I just noticed, the bird at the start of chapter 3 has the same red zig-zag as the cupids. I wonder if that's significant? Maybe some cupids can transform?
This is kind of an inherently cruel setup. Not just the thing with Aki, but the whole cupid situation in general. I suppose there is some message about sacrifice and overcoming your grief to do good for others, but meh. Maybe I'm jut over focusing on the negative. I do hope we get more of this soon.
Love gods are notoriously not very nice, even by divine standards. Aphrodite, specifically, was a war god both before becoming popular in Greece and after her romanization, so some violence probably shouldn't come as a surprise.
Am I missing something? Why would they need body armor?
Presumably the body armor would protect from love bullets/ammo - the only times in Chapter 0 the Cupids were hit were when body armor was rendered useless (Kanna was shot in the head and there's not much you can do with a grenade at your feet).
In general it looks like more of a personal preference for the Cupids. Chiyo is the least protected + casually dressed in just a flight jacket but is clearly the most competent fighter of the gang, so it could speak to her confidence in winning bouts with other Cupids without needing any protection.
A translation team in Vietnam said that Chiyo could be the cupid that appeared at the beginning of chapter 0. That means she has been a cupid for several hundred years. Yet she still hasn't been returned to her human life. Which means either a lot of "krama" is needed for that, or she caused so much trouble that all her "krama" was removed.
Edit: 100th comment
We actually think the Cupid in Chapter 0 is Chiyo as well! Though the Western hat + European lapel/suit the men are wearing in the prologue suggest it takes place around the Meiji or Taisho periods (which would be the late 1800s or early 1900s). So she'd be 100+ "years old" but maybe not much older than that.
Also, if you also look closely at the panels with their guns, each of the Cupids have a heart-shaped dial on their guns that are visible when the wings are lifted. Koharu's in Chapter 2 is completely blank/white, but in Chapter 0 (which takes place later in time), her dial is filled in a little bit. This dial might be an indicator of how much "karma" a Cupid has accumulated. Chiyo's dial in the last page of Chapter 3 looks to be around half-full so if it is really is a measure of how much karma's been gained, she's certainly not close to "retiring" (though perhaps by choice?).
It's fun to theory-craft with this story despite it being so early on since it seems like the author has planned out a lot of the lore/mechanics in advance :)
Girl can outright deflect automatic weapons fire with her uzis. I feel like she's found other ways to spend her points.
Aphrodite: I see you've accumulated enough points to be revived. Are you ready to go back to living?
Chiyo: I don't know. ... I mean, I've been using a bow this whole time, but the mortals have been working on these really cool guns and I kind-of want to see how much damage I could do if you gave me one...
Aphrodite: You are clearly one of my people. I'll just put you down for the deluxe package then?