Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 49 of 54

From the podium, Kawaii Princess saw what the broadcast saw. Her stage sat low and cracked, its faded purple curtains drooping at the edges. Above it, the rival's crystal tower threw blue fire into the sky. On her own platform, a small icy torch holder mirrored that flame in miniature — proof the rival owned the air. She stepped down from the podium and lifted the little torch holder in both hands. She did not try to put the blue flame out. She tilted it toward the cracked back wall of her stage and held it steady. The flame's light struck the faded curtains and the broken ice, and the cracks lit up like veins of glass. The head scout turned. The lens turned with him. On the skyline, the rival's tower still burned, but here the cracks in her stage now glowed line by line, drawing the same blue across her name on the pillar. The crowd's eyes dropped from the tower to her platform. The sideshow had become the picture. The head scout marked her stage lit. The broadcast cut wide and held on her, not the tower. The rival's flames kept burning above — but they were no longer the thing Jadeice was watching.