Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 51 of 54

The black fade lifted, and Kawaii Princess saw the trouble before her breath cleared. Across the field, a torn banner had been hoisted up the rival's tower — bright blue, pink, and purple cloth snapping in the wind. The crowd she had just won turned their heads toward it. A wooden sign with a painted arrow had been driven into the ice at the edge of her seated ring, pointing the way to the tower. Her rival stood on the platform and tossed pale carvings down into the field. Bone tokens, each cut with the rival's flower mark, clattered on the ice. Hands reached. Feet shifted. Two girls in her ring stood and stepped past the arrow sign. Then three more. The crowd she had earned was leaking out of her gates one token at a time. Kawaii Princess walked straight to the arrow banner. She did not pull it down. She lifted it from the ice, turned the painted shaft to point back at her own lit podium, and drove it deep beside the pink crystal pillar. Then she picked up a fallen bone token, snapped it across her knee, and laid both halves at the foot of the pillar where the carved hearts shone. The head scout watched. He stepped between the tower and her stage and raised the crown token toward her ring. The leaking stopped. Most stayed. Some did not — a handful kept walking toward the tower with bone in hand. Kawaii Princess had held the floor, but the field was split now, and the final round would face two crowds instead of one.