Tear Jerker / The Girl from the Other Side

• Shiva's various nightmares are disheartening, ranging from being the only survivor of the curse and left completely alone to people blaming her for things she had no control over.
• Auntie feeling immense guilt for abandoning Shiva Outside, even though she had to or else Shiva or the both of them might've been killed on the spot. She calls it her sin and that she failed as a parent.
• The poor girl can't catch a break. People have already tried to kill her but when the village Shiva was taken/kidnapped to gets cursed, she has to watch people run, crying and screaming, only to be killed while begging for mercy. She herself has to flee from the soldiers again while the town is set on fire. She doesn't know where her aunt went after the latter disappeared upon turning into an Outsider. When she bumps into Teacher outside the village, she follows behind him in shock and is unable to do anything but lie down in the middle of the hallway when they get home.
• The progression of Auntie's curse can hit pretty hard, particularly for people who have experience dealing with dementia, Alzheimer's or similarly symptomatic patients. She stands outside with her head in her hands, not moving; Shiva says she looks like she's thinking very hard. When Shiva asks her for a pie recipe, Teacher later finds her late at night, surrounded by crumpled papers because she keeps trying and trying to write a recipe but can't completely remember. The final nail on the head is the fact that she took Shiva's drawing with her before she "died", clearly knowing it was important but not why.
  • Auntie watching Shiva sleep, reminiscing about their time together and how she'd never forget such a sweet, darling girl. The next page is just a full spread of black, empty nothingness.
  "Shiva...? My... That has such a familiar ring to it. I wonder what it was...?"
  • Making it worse is that Shiva eventually did receive a complete pie recipe from Auntie, showing that she was able to remember at some point and raising the question on whether or not she really could have been saved, despite Teacher's assertions.
• Shiva's quiet shock to finding Auntie's remains.
• The final fate of Outsiders is to lose their memories, bodily sensations and all sense of personhood, being aware of it but having no way of stopping it until they're as hollow as the tree they'll turn into. It makes the Inside's view of Better to Die than Be Killed more understandable. Then there's the fact that the Outside is mostly forests...
• Shiva coming to terms with the fact that Auntie is gone and she'll never see her again, breaking down into quiet tears. Teacher desperately wants to comfort her but can't touch her, helplessly watching as she slips back into her Stepford Smiler demeanor and running back into the house.
• When Teacher finally accepts that Shiva might already be cursed and that she's an incredibly lonely, desperate child, he gives her a pat to the head. Her reaction? She starts to cry and throws herself on Teacher in a tight hug. In the following chapters, she's constantly reaching out to hold his hand or brushing up against him.
• Teacher wrestling with what remains of his identity. Though he's weathered the curse better than most, it's clear that he's still forgetting things. Things have gotten foggy to the point that he's not sure if what he remembers is what really happened or if he's just deluding himself.
• After Teacher gives his soul to save Shiva from the curse and essentially loses whatever humanity he had, the most heartbreaking part is Shiva's slow realization of what he's done and what it means. It culminates in when she gets captured by the soldiers and Teacher, having forgotten who Shiva even is, just lets them take her away. She comes to the conclusion that if Teacher knew that he'd forget about her when he gave her his soul, he must not have cared very much about her.
• Lying on the altar, about to be sacrificed, the King asks Shiva if she has any parting words to give to anyone. She says no. As he raises his sword, he asks if she's ready. She immediately crumples into tears.
  "I don't know...!"

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