Ah! My Goddess Manga/Oh My Goddess! Manga
ああっ女神さまっVolume 38 Chapter 240

Summary/Synopsis: The Dimakaicho of the Underworld, “Hild-sama,” is walking through her domain, having detected a disturbance. She walks right into a containment spell trap, which she starts to counter just as a time-slowing spell activates above her. However, Hild’s counter-spells are being consumed by a virus spell while at the same time, the containment spell trap turns into a freezing one (though I don’t believe with ice but as in freezing someone in place). It is then that a group of Hild’s former subjects reveal themselves to be the ones who captured Hild.

On Earth, Chibi Hild is at Mara’s abandoned arcade hideout and commenting on “Hagall,” the name of the rebel leader. Hild tells Mara that they are about to get very busy as a giant, demonic cow busts in and attacks. Mara demands to know what’s going on as Chibi Hild states that the name of the critter is “Momo-chan.” Since she didn’t release it, Hagall obviously did, which gives Mara a horrific understanding of their present situation.

At the Morisato residence, Urd detects the demonic energy that has appeared on Earth and so abandons her card game with Skuld to investigate.

Elsewhere, Chihiro has a Kawasaki KV75 bike she’s rebuilding when Megumi comes to the Whirlwind shop on her KSR bike. Since the KV75 is the precurser to the KSR, Megumi is thrilled to see it. Chihiro offers to sell the bike to her since she’d only purchased it on a whim to fix up. She doesn’t want to sell it to someone she doesn’t know. Megumi declines because she can’t buy it but tells Keiichi that should he wish to buy his little sister the bike on his birthday, she’s OK with it.

Belldandy is in town looking for a present for Keiichi when she stops at a clock store and spots a unique watch. The shop owner doesn’t recommend it for Belldandy since it is a guy’s watch, but after hearing and understanding her appreciation of the watch, he sells it to her at a discount. This is observed by what appears to be one of Hallgall’s minions.

Thoughts/Review: What? A new Ah! My Goddess story that grabs me from the first chapter? Say it ain’t so!

Ever since Hild was introduced, she’s always been an interesting character. After all, Hild was a part of the Angel Eater arc. Hild was a part of the Welsper arc and the doublet system that is in place. Even the teapot arc with Hild was OK. So having the Daimakaicho Hild captured in a rebellion sounds like good stuff, especially since 1/1000th of her self (Chibi Hild) is with Mara (yeah, I know “Marller” is the other spelling but after YEARS of spelling it “Mara,” I just can’t get used to using “Marller”). Wooo!Hooo!

What else is good? How about “Momo-chan.” *LOL* A demonic cow (or bull, though the “chan” honorific may suggest a female rather than male) is just good stuff for some reason. It is hard to tell, but it appears that Momo-chan has at least two heads.

Urd — I know, I know. It is too much to hope that maybe somehow we can get some sort of advancement of character for either Urd or Hild, but it would be nice for a further exploration of their relationship as mother and daughter happened.

I’m surprised that this story seems to have Chihiro in it as well as Megumi. I hope this story arc reveals that Megumi knows what’s going on. I wouldn’t mind Chihiro also saying, “Yeah, I knew too but didn’t want to deal with it.”

I’m not sure how Keiichi’s birthday will work into things but it seems that one of the mazoku (demons) was spying on Belldandy. I don’t want a repeat of Keiichi being possessed so many years ago though. I would like for Belldandy and Keiichi to kiss in this arc, but I know that won’t happen. *lol*

Hagall — well, it will be interesting to see what she and her fellow rebels do or why they are rebelling at all. Anyone that can capture Hild (or most of her) is automatically an interesting character.

On a side note, you know whom I’d love to see return in this story arc? The three mini-ninjas. *nods*

So kudos to Fujishima-sensei on having the first story arc in ages to truly excite me from the start.