Miyori Mashima is an eleven-year-old girl who, at the start of the story, carries a closed and wounded heart. She grows up amidst constant discord between her parents, and when her mother leaves the family, her father sends her to live with her grandparents in a remote rural village. Feeling abandoned and resentful, Miyori becomes stubborn and withdrawn, rejecting the kindness of her grandparents and the overtures of the local children. Her personality initially leans toward cynicism and isolation; she considers herself a modern city girl and views the countryside as a punishment. However, everything changes when she wanders into a nearby forest and encounters its spirits. They reveal that she has been chosen to become the guardian of the village forest, a role her grandmother currently holds. Although she is deeply uncertain at first, this supernatural connection begins to crack her emotional shell. Her primary motivation shifts from simply enduring her circumstance to protecting the forest and its inhabitants from an outside threat: a planned dam project that would flood the entire area. As she learns to communicate and cooperate with the spirits, she also starts to open up to her human peers, most notably a boy named Daisuke, who initially bullies her but later becomes a close ally. Through a series of challenges—including confronting a vengeful ghost, outsmarting hunters hired by the dam company, and rallying the spirits to defend their home—Miyori grows into a strong, responsible, and courageous girl. She learns to trust others, accept help, and commit fully to her role as guardian. By the story’s end, she chooses to remain in the village, having found purpose and belonging in the sacred forest she now protects. Her notable abilities include the power to see, communicate with, and command the forest spirits, as well as a growing intuitive bond with the natural world that allows her to sense its needs and dangers.