Prologue
Long ago in Japan, there lived a powerful and extremely handsome tengu prince. He could take on the form of a human and sought out pleasure in many demon and human women alike. But the prince was spoiled, and hated all the women who only tried to please him because of his wealth and power. One rainy night, an old woman, who seemed to come from the fishing village at the bottom of his mountain knocked on his palace door. She had a deformed face and a balding head with wisps of gray hair covering her ears. She smelled of rotten fish and kelp and her hands were callused and leathery from working. She asked the tengu prince for shelter from the rain, but he turned her away, obviously disgusted with her appearance. She then offered a cutting of a cherry tree to the prince as payment. Again the tengu turned her away with a blast of ice cold wind in her face. The old woman warned him not to be deceived by outward appearances, but the tengu didn't listen and slammed the door. Then a blast of warm light filled the palace and in the place of the old woman was a beautiful lady in a white kimono covered in designs of cherry blossoms. The rain turned into falling cherry petals that matched the lady's pale pink lips. She spoke with a sing-song voice to the now apologizing prince.
"You have no love in your heart. If you cannot love, you should not live."
"PLEASE! I'll do anything, just don't kill me." The prince begged the great lady. Even though he was a powerful daitengu, he knew he was no match for this lady.
"If you are willing to do anything, I will give you one chance. You must find a young lady to love, and she must love you in return, but you will no longer have your human form." With a snap of her long white fingers, the prince was transformed into his tengu counterpart, a hideous long-nosed goblin. He grew until he was 10 feet tall and two black wings grew out of his back. His eyes became red and his hands grew into claws. "I am also sealing your powers in a powerful barrier around your palace. You will only have half of your power within this barrier. You may only leave the palace grounds four times a year and if you leave, your power will be reduced to one fourth it's normal amount. Your servants will also be stripped of all their power and are not allowed to leave the palace grounds. It's your fault." The lady took the cherry blossom cutting and placed it in the courtyard in the west wing of the palace. It grew into a small tree covered in cherry blossoms. "You have ten years, Tengu. Each month, a cherry blossom will fall from the tree. If the last one falls before you found someone to love, you will be stripped of all your power and be forced to live here, imprisoned for the rest of your hateful life." With that last sentence, the cherry blossoms swirled around the great lady and she disappeared.
Nine years passed, and the tengu prince, began to lose hope, for no one could ever love someone as ugly as he.