Konoe was born to an unnamed mother and his father, later revealed to be Shui, a famous Sanga (a sort of bard/musician who uses music to make people stronger) Shui sent his wife and son to a village named Karou because a rival was after his position as the leader of Ransen's Sanga, and was soon after killed by them, also for associating with a black magician at the time, named Leaks. Leaks, upset about the people who showed up to kill him, thought that Shui, his only friend/implied love interest betrayed him and forcibly removed them his own emotions, shoving them into a vessel which happened to be Konoe before he was born.

This caused Konoe to grow up being able to empathize with other cats/ribika, and his face grew to look exactly like Leaks. He lost his mother when he was very young to the Sickness, a strange disease that has a high mortality rate for female ribika. He lived in thier house alone, defending his territory until he was around 18 years old when the story starts.

Konoe suddenly has a strange dream of snakes winding around and entering his body, and has it four nights in a row. On the fourth night he realizes that he has strange black markings on his legs and arms, and his ears and tail have turned black, liked the cursed cat in the legend. Afraid for his life, his desire to run away is further spurred on by the fact that he was selected as the next sacrifice of the village. Their world is being eroded by the Void-sections of nature that literally reject ribika when they try to touch it, resulting in horrible wounds-and food supply is scarce. The village has taken to placing a torch outside of the house of the ribika selected as a sacrifice, to be killed and then eaten by the rest of the village.

Konoe runs, managing to escape the village when the mysterious Poet, a cat who doesn't speak, just sings appears and guides him to a safe place. It's there he continues to try and find Ransen, the biggest ribika city where his friend lives. At first, he encounters a mysterious boy in the forest after touching a ring that allowed him to see the owner’s death to bandits, who mocks him and tells that his master wants Konoe to entertain him. Leaving no answers, the boy, Firi disappears, leaving Konoe confused.

He gets waylaid by some bandits after returning, only to be saved by a mysterious silver haired ribika. Commanded to run, he ends up lost next to a swamp, when he remembers the legend he hears about ribika from the village Kira. They are black cats with markings on their arms and Konoe thinks he can get information on his own curse. He enters their territory and meets Asato, a Kira cat who is about to kill him until he sees that Konoe has black ears and markings like him. He takes Konoe to see the chief who, while cold to the fact he is an outsider, explains the markings are just ink and that they are not connected to the curse. He permits Konoe to stay with Asato for the night.

Asato lets him stay and is very curious about Konoe and quickly warms up to him despite them both being awkward. The peace is quickly dashed when a shade of a devil appears, driving the cats of Kira into wanting to kill Konoe for being an outsider. Asato quickly defends him, holding off the village ribika while commanding Konoe to run away. He does and gets away from the village, only to end up where he first started.

With nothing else to do he starts heading for Ransen again. He manages to run into the mysterious white haired ribika from earlier, who starts a fight with him. Konoe manages to injure him, but Konoe is then defeated. However, the white-haired cat seems interested in him because he was strong enough to stand against him and actually injure him. Konoe is angered by this, but he's eventually forced to tell the cat who he is and that he was headed to Ransen. The white-haired cat reveals his name to be Rai, and he's a bounty hunter. Before they can talk further, they are waylaid by the same bandits as before, but this time it is a Sanga and Touga pair.

Sangas and Tougas are both warriors, and when they are working together are practically unstoppable unless by another Sanga/Touga pair. Tougas are simply fighters, who are strong physically and can be anyone as long as they train hard enough. Sanga are special and must be born, and each has their own song. They are essentially bards, and power up their Touga with their song.

Rai tells Konoe to get away and leave them to him, but Konoe doesn't want to keep running away from battles and stays to watch how Rai fights. He is strong, but is faltering against the pair, since the Sanga is making the fighter more powerful than Rai can handle. Seeing this, Konoe jumps into the fight to go after the Sanga. Unfortunately, he isn't quite able to accomplish this, instead gettng attacked by the Touga himself. About to die, Konoe suddenly hears a song from inside him, opening his eyes and realizing it wasn't a dream-he really was singing. Konoe was a Sanga.

Konoe quickly sent his song to Rai, who with that extra power was finally able to turn the tables and defeat the pair, before turning his attention to Konoe and asking him what just happened. Konoe of course doesn't know, so Rai explains to him that he is a Sanga, and that he also wants to train Konoe because he wants a Sanga himself.

Konoe isn't very happy about this new development because his plans were to figure out his own curse, but also sees the value in sticking with Rai for the moment, especially because he saw Rai have a moment of gentleness. He does, however tell Rai about the curse on his body and that if he wants him as a Sanga, he's going to have to deal with that. Rai accepts this and takes him to Ransen.

There they eventually found an inn to stay at, since most places were full because of the upcoming festival. After a minor inconvenience of having to man the front desk while the owner of the inn went off somewhere, Konoe and Rai discussed their next move, which was to find the local shaman in the forest somewhere and see what he knows about the curse.

They then leave to go out looking for information on the backstreets, only to be attacked by another Sanga and Touga pair of twins, who were sent by a man named Leaks to harrass Konoe. Not wanting to start a fight in the middle of the city, Rai and Konoe flee from the fight, and suddenly run into none other than Tokino, a close friend of Konoe's. He quickly leads them away from their persuers and lets them rest at his house for a bit while Konoe explains what he can of his situation.

After resting for awhile, Rai took Konoe out to the forest to practice being a Sanga. At first, he struggles trying to sing, but then remembers the white flame in his heart, that often appeared when he was around the Poet, and he is finally able to summon his song at will. This exhausts him, but he still practices swordplay with Rai.

The next day, Konoe happens to enter the forest and meets the Poet again, who starts singing to him about the shaman and where he is, finally pointing in the right direction. Rai finally finds him, as he'd wandered off, and Konoe tells him what he saw. Rai is skeptical, but he follows Konoe anyway, only to find that the Poet was right and there indeed was a shrine where the shaman lived.

Entering, Konoe asked the shaman about the curse on his body, but the shaman was rather vague in his answers. He was able to say that Konoe was being cursed by four different devils, and that a larger, evil entity was following his every move. The Shaman also noted that while that was true, Konoe also had a divine protection from another unknown source and that the shaman could not see his future-literally, because based on his decisions, many things could happen to Konoe. Leaving them with the parting words of 'I look forward to seeing how your song shakes this world' the shaman directs them to the Field of Four Colors, where he says more answers will lie.

Rai and Konoe return to Ransen to pack up and head out to the fields, with Konoe telling his friend goodbye and that he doesn't know when he'll be back. They then strike out on their own, making camp at night. All of a sudden, both of them sense something is about to attack, and thinking its another of Leaks' pursuers, Rai quickly gets up to fight them. Instead the attacker turns out to be an injured Asato, whom thinks that Rai is trying to kidnap Konoe.

Fed up with both of them, Konoe finally gets them both to stop trying to kill each other and treats Asato's wounds. It turned out that he was on the run from his own village for both leaving and letting Konoe escape, and since he had nowhere else to go, he wanted to stay with Konoe. Rai very reluctantly lets him come along, even though he's not happy about the whole deal. However, at that point Firi appears, once again mocking Konoe for his ignorance and inviting them to come to the village ahead, as Leaks has a show planned for them. Asato attacks, but he promptly vanishes again. Rai states that its probably a trap and that Leaks is most likely this shadow following Konoe, but Konoe says there isn't much they could do about it now.

The three journey on through the night and reach said village at the edge of the Field of Four Colors, which is mostly abandoned do to the short food supply moving everyone to the city. Still, Konoe happens along a nice cat who allows them to use one of the abandoned houses to stay the night, since the mirrors they were looking at in the field only shone during the daytime.

The rest of the night is spent uneventful, but when morning comes, there is a strange knocking sound and the group discovers all the cats in the village have been killed and revived as zombies, who were now hunting them down. They escape the house and fight for a long time, killing the rest of the zombies before realizing it was a song that caused all this.

It was then that Leaks and Firi, his Sanga, appeared in the town, finally making himself known to Konoe. He declares that he is the one who did this to the town, and once again affirms the statement that he is doing all of this just to mess with Konoe. Angry, Konoe then attacks the group, but both Leaks and Firi vanish into the forest.

Rai and Asato both leap forward and chase after Leaks' disappearing trail, and Konoe quickly loses them both. He searches for a bit, but instead is accosted by the same twins as before, the Sanga and Touga pair. He knows he cant stand a chance against the two of them, but all of a sudden, Konoe senses Rai's presence, who appears next to him ready to fight. As the twins attack, Konoe himself starts to sing to power up Rai, who also leapt forward to fight. He does well for a minute, but then becomes pushed back. Konoe realizes his song isn't as strong as the other Sanga and puts more power into it despite the pain, and eventually, Rai is able to break through and stab the Sanga through with his sword. The fight is over as the Touga of the pair stopped fighting to go to his brother's body, but for some reason, Rai is smiling and ready to keep wreaking havoc. It's only after calling out to him that Rai finally snaps out of it, and they let the Touga go, carrying his brother's dying body.

Asato then appears out of the brush, missing the whole fight. Konoe asks Rai what happened, despite him being bothered by Rai's seeming bloodlust, and Rai said that he lost Leaks and came back. Since nothing else could be done, the party continued on to the Field of Four Colors, where there were four stones set up in a circle, reflecting light in different colors. Rai got Konoe to stand in the middle of them, but nothing happened at first. Then, Konoe noticed the crests on the rocks were similar to the ones on his arms and legs and suddenly everything went black.

When he opened his eyes, Konoe was in the middle of a world of darkness, but the lights he saw earlier in his nightmare when the curse appeared were there. Each light, in turn took the form of four devils, human figures with horns and draconic tails, and introduced themselves to Konoe before asking him the same question they did when they first appeared : what do you feel?

Froud-the devil of joy, Verg, the devil of pleasure, Kaltz, the devil of grief, and Razel, the devil of wrath all asked in turn, and when they were done, Konoe woke up, having passed out in the middle of the stones. Rai and Asato were concerned and asked what happened, suddenly noting that Konoe's ears and tail were back to their normal color-he was no longer cursed.

They don't have time to think on it more until the devils suddenly appear in their respective stones, expressing disappointment in the fact that none of them succeeded in driving Konoe to lose control of his emotions, in which case they would've eaten him. Leaks then appeared as well, saying he was disappointed none of them were able to capture Konoe before suddenly draining them of their powers, causing the devils bodies to disappear and fade away. Leaks then turns his attention back to Konoe and warns him that the person closest to him will eventually also share his curse. He then tells Konoe to keep being entertaining and vanishes, leaving Konoe there in the field.

Though confused about what to do now and still with a feeling of forboding, Konoe still felt releived that the curse seemed to have disappeared from him, and the three made their way back to Ransen to figure out the next move. Arriving after a day or so, they realize that Ransen is in the middle of a festival and that everyone is dressed up in strange demon costumes to welcome in the brief winter. Rai suggest that they go to the inn they stayed at before, because the owner owes Konoe for stepping in for him. Konoe agrees and they find the same inn again, finally catching a glimpse of the owner.

Suddenly, Rai stops and drives a knife into the counter, telling Konoe to find somewhere else to stay because he wasn't staying here if this man owned the inn. Bardo, the inns owner is apparently someone from Rai's past whom he hates. Konoe, getting fed up with his attitude said they weren't going to find another place and that he was going to stay here, in this inn. It is enough to very reluctantly convince Rai to stay, not wanting to be seperated from his Sanga, but goes immediately up the stairs to get away from Bardo. Bardo returns the knife by throwing it and the key at Konoe, before he finally returns upstairs to square out who gets what rooms. Asato immediately wants to room with Konoe but so does Rai, and finally after Konoe gets annoyed at their fighting again, ends up with Rai because as Sanga and Touga, it makes sense.

They retire to the room for now and Konoe goes out at dusk, deciding to drop by his friend's place to show he was back. Tokino is glad to see him and that he is free of his curse, and gives him a few kuims, Konoe's favorite fruit to celebrate. Returning to his room with Rai in it, he explains where he was, to which Rai said not to get his friend involved and that he should not linger on the past. Konoe also gave him one of his kuims, Rai reluctantly eating it.

After waking up in the morning, the two go downstairs only to find the festival is in full force, leading a strange energy in the air, partly due to excitement and the costumes. Bardo tells him a bit about the festival before Rai drags Konoe outside to go explore. Unfortunately, Konoe immediately gets swallowed up by the crowd and loses both Asato and Rai in the bustle of people. He ends up near an alleyway, where he is soon accosted by familiar figures: the devils.

They appear in front of Konoe to inform him that Leaks had not actually killed them, but merely drained their powers to a fraction of what they were. Konoe is suspicious at first, but the devils say they don't lie and that they wanted to team up with him to take down Leaks and get their powers back. Before Konoe can say anything more, Rai and Asato appear and attack the devils, causing Konoe to tell them to stop. Rai does not trust the devils, but Razel makes Verg show proof that they are weakened, pulling out his heart and showing how its shattered. Konoe reluctantly agrees to let them stay around, all of them keeping an eye on each other so no devil tries to eat Konoe before they get their powers back.

They return to the inn and Konoe asks Bardo for another room in exasperation, which he manages to have. With the demons settled away, Konoe expresses his desire to go out and see more of the festival. Rai follows him so he doesn't get in trouble, and after Konoe says he wants to see the whole festival, Rai tells him to climb up on a roof with him and watch it. They sit there for a time, Konoe asking about Rai's hometown of Setsura, but Rai eventually clams up when Konoe asks him if he always likes fighting. Once inside the inn, his group and the devils gather to eat, where Bardo tells them of the library that's open on the last day of the festival. The devils suggest that they go there for information on Leaks and the rest of them agree before retiring to their rooms for the night.

As they are settling in Rai finally tells the story of his right eye, how he lost it to a demon he was hunting, but in return, gouged out both of his eyes, implying it may have had something to do with his insanity. Unable to figure out how to respond to Rai saying that they should get to know each other better, they both slept to the next day. Rai was gone from the room so Konoe got ready and exited, telling Asato-who was on the roof-that he was going to again go look at the festival from on the ground.

In the meantime he gets distracted by a cattail plant and immediately tries to pounce on it like a cat, planting himself against the building in front of Rai, who'd been watching him. After making fun of Konoe for his little show, Rai told him to come along otherwise he'd keep getting in trouble. Together they walked through the streets until evening, where Konoe gets led astray by a very nice scent. Finding it wafting out of a bag of incense from a rather shady stall, Rai warns him not to take it, but Konoe buys it instead. Rai tells them to head back to the inn, but Konoe suddenly decides to walk along the river, happening on another couple of cats who had been hiding out using the incense.

That's when Rai tells him the incense most likely has catnip in it, which makes ribika drunk and acts as a slight aphrodesiac. Realizing the feeling inside of him was because of this, Konoe also realizes that Rai is affected too when the other seizes him and begins licking him, eventually breaking down into the two making out with each other. Konoe protests because he's pretty sure Rai hates him, but Rai tells him its his fault for buying the insence and that when they are feeling like this, anyone will do. This gets Konoe mad enough to bite Rai's nose, so Rai finally stops and the two of them go back to the inn.

They spend the rest of the night and next day uneventfully, because the following night is the one where they can get into the library. However, as the devils and cats convene in the inn dining room, they have a problem: only a small section of the library is open to the public, and what they wanted to look for was under guard. Pondering this dilemma, Bardo suddenly interjects he knows how to get into the library, but only if they tell him what's going on. Konoe agrees to tell him after, and then Bardo proceeds, rather badly to explain how to get in, since the lock on the door to the back of the library is broken.

After much arguing, the group makes their way into the section of the library that was open before sneaking out to the back. The devils take care of one of the guards, and then the group enters the library. Razel uses his flames to light up the dark room, and the rest of them split off to look for any information on Leaks. Konoe finds a few books on the history of Sisa, including the tales of a Sanga who was so powerful he could make flowers bloomed where he walked, but finds nothing useful against Leaks.

All of a sudden the light goes out, and the devils tell them that Leaks' pursuers have arrived once again. The group agrees to split up and draw the enemies into the forest where they can fight without hurting townsfolk. They escape into the library and then to the forest being chased by the cats, with Asato going with the devils and Rai and Konoe splitting off to chase another.

They run for a little bit, teaming up to finally take the enemy cat down, only to find Firi in its place. He again tells them he is Leaks' Sanga and wants Konoe to keep struggling because his master finds it entertaining. To this end, Firi summons a bunch of soulless cats, who all begin attacking Rai and Konoe at once. Konoe begins to sing and Rai is able to hold them off for a little while, but the numbers begin to overwhelm him. Konoe gets the idea to help out and suddenly stops singing, only to try and attack Firi to stop the song. He doesn't succeed and gets pretty heavily injured in the attempt, but Rai in his rage, manages to defeat the rest of the pursuers. Firi calls some more after that, despite the fact that both are exhausted, but suddenly there is a bright white light and the Poet is suddenly standing in front of them. His presence manages to drive Firi off, and then he begins to lead Rai and Konoe somewhere in the forest. Rai questions whether they can really trust this Poet, but Konoe refuses to listen and follows. The figure leads them back to the rest of the group, who tell them they too have defeated their opponents.

Because of their injuries, Rai and Konoe go back to the inn to rest, holding off explaining everything to Bardo until the next day. It's decided that they have no choice but to wait for more information or the devils to pick up on his location. It's after this point that Konoe is taken from.