Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 50 of 54

The broadcast held on her stage, but the seated ring of followers tilted their faces up, waiting. The polished ice and stone podium stood empty at center. No song waited on it. No move. The blue-lit cracks were a picture, not a finale, and a picture could not close a show. Kawaii Princess stepped off the platform. Behind the curtain stood a small fabric tent on a wooden frame, her last-chance space. She ducked inside. She had seconds. She tore a strip from the tent's hem, knotted it around her wrist, and grabbed a frost-patched canvas shelter cover folded by the pole. She dragged it out behind her. She spread the patched canvas flat across the podium like a cloth on a table. Then she knelt on it, lifted the little torch holder, and pressed the blue flame to the fabric's frost-stiff seams. The frost flashed white. The patches lit one by one — brown, cream, rust — a map of every scrap she had ever performed in. She did not sing. She bowed her head over the burning cloth and held still. The seated ring stood. The head scout raised his hand and held it there. The broadcast cut close on the lit quilt and her bowed head, then faded the frame to black. The finale was finished — not with a song, but with every patch of her past laid down at once. The round closed in her favor, and the contest moved one step nearer its end.