By Rikdo Koshi. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young King OURS. Released in North America by Viz.

There really aren’t any revelations, for once, regarding hidden civilizations and the past lives of Excel or Il Palazzo in this volume. What, then, does it have to offer? A whole heaping helping of humor, as this is one of the funniest books yet.

Elgala is a terrific addition to the cast, as her interaction with Excel is hysterical. On the surface, she and excel are very similar characters, being outgoing to the point of chatterboxey, as well as prone to failure. However, Elgala actually manages to one-up Excel in the failure sweepstakes, as she also has a ‘refined taste’ (read: she likes to spend money), which gets her in to big trouble here when she goes out drunk and accidentally spends 10 million yen… the entire contents of their savings account Il Palazzo gave them.

So Elgala goes off to try to earn back the money (in a nice contrast to Excel’s journey to find herself in Vol. 10) and Excel and Hyatt are back to part-timing it. Luckily, Hyatt has a lovestruck benefactor! Watanabe’s crush on Hyatt is starting to reach its apex, and he goes to incredibly stupid heights to save her from the life of sleazy prostitution he imagines she will end up in. (The mind reels at the thought of Hyatt the hooker…) So, after a discussion with Kabapu, their bank account is full again. And all it requires is for Watanabe to work without pay for the next 200 years or so.

In the interim, we have one of the more surprising chapters of the manga to date. The City Security employees are on another training trip in the middle of winter in the mountains… only this time Misaki and Iwata have actually gotten into trouble, getting lost in a blizzard and falling off a cliff, leading to her breaking her leg. Iwata, surprisingly, is being less of a retard than usual, possibly as he’s devoting his cyborg body to keeping her warm. Most of the chapter is Misaki talking to Iwata and herself as she slowly freezes to death. We get a few flashbacks to her college days when she met Iwata… these are from her POV, so they’re more accurate than Iwata’s earlier ones. Most surprisingly, she notes that Iwata’s sheer lovable goofiness drew her out of her shell and enabled her to make other friends. And she reveals that the chocolate on the pocky she gave him for Valentine’s Day *was* homemade. It’s a rather touching scene…

…which is then followed by the brilliantly hysterical ending. She only told Iwata this as his battery had run down and she figured he couldn’t hear it. After being rescued by Shiouji and Ropponmatsu II, she’s informed that he still actually heard every word… as did the doctor, who was listening in. Misaki begs him to erase Iwata’s memories… which he’ll do for the right price. This is great stuff in two ways. First of all, Misaki is perhaps the first female Shiouji has shown any interest in at all who isn’t 9 years old or lower. It’s not a romantic interest, but the mere fact that he’s talking to her at all is something. Secondly, I love the way Rikdo handles the artwork. When Shiouji reveals that Iwata heard her confession, Misaki clearly turns bright red. But we only see this from the back, and barely on her ears. He draws her with her back to the reader the entire time, so we can’t see her humiliated face. It works really well.

The rest of the volume is pretty much business as usual, with Elgala bringing back a bar of gold to pay back what she lost. It’s questionable whether her Indiana Jones-style story is entirely accurate, though. Sadly, Il Palazzo is not happy with her for being AWOL, nor does he like her blurting out her internal monologue where she reveals she spent all his money. One of the oddest moments in the manga comes when he berates Elgala for losing sight of the mission, and tells her to look to Excel’s example. This is the second time in two volumes that he’s praising Excel. Excel’s face realizes this, and looks very uncertain. (Poor girl, she’s so used to abuse…)

Also, I note that this volume has Hyatt catching fire, in one of the more disturbing scenes to date. Excel and Elgala are both now wondering if ANYTHING can actually kill Hyatt. Of course, Excel has already shown herself to be hella tough… and we’ll see evidence of her own quick recovery from severe burns in Vol. 20. As well as the end of this volume, where she and Elgala decide to please their lord by burning down and bombing a bunch of abandoned buildings and bridges that are there as the city is too lazy to tear down and rebuild. Luckily, they’re only severely burned and in traction.

Also, at one point Kabapu calls Shiouji, and a cute perky yet utterly ditzy voice answers the phone. Once again, they give this the font of Ropponmatsu II. It isn’t, but I can’t blame Carl & Yuko for assuming it is. This is more foreshadowing, and we’ll finally meet the owner of that voice in Vol. 12. Meanwhile, Vol. 11 is really funny. Check it out.