Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 44 of 54

Kawaii Princess stood at the cracked mirror set in its stone frame, the place where her last signal had died. Above her, the blue flames roared on the carved platform. Below, the crowd pressed tight around the tall tribute of stacked names, chanting them line by line. She had no voice. Her bell was thin. Her mirror was broken. But the names were the engine. Cut the engine, cut the noise. She slid the silver mirror back into her sash and walked straight to the monument. She did not climb. She knelt at its base, pulled a carved crown token from her pocket, and scratched her own name into the lowest stone, right under the rival's list. Then she laid a stack of blank tokens on the step beside it. She pointed at the empty stone above her name and waited. A girl near the front saw it. She came forward, took a token, and carved her name beneath Kawaii Princess's. Then another. Then four more. The chant near the platform thinned as heads turned down. The rival shouted from the steps and waved the blue torches higher, but the line at the base of her own monument kept growing. Her tribute was becoming Kawaii Princess's roster. The head scout stepped from the crowd and counted the fresh carvings aloud. The rival's rally cracked in half. The monument still stood, but it no longer belonged only to one side. Kawaii Princess rose with chalk dust on her gloves. Her following had not dissolved. It had signed itself, in stone, onto her rival's wall.