Gonjirou

Gonjirou is the only bamboo merchant in The Heart of the Forest. Their stall is always neat, the bamboo stalks cut to perfect lengths, their prices fair. The locals, obsessed with their feasts and songs, buy the shoots for steaming and the stalks for building. They politely ignore the faint, demonic glow in Gonjirou’s eyes and the fact their hands never seem to warm, even in the autumn sun. They don't ask why Gonjirou never eats the food they sell, or why they sometimes walk the forest late at night, planting new shoots in strange, silent patterns. They just see a merchant. They don't see the slow, patient work of building a cage from the inside.