Ever since that day, Moriko has become a fairly regular sight around the village, often found alongside Otori, who has taken on the young girl as his pupil. Nobody asides from him really seems to know a lot about her, though. When asked, she will gladly inform people that she comes from a small village in the north of the archipelago and that she had begun wandering about when her parents died until, of course, she ran into the sage of Iwano. This is about the extent of anyone’s knowledge, however; Moriko tends to keep to herself, preferring the nearby woodlands to the village and those that inhabit it. It is not that she evades all forms of social contact – in fact, she appears to be quite an amicable person once you get past her quirks – it is simply that she rarely ever seems to seek it out.

A few of the villagers have wondered aloud as to how a young girl like Moriko was capable of surviving by herself for so long. Those who have watched her from afar have realized that she’s far tougher than she at first appears to be, however, and that she is also quite capable of sneaking up to even the village’s woodsmen with little apparent effort. Furthermore, animals seem to take a natural liking to her for some reason, be they tamed or wild – a skill which disturbs a fair number of people, though she herself doesn’t appear to notice of this.

Formality appears to be an entirely alien concept to Moriko. The only person she refers to with any actual kind of honorific without being urged to is her mentor (“Otori-Sensei”), who it seems has at least managed to hammer the habit of referring to people as “-san” into her, but the local elders, monks and priestesses do not appear to be awarded any kind of exceptional respect. She also seems to think nothing of appearing filthy and unwashed all the time, occasionally with blood and other remnants from her latest meal still clinging from her clothes or face. Otori refers to this as a “work in progress”.

All in all, Moriko can not really be considered an inhabitant of Iwano village; she is more of a regularly glimpsed outsider and occasional observer, and she seems to be just fine with this state of events.