Ah! My Goddess Manga/Oh My Goddess! Manga
ああっ女神さまっChapter 261

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With the door broken, Keiichi (on Glühendes Herz), Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld escape. A stunned Slyum recovers and yells at them to stop. To the surprise of everyone, Keiichi does just that. Belldandy assumes that Slyum has done something to Keiichi and sends Slyum flying back with a palm attack. Slyum denies doing anything to Keiichi but is impressed with Belldandy’s attack. Belldandy is about to remove the limiters on her person when Keiichi asks her to stop. Urd realizes what Keiichi knows — too much lactic acid has built up in his muscles after that acceleration of speed he used. Before Urd can provide medicine or Belldandy can provide a spell, Slyum bashes Keiichi on the back, causing the lactic acid to disperse and as she tells it, make the body stronger.

With that, Slyum hands over the now useless key. Though Keiichi says they really didn’t win, Slyum says that they could not have left that room without winning. Slyum praises Keiichi for the plan but asks what would have happened if she couldn’t destroy the door. Keiichi responds by saying that if she couldn’t break the door, her powerful fists would have been broken instead. Hearing this, Slyum realizes she was really beaten from the start and bowing, she apologizes to Belldandy for her negative words against Keiichi. Belldandy accepts and also apologizes for her impoliteness but thanks Slyum for seeing Keiichi’s good side.

As Keiichi’s group leaves, Slyum communes with Hagal, asking if she really had to let them go. Hagal responds that it was Slyum who let them escape but at the same time, it would go against Hagal’s plan for Keiichi’s group to not advance to the next level. Now that her role is done, Slyum wonders who the next person to take her on will be and sits on the rubble in the room that she just fought in.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to give it to Fujishima-sensei for tossing in a moment of reality into a fantasy situation by having Keiichi suffer from lactic acid buildup after his inhuman burst of speed thanks to Urd’s potion in a pill. Of course, it allowed Fujishima-sensei to provide a nice wrap-up to the Slyum sub-arc of this current adventure.

Speaking of that, I loved that Belldandy went off on Slyum again over Keiichi and even threatened to unleash her true powers. I rather like how Belldandy has this side of her personality in that she will do what it takes to protect her beloved Keiichi but at the same time when the threat is gone, she is her regular, sweet self, including to a former opponent.

Speaking of Belldandy unleashing, I think Fujishima-sensei may have just done a bit of foreshadowing here. I’ve asked what Hagal’s plan is since clearly she allowed Keiichi, Belldandy, Skuld, and Urd to enter her domain (after dethroning Hild) and she has staged these elaborate confrontations for the group to overcome. However, while wanting the group to do serious battle of wit and power, Hagal also wants them to proceed on to some final objective. As such, after this chapter, I got the feeling that whatever Hagal has planned, it will involve Belldandy becoming unleashed.

No indication of what the group’s next opponent will be. I wonder if Fujishima-sensei will check back on Hild, Peorth, and Lind before moving Keiichi and company on to the next encounter.