Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 18 of 54

Kawaii Princess locked the duet inside a small wooden box with a brass clasp and frost on its hinges. She tucked it under her arm and walked out to rehearse the harmony in the open air one last time before the broadcast. The four notes met her at the path. A group of children sang them on the steps. Vendors hummed them at their carts. She climbed into a round stone tower with a glass dome, hoping the thick walls would hold the noise back. The melody seeped through the windows anyway, sung by a line of fans waiting outside the door. She tried three more spots. Each one was already taken by her own stolen song. At a ring of standing stones hung with chimes, a crowd swayed beneath the arches, singing the four notes on a loop without her. They did not need her there to keep it alive. Kawaii Princess pressed the locked box to her chest and turned away. She could not test the fifth note anywhere the wind reached. If the duet was going to land, it would have to land cold, untested, live on the broadcast stage itself.