The Girl from the Other Side 3

 
The Girl from the Other Side 3
Siuil, a Run
by Nagabe

Seven Seas

2017

 

 

In the first two volumes of The Girl from the Other Side, the little human girl Shiva has been living in the forest with the demonic looking Outsider, Teacher, while she waited for her aunt to come get her, and Teacher has fretted about telling her that her aunt abandoned her on purpose and isn't coming back.

 
So it was a big surprise at the end of volume 2 when Shiva's aunt did come back. As a reminder, the aunt had been imprisoned because the government Inside feared that she and Shiva carried the Curse that tuns humans into Outsiders, but then a high priest had a revelation that God wanted him to send the aunt and some soldiers to get Shiva back.

 
Anyway, volume 3 here opens with the aunt finding Shiva, bringing her to the soldiers, and them racing back Inside. Teacher tries to chase them, but can't catch up. He's conflicted because he wants Shiva to be okay, but fears that this reunion isn't as nice as one might hope.

 
Shiva and her aunt return home. Shiva tries to convince her aunt that Teacher was nice to her, and the aunt tries to convince Shiva that all Outsiders are evil and dangerous. Soldiers watch the town for any sign of Curse outbreak, and the king and high priest wait for another revelation from God to tell them what to do with Shiva now that they've got her back inside. Also, in the forest, the other Outsiders are upset that the soldier 'stole their pure soul from them' and make plans to get Shiva back.

 
In an upsetting chapter, Shiva has a dream where she remembers that, despite Teacher's care, she did once touch a different Outsider. She wakes up to discover that her aunt has turned into an Outsider like Teacher. The aunt runs out into the village, causing a panic. The soldiers show up, kill everyone, and burn the entire village down. Shiva runs away and makes it back Outside where Teacher finds her and leads her back to his cottage. 

 
Shiva is understandably very upset by what she's seen, and also fears it was her fault for bringing the curse Inside. Teacher is upset at himself for not preventing the soldiers from taking her in the first place. Shiva goes into a disturbed and fevered sleep, and Teacher tries to talk with the now-Outsider aunt, who reveals that she isn't related to Shiva, and found her Outside in the first place.

 
One thing that becomes clear in this volume is that there are at least two types of Outsiders - the kind that recently used to be human, like Teacher and Shiva's aunt, and another kind who've either been Outsiders for much longer or maybe never were human. Virtually all the Outsiders in the forest are this second type. It also becomes clear that the Curse isn't a myth or rumor, it is literal and real, and the government Inside is willing to kill anyone who even might have been exposed to prevent it from spreading.

 
I'm not sure what to make of the aunt's revelation yet. Probably the next volume will explain things more. It seems that Shiva is quite literally from the other side, and while I don't yet know what it means that the Outsiders call her 'a pure soul,' I do now understand why they feel that the humans 'stole' her.