All right, NOW we're getting somewhere.
(Maybe. I hope.)
In this volume, Nanami FINALLY starts to develop some real 'godly' firepower. That's one of the things that has bothered me the most about this series, how helpless Nanami always is, and how Tomoe always has to save her. But this time...she got to save him, and it was lovely.
I still don't like the fact that it was some other guy who had to show her how to use her powers (and gave her Mamoru in the first place, really)--I want her to get strong on her own, by her own means.
I also don't much care for the romance, which felt fast, currently feels pretty emotionally flat, and is clearly going to go the 'ditzy but genuinely kind girl falls for the prickly and standoffish guy who initially turns her down, but is eventually won over by her determination' route--which I almost universally hate. Just because you love someone hard enough or long enough or genuinely enough, doesn't mean their feelings are ever going to mirror yours. Sometimes it might happen, but most of the time...no. (Trust me on this one, I know.)
I know this is a shoujo manga, and romance is what it's about, but c'mon, at least make it interesting and less obvious.