria is getting a good spanking from one of the older maids (^^; ). As she returns to her job of serving the food, Maria notices that the young warrior keeps his not-very-happy eyes on her all the time. She really is ashamed and uneasy at this... She thinks the oriental foreigners are quite scary. Back in home, Antonio and Carlos discover that Martin is missing. They wonder where he could be and then Antonio remembers how eager Martin was of going to Juana's mansion... Poor Martin is, indeed, walking around the mansion totally lost and crying for his sister. Maria and Juana walk through the gardens and Maria begs for pardon because of the incident at the dinner. Juana says it's ok, and they can't quite stop noticing again how the foreigners eat their food... Then they hear noises from the gate, it's Carlos and Antonio trying to enter the mansion. Juana tells the guards to let them pass and Antonio tells them about Martin's disappearance. As the four of them call for the kid, Antonio says it's all Maria's fault for making him interested in the nobility. Maria anguishes at that. Martin keeps on walking around and gets scared by a an armor (thanks to a horror tale Antonio told him before -_-; ) and runs away until he bumps against somebody... The group is having no luck in finding Martin. Maria tells Antonio that she is looking for him inside the building, she is very worried. But a surprise is waiting for her when she finds her brother sleeping in the arms of the young warrior! He is sitting on the floor, his back against a column. Maria runs to him and tries to tell him that Martin is her brother and how happy she is that he is with him and... He replies in Japanese and Maria tells him that she can't understand him, she is very concerned and happy at the same time that she found Martin. Martin wakes up then and jumps into her sister's arms as they both cry like idiots (^^) in front of the man, who just looks at them. He then turns around and walks away but Maria calls to him, "Thank you very much, Mr. Samurai!" Then she retracts herself and calls him "Mr. Warrior." He turns around to look at her. "Kojirou." Maria smiles, "Kojirou?" She goes to him and, after leaning towards him on her tiptoes, kisses him on his cheek. "Thanks, Kojirou..." Surprise doesn't even start to describe his reaction at this. (^^) Maria tells him happily that it's the second time he helps her that day and she is very thankful for that. Poor Kojirou starts to sweat and looks at Maria like if she would have turned into some horrible monster. She sweats as she isn't getting anything of wha t he is saying [and neither do we] but smiles nevertheless and leaves with Martin after saying good bye to Kojirou. [cultural exchange as its best ^^] Antonio finds Maria and Martin and she asks him if he saw Kojirou. He doesn't know who she is referring to but when she tries to point at Kojirou he is no longer in view. She thinks Kojirou is really a marvelous person. Maria and Co. return home and after putting Martin to sleep, she finds Antonio waiting for her with an angry face. What is it with him, she asks, and he tells her that he saw her kissing the oriental guy. Maria sees nothing bad with this but Antonio, blushing, demands that she kisses him as well after all the work and effort he put in finding Martin and all that! Maria rather kisses him than having him babble away the whole night. However Antonio has another idea and as she gets near to kiss his cheek, he grabs her from her waist and... kisses her in the mouth! Maria, totally speechless and desolated, turns around and runs into the house. Antonio, very happy with himself and smiling and blushing like an idiot thinks that the next day he will propose... He then hears the blinders of a window right over him opening. Antonio gets his shower of the month courtesy of a really angry Maria and a bucket. Is she crazyy??! No, she just wasted her first kiss with him and is not too happy about it! (^^; ) All the voices wake Martin up and he tells Maria about "big brother" (Kojirou) in admiration and shows her a little bird made with paper, Kojirou did it for him. Big brother can really make magic! But it must be kept a secret between them both, Martin tells her with a very happy face. On the top of the city's castle, Tsunenaga (the leader) has called for Kojirou and as they both admire the moon, Kojirou suddenly finds himself with two swords pointing at his throat. Tsunenaga draws his own katana and tells Kojirou that the view of the moon will be the last thing he will see. "Why?!" exclaims Kojirou unable to believe it, as Tsunenaga stabs him. "Speaking of the heir of the Date(*) house, I wouldn't say that there needs to be two of them..." Kojirou is then pushed over the baranda into a cliff. "Forgive me, Kojirou..." Resting her head over Martin's bed, Maria looks at the paper bird with dreamy eyes. Kojirou... [* = For more info on the Date House/Family, go to the Historical Facts page :)]

All images © Ueda Rinko, Shueisha (except backgrounds).