Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 58 of 74

The cameras blinked red. Kawaii Princess stood inside the draped pavilion as the gathered crowd pressed close along its frosted panels, faces turned up, waiting. She had no opening number. Her throat was dry, her hands empty, and every city in Jadeice was watching the silence stretch. Beside her stood a tall wooden cabinet with frost-laced glass doors. Its shelves were bare. She had set it there herself last night, meaning to fill it with props by dawn. Now it only caught the pale light and showed the world she had brought nothing. She reached for the silver chain at her neck and lifted the small locket free. The ice-crystal pendant swung once, twice, catching the cameras. Kawaii Princess held it up to the glass shelf and tapped the pendant against the pane. A clean, ringing note rose, sharp as a chime. She tapped again. Again. Four notes, then a fifth — the secret one. The crowd inside the pavilion drew breath together and answered the four notes back. The cabinet rang under her hand like a bell, and the broadcast caught every strike. She had no opening number, so she made the empty shelf into one. The dead air was gone. But her locket pendant had cracked clean through on the final note, and she had nothing left to strike with for the next song.