Kawaii princess's Arc

Chapter 60 of 74

The placard slid into place, demanding one more song, and the broken bone shard rolled off the shelf. Across the field, a tall metal tower bloomed with rotating beams, slicing the mist in pink and gold. The crowd's heads turned toward the light. Her plank stage stood bare behind her, snow heaped on the railings, chains hanging slack. Kawaii Princess could feel them drifting. Every second of silence pulled another body toward the rival's beams. She needed a thing to hold their eyes — now, before the empty boards behind her swallowed her chance. She reached under the podium and pulled out a tall mirror framed in icy filigree. She lifted it high above her head. The rotating beams from across the field struck the glass, and the mirror threw the light back, scattered into sharp blue stars that raced across the pavilion walls. Heads snapped back toward her. She tilted the frame slowly, walking the stars over the crowd, buying second after second. The head scout watched the stars cross his sleeve and raised the crown token. The placard cleared. Kawaii Princess held the mirror steady, the rival's own light now working for her — but the borrowed beams blinked once, then dimmed, as the tower across the field began to turn its reflectors away.