It's the first payday for the girls who work as maids, and the book opens with a proper culture shock moment for me - apparently what you're supposed to do with that first paycheck is to take part of it and get your employer a gift to properly express your gratitude towards them. And it's not just symbolic either since we spend a big part of the first chapter on picking that gift, since it can't be too simple or cheap because that would reflect badly on you and your employer both. On the other hand, the ladies already have everything money could buy... Again, thank gods for the sort of employment where you express your gratitude towards your employer by continuing to come to work...
(The actual gift Misaki settles on is pretty awesome though!)
That's far from the strangest thing in the volume, since in the very next chapter, we get a sudden genre shift I definitely didn't expect, when right in the middle of a ghost scare episode, there's an actual supernatural occurence, and not the kind where something strange happens and goes away never to reappear, either. I did not expect to be getting this kind of surprise in the middle of a third volume, that's for sure.
One pretty big negative, at least for me, is that there's still no real plot for Misaki. She's there to watch plot happen, sometimes even advance other people's plots, but that's about it. And what plot is there isn't often anything special. Like, I get that "a new lady arrives" or "two salons get into conflict" is an expected development here; but the plot for a full third of this volume was "a new lady will arrive and some salons might argue over where she should join", not even reaching a conclusion, and, well, this is not exactly prime cliffhanger material...
I feel the series is getting better on the relationships. Not that there isn't anything weird going on, but at least for Misaki and Himeko, their interactions feel much more like genuine closeness and affection independent of their status than they used to before. There's plenty of little touching moments between the two, in private or public.
On the other hand, the sex pest sisters are as bad as ever and nobody cares, and then there's the teacher who'd lift a student's skirt to check her underwear (wtf wtf wtf). Nothing like a bit of sexual harassment to spoil the mood.
Overall, something of a mixed bag, but amusing enough.