2019
In the sixth volume of The Girl from the Other Side, we get some clarity on some issues, a new mystery, and a worrisome cliffhanger.
Teacher and Shiva have followed the map Shiva's aunt left them, and made it to a village that's further away and was abandoned longer ago. They think they'll be safe from human search parties there.
We see the two cursed soldiers searching for them, thinking they've found the pair, and preparing an ambush right outside their front door, and we see Teacher hearing a noise at the door and going to investigate. But it's kind of a trick! The cursed soldiers turn out to be at the old house Teacher and Shiva left behind. And the noise at the door is an Outsider who just wants to talk.
The Outsider confirms some things we sort of understood by now, but have never been laid out quite this clearly. The native Outsiders are all born from the Mother who lives in the lake who we met back in book 2. They're also cursed to lose their memories and succumb to injury, but their bodies, even just parts, can be returned to the lake, and reincorporated into the next generation of Outsiders. They all want to steal the souls of the human Insiders to take the souls to the lake, but it never works - the humans end up Cursed, looking like Outsiders, and doomed to turn into trees like Shiva's aunt did. Shiva is somehow different, a 'pure soul' who can't be cursed, and they really want to take her to Mother.
The visiting Outsider thinks that Teacher isn't really a Cursed human, but rather a native Outsider who has totally forgotten his origins. It points out that Teacher can't even remember his old name. Teacher thinks he remembers being Cursed, but I admit, the memory is ambiguous. Plus, as the Outsider notes, Teacher hasn't turned into a tree, for much longer than any other human lasts. Back in the old cabin, the two cursed soldiers search through what Teacher and Shiva left behind, and one thinks he knows that Teacher was the town doctor of a specific village, and thinks he therefore knows Teacher's human name. Mystery! Which theory will turn out to be right?
At the new cabin, Shiva accidentally falls out a window while cleaning, and Teacher catches her. So he's finally touched her, and after being confronted with so much evidence that she can't be cursed, he can't reinstate the no-contact rule. Shiva finally gets to give him a hug, and hold his hand when they walk. Shiva's just a little kid and needs human contact. She cries with happiness.
Then it snows, and they go for a long walk in the snow, and have a snowball fight. Teacher loses his locket, with the photo he thinks shows his human family, and Shiva insists he go look for it. He does, but then an ominous shadow looms over him... Shiva thinks he's come home, and opens the door for him, but instead it's one of the cursed soldiers, who found them after all!
I learned that there's an anime of this story that came out this year. (I think it's a movie or a short miniseries?) I'm going to wait until I finish reading it all before I watch though. At this rate, I'll be done by next summer!
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