No appearance from the all-powerful goddess Ceres this issue, as her alter-ego Aya manages to keep her under wraps for the whole issue. This allows other plots to develop, mostly along the lines of Aya's budding relationship with her brother's bodyguard, Toya. He has very little memory of recent events, and only agreed to be the bodyguard as he was promised help in recovering his lost memory.
Aya comes on strong to him, and the relationship begins to bloom into romance...until her brother-in-law, Yuhi, finds out about it about rushes to her "rescue" - i.e. gets in the way. Toya is not exactly reluctant, but with Aya making most of the running, Yuhi will have his hands full keeping these two potential love-birds apart.
Yuhi then manages to lost Aya in a family tower block - remember that her family have been trying to kill her (to get rid of Ceres it seems) - and the issue closes with Aya confronted by one of her cousins, who seems to know rather more about Ceres than she does...
This issue is a little more confusing than previous issues, although there is an excellent "story-so-far" section at the front, it is difficult telling some of the characters apart, and keeping track of their motives. So, whilst the first half of the book, the relationship between Aya and Toya, works very well indeed, the second half fares much less well - was she kidnapped? what was the building all about? why did Yuhi take her there?
However, revelations seem to be imminent, so hopefully this was a minor blip and we'll be back on form with the next issue.
