Help

It's confusing even if you read it all in one go again

But what I basically understood was:
The big spirit of the 6 now divided cities is a barrier of sort; it makes sure to swallow the impurities to the other side, it can visualise souls and any interaction with it basically is an automatic transformation of the soul into an afterlife spirit... That is what "hikaru" is (that's my main theory)

The spirit mediums or those who do have the ability to interact with or sense spiritual power (like the housewife and the hearing girl) instinctively feel like they can coexist with the barrier and the spirits, however impurities are more often harmful

How does the impurities come to be, outside of them being spirits back in the life without reincarnation, is still not stated but it can be speculated as a standard description that they have a strong attachment to the life they had

Hikaru is from a sinning family according to the hints; the father of hikaru warning him about a curse of a loved one being spirited away yet present in life, like a bad copy of the original. The grandfather being enraged that the innoh hikaru doesn't know his supposed mistake. The village council finding a protective charm head supposedly belonging to the innohs... But it could just be that the skulls are something dear to certain impurities

The link between a change of religion and the uprise of "the great braineater" is totally eroding me

One thing for sure is that hikaru, before dying, probably exchanged the charm he has (skull) for protecting yoshiki or keeping him company but I think the 'god' took him as a vessel, absorbed the soul remaining in the skull leaving behind a rocky thing with shreds of the 'god's body in it making it feel spiritually powerful. The 'god' did grant the wish of hikaru by becoming "hikaru" and he now freely roams outside the forest

Yoshiki probably thinks that hikaru is 100% dead but I think something remains, idk how much. Also that guy in glasses may be from the sinning side and has an agenda

From what I felt I think spirit mediums and the "company" don't share any work values or ideologies... I don't know about goals tho. So it makes sense that even when knowing who "hikaru" is the guy in glasses and the housewife have seemingly opposite agendas (one is for killing it probably and the other is to coexist with it far from human)

As for the council of the village they probably have an idea on all the matters but their goal is to lessen the impurities and for such there may be many illegal or sinful things they are doing but I can't conclude

Maki's brother spoke about abortion pills made of mercury being the origin of the naming change or just an origin of the name; it is speculated in japan that babies aren't human or at least not much: they're like a middle ground between spirits and humans so killing them is like fully transforming their human side into spirit. I think there may be something about barriers and transformers of the spirit that could link the two but it's unclear


All in all, the plot is rich and I'm looking forward to it