🍄 Meet Kinoko

When our heroes first meet him, Kinoko seems harmless. A wandering sage in mossy robes, with a mushroom cap pulled low and sleeves frayed from years on the road. He hums to himself, makes silly puns, and always seems to pop up just when the group needs guidance.

He calls himself a friend of the forest. Through the mycelial network, he can listen in on whispers carried underground—mushroom messengers that share secrets of cursed seeds and where they’ll strike next. Tap his cap and he disappears in a puff of spores.

To Kabu, Kabocha, Matsu, and Ume, he’s a mentor. Something between a guide and a grandfather. Wise. Cryptic. Endearing.

But Kinoko is more complicated than he lets on. His riddles carry warnings as much as wisdom, and sometimes his songs echo just a little too far into the dark. He always knows more than he should. He always leaves just before the real fight begins. And the forest doesn’t just speak to him—it speaks through him.

Kinoko is both ally and enigma: a sage whose roots run deep, and whose true intentions may not be as simple as the heroes hope.

👤 Quick Profile

• Name: Kinoko (a.k.a. Enno-ki)
• Title: The Mushroom Sage
• Age: Ancient
• Appearance: Elderly man with a mushroom cap hat, long beard and brows, mossy robes, and a staff. Sometimes small as a fungus, sometimes tall as a monk.
• Personality: Whimsical, cryptic, eccentric. Later revealed as calculating, self-serving, and bound to older powers.
• Backstory: Inspired by the legend of En no Gyōja, the ascetic sorcerer. Once a man who sought tengu immortality, but cursed into an immortal, decaying state. Now wanders through the mycelium, half-guide, half-spy.
• Power: Connection to the mycelial network. Can see and hear through mushrooms and spores. Appears anywhere the forest grows. Speaks in riddles and songs that conceal as much as they reveal.
• Role: The team’s mysterious guide. Mentor, narrator… and secret villain, slowly gathering strength and knowledge to overthrow the tengu who cursed him.
• Flaw: Bound by pride and an ancient grudge. Uses his guidance to manipulate as much as to protect.

🎭 Why He Matters

Kinoko is the connective tissue of the story. He appears in key moments to guide the team toward the cursed seeds, framing their journey in the language of folklore. His songs remind them (and us) that the forest is always listening.

But he also embodies one of the show’s central tensions: wisdom vs. manipulation, trust vs. surveillance. Is he truly helping the heroes—or grooming them for his own ends?

The truth is somewhere in the spores.