Fluffy Princess Spica - Palm-Sized Princess, Descending to the Human World — Love at First Sight Inside a Bug Cage

"Ugh, I'm sooo bored!" At the top floor of the tower in Hoshinokawa Castle, Spica lay spread-eagle on her bed, her wavy lavender twin-tails splayed out around her. She stared up at the ceiling, her round magenta eyes spinning in circles. This was the royal castle, rising on Stellaris Island at the heart of the Hoshinokawa Kingdom. Its white walls, packed tight with stardust, glowed pale blue in the night light. Spica's room sat at the very top of the tallest tower — the princess's special seat. But to Spica, it was just a boring room. "Every single day it's 'don't step on the hem of your dress,' and 'eat your cookies daintily in three bites.' I'm so done with all of it!" Spica sprang up, and her white-and-lavender dress — embroidered with stardust — swirled around her. The skirt, cut short so she could move freely, billowed softly. The tiny transparent wings on her back quivered with restlessness. She walked over to her secret escape window. Her star-shaped hair ornament, the "Star Charm," caught the moonlight and glinted. "Tonight's the Starfall Festival. There's no way I'm staying cooped up in the castle." She pushed the window open. A sweet-smelling night breeze lifted her lavender hair. Below her spread the castle town of Stellaris, its stardust cobblestones radiating outward like a star. Palm-sized spirits walked about carrying lantern lights. On the street lined with cookie trees, the smell of freshly baked cookies rose in warm curls of steam. Cotton-candy clouds drifted lazily across the sky, and from a distant cotton-candy cloud stop, a cloud vehicle floated off on its way. "Lucky them. Everyone looks like they're having fun." Spica propped her chin on her hand and let out a single sigh. About forty thousand star spirits lived in the Hoshinokawa Kingdom. All of them were palm-sized, all had wings on their backs, and all lived by eating starlight. There was hardly any class divide among spirits. Even the king himself strolled through the cookie market buying fresh-baked cookies. So why was she the only one treated differently? "Princess this, Princess that. I'm just Spica." Spica was eighteen. She was the princess of the Hoshinokawa Kingdom. And she hated it — hated it so much she couldn't stand it. When she practiced magic, her teacher gushed, "As expected of the princess." When she failed, they laughed it off with "What a uniquely princess-like spell." If she fumbled her table manners, she was forgiven with "The princess is so busy, after all." Her dance partners were always stuffy noble boys her father picked out. Everything, all of it, just because she was the princess. Spica looked at her own hands. A tiny body, twelve centimeters tall. The body of a palm-sized spirit. "If I weren't a princess. If there were a world where nobody knew me." Then she could go on all the adventures she wanted. She'd explore deep into the Cookie Forest, get sleepy on soft-baked cookies, bathe in the Moonlight Spring, and count stars on Starfall Hill until morning. With no one calling her "Princess" — just plain Spica. "...Yeah, right. Like that could ever happen." Just then, a single streak of light slid across the edge of the sky. A shooting star. On the night of the Starfall Festival, they said, a wish made on a shooting star would come true. Spica hurriedly laced her fingers into a star shape. "Please! Take me to a world where nobody knows me!" She shouted it at the top of her lungs. The star winked out. She waited a while. The wind blew. The cotton-candy clouds drifted. Faint laughter rose from the castle town below. Nothing happened. "...Yeah. I figured. Just wishing on a shooting star isn't going to change the world, is it." Spica laughed. Just a little, she felt like crying. That was when it happened. '...Come this way...' A low voice — yet pleasant to the ear — came from somewhere. "Huh?" Spica looked all around. No one was there. 'Come here... Spica...' The voice came from somewhere below the tower. From around the "Mirror Hall," deep inside the castle. The Mirror Hall. On the first floor of Hoshinokawa Castle, where the stardust cobblestones ended, there was a great chamber. A huge mirror was set into the entire wall there, and everyone said you must never peek into it at night. "Why do you know my name...?" She was scared. But she was even more curious. Spica slipped out the secret window, fluttered her wings, and flew down into the castle. The corridors were dead silent. With the Starfall Festival going on, almost all the servants were out in the castle town. Spica tiptoed toward the Mirror Hall. In front of the door, she swallowed hard. "...I'm opening it, okay?" No answer. Instead, white light leaked through the gap in the door. Spica pushed the heavy door open with both hands. In the center of the hall stood a single large mirror. Not the one set into the wall — this was a standing mirror, like a full-length mirror placed on the floor. It gave off a white light that had nothing to do with the moonlight. "What... is this..." In the mirror, Spica saw herself. Lavender twin-tails, magenta eyes, the Star Charm. The usual her. But the her in the mirror was smiling for some reason. The real Spica wasn't smiling at all. 'Come here.' The voice came from inside the mirror. Spica took one step, then another. Her heart pounded. She was scared, but her feet wouldn't stop. She came to a halt before the mirror. Gently, she touched her fingertip to the glass. It was cold. In that instant, the Star Charm blazed with light. "Kyaa!" Light spilled out. White light filled the room and wrapped around Spica's body. It was warm. It felt fluffy. She was getting sleepy. "Ah... wha..." And there, Spica's consciousness cut out. ——— "...Mn...?" When Spica opened her eyes, a gigantic tree root loomed right in front of her. "Whoa! What is this thing? It's huge!" Spica leaped to her feet. She looked around. The base of a giant camphor tree. The smell of soil. The smell of grass. When she looked up, the sky was just beginning to brighten. "Where... am I...?" This wasn't the Hoshinokawa Kingdom. No cookie trees, no cotton-candy clouds. In their place were concrete buildings, asphalt roads, and iron fences. "Could this be... the human world?" Spica looked at her hands. Small. Still twelve centimeters. Her wings were there too. Her dress and the Star Charm, all unchanged. "My body's the same. But this is definitely not Hoshinokawa." Human voices came from somewhere far off. Huge-bodied humans in white clothes were walking around. This was the grounds of Wakabadai General Hospital — the hospital where Souta was a patient. But Spica didn't know that yet. "A world where nobody knows me... Did the shooting star really grant my wish?" Spica floated up into the air. "Amazing! Amazing, amazing! I did it! It really came true!" She spun round and round in the air. Her lavender twin-tails sparkled in the morning light. "No more being treated like a princess, no more boring manners, no more magic practice! I'm free!" She shouted it out loud. The humans didn't seem to hear her. A spirit's voice only reaches special people. "That's right — first, exploring! I wonder what's inside that big building!" Spica zipped around the hospital grounds. She flew low over the lawn, sampled a bit of nectar from the flower beds, and took a rest on a bench. "Oh, what's that white thing? It looks fluffy." Spica dove into a sheet that had been hung out to dry in the yard. "Wow, it smells so good! It smells like sunshine!" She rolled around wrapped in the sheet. No one scolded her. She felt absolutely wonderful. "Haa... I'm so happy..." That was when three big shadows fell across the ground. "Hey, look at that." "What is it, a dragonfly?" "Kind of big for a dragonfly, isn't it? And doesn't it look kind of human-shaped?" Spica looked up, and there stood three human students. Boys in sloppily worn uniforms who looked like nothing but trouble. One of them was holding an insect net. "Wait, what — can those people see me...?" Spica hurriedly wriggled out of the sheet. But it was too late. "Grab it!" The insect net came down over Spica's head. "Kyaa!" Spica ran for her life. She beat her wings and flew in zigzags. But with three of them chasing her, her escape routes shrank fast. "Tch, it's quick!" "It went that way!" "Got it!" Whump. The net tangled around Spica's body. "Let me go! Let me go!" Spica thrashed. But the net didn't budge. One of the students pulled out a bug cage. A plastic one with a green lid. "Here, put it in, put it in." "No! Nooo!" Spica was tossed into the bug cage. The lid snapped shut. The click sounded terribly loud. "What is this thing, is it really a bug? But its face looks human." "It's got wings, too. Is it a little person? A new species?" "If we film this, it'll go viral, won't it?" The three of them peered into the cage and laughed. Spica pressed herself against the wall of the cage and looked out. Three human faces. Grinning. (Scary...) Her body trembled. She'd had no idea humans could be this big, this frightening. "That's right — magic!" Spica laced her fingers into a star shape. Star magic. The spell used by the spirits of the Hoshinokawa Kingdom. Gather starlight and turn a wish into power. "Please, break this cage!" A small light gathered in Spica's palm. "Here goes...?" But the next moment, the light burst out of control. Boom! "Kyaa!" Spica's body slammed against the cage wall. The light ricocheted wildly inside the cage, burning Spica herself. "A... aah..." Her body was turning transparent. Her radiance — a spirit's life force — was draining away all at once. "N... no... why..." Magic was always like this. You never knew what would happen. It had never once worked. But this time, the failure was fatal. Spica slumped down at the bottom of the cage. Her body grew thin, and she could see right through it. "Help me..." Her voice wouldn't come out anymore. That was when it happened. "What are you three doing?" A clear but strong voice came from behind the three students. Through her fading vision, Spica looked at whoever had spoken. At the entrance to the hospital yard stood a boy. Navy-blue short hair, with just the middle of his bangs long. Purplish pale-blue eyes. He wore a white hospital gown and was breathing hard. "Huh? What do you want?" One of the students turned around. The boy took one step forward. "I'd like that bug cage back." His voice was shaking. But his eyes were fixed straight on the students. "Huh? Do you even know what this is?" The student lifted the bug cage. Spica hung limp inside. The boy looked into the cage. And his purplish pale-blue eyes went wide. "...A spirit." The word slipped from the boy's mouth, quiet but clear. "A spirit? What are you talking about?" "Is this guy nuts?" The students laughed. But the boy didn't. "Just like my grandma's stories... They really do exist." The boy never took his eyes off Spica. "Hey, you think we're gonna hand it over just 'cause you asked?" One of the students shoved the boy in the chest. The boy staggered. He clutched the front of his white hospital gown and coughed painfully. "Gah... haah..." "What, you're sickly? Go on, get out of here." The students ignored the boy and started to walk off with the bug cage. "Wait." The boy's voice made the air go taut. "I'd like that back." The same words again. But this time, his voice was far stronger. "You're persistent! You want me to knock you out or something?!" The student raised his fist. But the boy didn't close his eyes. "Can you see it? Can you see who's inside that cage?" At the boy's words, the students exchanged glances. "Huh? Who's inside... it's a bug." "No. It's a little girl. A spirit girl with lavender hair, and she's suffering in that cage." The boy's voice was strangely calm. "What are you even talking about..." "If

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Episode 1

Name: Fluffy Princess Spica
Author: Novelia

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