The Shadows House Season 2 ending was powerful, if a little rushed. Emilico and Kate are now team leaders but they have a difficult task at hand, as Belle, who is now almost unable to function, is part of the team. But what happened to Belle and her twin?
The mystery anime omits the specifics, perhaps due to time constraints or because of just how sad and gruesome the Belles' fate is in the manga.
Warning: Shadows House Spoilers Below
About the Belle Twins
The Belle twins were two identical twins, a few years older than Emilico who acted as the faces of Shadow twins Isabelle and Mirabelle.
They used to be leaders of their team and were rather unpleasant to younger living dolls, including Emilico's friend, Rum, who used to be in their team before being made into a faceless doll.
The Belles and their mistresses had aimed to become star bearers. To that effect, they were polite and servile with the existing star bearers and rude to almost anyone else.
Isabelle and Mirabelle, their Shadow mistresses, were much the same. Given that Shadows are morphs who imitate their humans and often adopt parts of their humans' personalities, it's entirely possible that the Belle twins also had selfish and unpleasant personalities back when they were living as humans in the village.
Despite that, it's hard not to feel sorry about them after the Master Robe arc.
Related: What Happened to Rum in Shadows House?
What Happened to Belle in Shadows House?
The finale of Shadows House Season 2 only mentions that one of the Belles was disposed of without getting into details. The Shadows House manga, however, does a little more work with this plot point, revealing that one of the Belles died horribly.
After Maryrose caused a big phantom disturbance to make her living doll Rosemary contract soot sickness and delay their admission to the adult building, she also made the Belle twins spill the coffee that was used to brainwash the living dolls.
At that point, Maryrose hadn't been found out and the phantom disturbances remained a mystery, so no one suspected that the Belles hadn't acted freely.
As punishment for spilling the coffee, they were made to clean pipes that contains an extreme volume of soot which made them very sick. Both soon became too traumatized to function.
Eventually, one of the Belles died, presumably not due to the soot sickness itself, but, tragically, because the House had literally made her believe she was a doll.
As such, she thought she didn't need to eat to survive. When she became too sick to feel hungry, she made her twin eat on her behalf, thinking that this was enough for her to be nourished too.
It is suggested that Mirabelle and Isabelle might have had a hand in that, as they used the Belle twins like dolls, not even bothering to find different names for each of them and presumably treating them as interchangeable to the point that they didn't even know whose face the dead Belle used to be.
The surviving Belle became so traumatized by her ordeals and her twin's death that she became unable to leave her room and perform her cleaning duties. However, as her new team leader, Emilico is determined not to let her be discarded.
Related: Where to Start the Shadows House Manga After the Anime?
Does Belle Get Better?
Even though Belle was previously rude to her, Emilico is determined to be a good friend and team leader and never lose another team member. She thus instructs the other members of the team to perform Belle's work until she's better and encourages her to take her recovery slowly.
Emilico and Kate find that part of Belle's distress was caused because Isabelle and Mirabelle who couldn't figure out whose face the dead Belle was kept fighting over the surviving one, using them even more mercilessly.
Kate was firm and tried to snap them out of this behaviour, telling them that Belle is an excellent face who can show both their horrible expressions and she urges them to take better care of her.
Since then, the identical Shadows sometimes both go out with Belle as their shared face. It's implied that they began treating her better, as Belle was once again able to function.
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Later when she and her mistresses were walking alongside Emilico and Kate and Emilico tripped and fell, Belle rushed to her aid even though living dolls aren't supposed to act independently when working as faces.
This is a subtle but real indication that Emilico's persistence and patience paid off, making even someone as unpleasant as Belle warm up to her.
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