Kiki's Delivery Service: Azure Seas and a Month of Misunderstandings - The Flying Witch and the Red Envelope at the Harbor

"Another day, let's give it our all!" In the attic room, the morning sun streamed in. Kiki sprang out of her small bed. She slipped her arms through her usual purple dress, and the protective pendant her mother had given her swayed at her chest. By the window, the black cat Jiji was yawning. "Late again, aren't you?" "But I was having such a good dream!" As she said this, Kiki used her fingers to comb her bobbed hair, cut neatly at her shoulders. Her eyes, reflected in the mirror, sparkled with their usual curiosity. The attic of the Gütiokipän bakery—this was Kiki's new home. A witch who has turned thirteen must, by the tradition called the "Rite of Independence," live for one year in an unfamiliar town. The town Kiki chose was Koriko, a port town facing the Rushia Sea. The sea breeze from the ocean always swept through the town, and houses with red roofs clung to the hillside in rows. The population was twenty-eight thousand. There were no witches in this town besides Kiki. It had already been a month, but there were still so many things she didn't know. Kiki spoke to Jiji. "But today is a special day." She picked up the broom hanging on the wall. The ash wood handle bore several small scratches from when her mother had used it. The bristles were made of mountain susuki grass. Its total length was about one hundred thirty centimeters. Straddling this broom, Kiki flew through the sky. Flight magic—that was Kiki's "one and only magic." Witches inherit magical power through their mother's bloodline. However, the magic each can use differs from person to person. Some witches are skilled at making medicine, while others read the future in the movements of the stars. Kiki was good at flying through the sky. Riding her broom, feeling the wind. Kiki loved that sensation. On her desk lay a sign she had just finished writing the night before. "Kiki's Delivery Service"—the scent of ink still lingered. Outside the door, a loud voice rang out. "Kiki! Are you still asleep? There's a delivery request from the tavern at the port!" "Huh, from the port?" Kiki hurriedly ran down the stairs. The first floor was a bakery. Gütiokipän. When Kiki first arrived in Koriko, the owner, Osono, was the one who had given her shelter from the rain. Twenty-six years old, large-framed and cheerful, she always had flour on her apron. "It's a big one. An apprentice sailor wants a letter delivered to the next town over." Osono said this, wiping her butter-scented hands on her apron. "The next town—you mean Partia?" "Yeah, the vineyard town. It's about a forty-minute flight. The delivery fee is three livres." Three livres. That was quite a sum of money. For Kiki's delivery business, a job within the city usually paid one and a half livres. A job going all the way to the next town was worth double. Her sales for this month were still only fifteen livres. After deducting what she paid Osono in lieu of rent, the remainder was barely anything. *(With this, I can finally worry less about money...!)* Kiki looked at Jiji. "I'm going to go do it." Jiji flicked his tail. "If you mess up again, you'll really be out of a place to sleep this time." "It'll be fine! I'm going to make it a success this time for sure!" Having declared this, Kiki slung her shoulder bag with its bright red ribbon over her back, hugged her sign, and stepped outside the shop. The smell of the tide. Mornings in the port town of Koriko were always full of life. Seagulls cried in the distance, and fishermen hoisted their large catch flags as they descended the sloping streets. Horse-drawn carts ran along the cobblestone roads, and a line of neighborhood women had formed in front of the bakery. She propped the "Kiki's Delivery Service" sign up at the storefront. The lettering was a little crooked, but that was part of its charm. Osono said, "That shop name suits you perfectly. Now, hurry off to the port." Kiki nodded with a smile, placed Jiji on her shoulder, and ran down the sloping road leading to the port. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Seagull Inn was a sailors' tavern located right near Koriko Port. When she pushed open the heavy wooden door, the inside was dim even though it was daytime, and the smells of sea tide and ale mingled together. Behind the counter, the landlady, Lotta, was wiping glasses. Forty-five years old, the former wife of a sailor, she was a woman of steady nerve. "Oh, if it isn't the little witch. The client who made the request is at the back table." When Kiki looked toward the back, four large men were surrounding a round table. They were all sailors from the Perene Shipping Guild. They had broad shoulders, and thick veins stood out on their arms. The guild was a mutual aid organization formed one hundred twenty years ago after a series of maritime accidents, and now nearly two hundred people belonged to it. In the middle of those large men sat a single boy. Tonbo. Thirteen years old, the same age as Kiki. His reddish-brown, curly hair, stiffened by the sea breeze, stuck out in all directions. He wasn't wearing a hat. His bright brown eyes always seemed to be gazing beyond the horizon, and he was about five centimeters taller than Kiki. However, today his face was as bright red as a boiled octopus. One of the large men laughed and slapped Tonbo on the back. "What's up, Tonbo, fidgeting like that! You haven't been able to say a single word!" Another large man pointed at the envelope in his hand. "You want to give this to the flying girl, right? You love-letter-writing fool!" "N-no! It's a request, just a regular request!" Tonbo shouted that, but it was obvious he was red to the very tips of his ears. Kiki tilted her head. *(Was Tonbo always the type to fidget like that?)* Still, as a delivery person, he was a customer. "Um, Tonbo? I heard it was a delivery request." Tonbo mumbled for a while, but perhaps unable to bear the large men's continued guffawing, he stood up abruptly. He thrust the envelope he was holding against Kiki's chest. A beautiful, pale blue envelope. "...This. I want you to deliver it to Partia, the next town. I can't go myself today because of work on the boat." "Okay, no problem. Leave it to me!" As Kiki accepted the envelope, she also received a paper with the recipient's address written on it and a three-livre coin. Tonbo still seemed somehow restless, and he spoke while averting his eyes from Kiki. "Don't drop it. Absolutely not." "I won't drop it! I'm good at flying, after all." Even as Kiki answered, Tonbo still looked anxious. On her shoulder, Jiji stared intently at the envelope. "Kiki, this letter smells a little strange." "Huh? Strange?" Kiki brought the envelope close to her nose. But she could only smell the sea tide. "It's just your imagination, I'm sure." Saying that, Kiki carefully tucked the envelope into her bag's pocket. Behind her, the large men were still jeering, "You sure about this, Tonbo? Don't blame us if the witch reads it," but Kiki didn't quite understand what they meant. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ When she returned to the bakery, someone was bagging items out front. Mimosa. Fourteen years old, she helped out at the bakery as Osono's junior. Her fluffy, wavy, light chestnut hair swayed at her shoulders. Her bangs were slightly curled from the heat of baking bread. Her distinctive, dewy, honey-colored eyes were her most notable feature. "Kiki! How did that request go just now?" Kiki sat down next to Mimosa and began to talk about how Tonbo had been acting. "Hey, that apprentice sailor Tonbo—does his face normally get that red?" In that instant, Mimosa's hands stopped. "...Tonbo?" "Yeah. He was fidgeting the whole time, but at the end, he got this really serious look and said, 'Don't drop it.'" Mimosa was silent for a moment. Then, in a small voice, she said, "You know..." "Yeah?" "The truth is... I've admired Tonbo for a long time." Kiki's eyes widened. "Really?!" "Yeah... but I just can't seem to talk to him. I can't work up the courage." Mimosa's cheeks turned red. Kiki clasped her hands together. "Well then, if you manage to deliver that letter properly, I'm sure Tonbo will be happy too. And then, it might be your chance to tell Mimosa how you feel!" "Wh-what... I... I couldn't..." Mimosa shyly hung her head. She fidgeted with her fingers for a moment as if hesitating, then opened her mouth again. "But, that letter... maybe..." But just then, Osono poked her head out from the back of the shop. "Kiki, isn't it about time you left? You need to deliver it before sundown." "Oh, no! Well, I'm off!" Kiki stood up, grabbed her broom, and went outside again. Mimosa still looked like she wanted to say something, but Kiki was already straddling her broom. "I'll definitely deliver it properly, so don't worry!" Leaving those words behind, Kiki took off into the sky. Her heart pounded with excitement. Learning about Mimosa's crush had lifted Kiki's own spirits. *(I have to support my best friend's important love!)* At that moment, Kiki felt a slight stirring within herself, but she was sure it was just the wind. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ However, the journey through the sky was not smooth. About ten minutes after leaving the town of Koriko. Halfway to Partia. Suddenly, a strong wind blasted against her. "Wah!" The broom shook violently. Along the coast of the Rushia Sea in early autumn, a storm called the "Rushia Gale" would come several times a year. It wasn't a full storm yet, but the precursor "mischievous winds" were raging. This wind was unpredictable. It would suddenly strengthen or change direction. Kiki clung desperately to her broom. That was when it happened. Something moved inside her bag. "Ah!" Tonbo's envelope flew out of the pocket. Kiki frantically reached out her hand, but the wind was faster. The pale blue envelope fluttered and danced as it fell further and further down. "Wait!" Kiki went into a steep dive. But the letter drifted toward the center of town and got caught on the spire of the clock tower in the central square. A stone clock tower thirty-five meters high. Built about fifty years ago, this tower was the symbol of Koriko. Usually, the observation deck was locked, and no one but the caretaker could enter. Kiki approached on her broom and stretched out her hand. "Thirty more centimeters..." Her fingertips were almost there. But at that moment, the wind blew strongly once more. From the torn envelope, fragments of the pale blue stationery fluttered down. A few sheets—no, a considerable portion of it had been scattered by the wind. "No!" Kiki desperately maneuvered her broom and chased after the dancing scraps of paper. However, nearly half of the stationery had already been carried toward the fountain in the central square, where passersby were starting to pick them up. Kiki landed in the square. One of the passersby, a middle-aged woman, read a scrap of paper and let out a surprised voice. "Oh my. Isn't this... a love letter?" "Huh? Where, where?" "What does it say?" "Please give it back! That's an important letter!" Even as Kiki shouted, the young men, driven by curiosity, scrambled for the scraps. One of them began to read aloud. "'For a long time now, I've...' Whoa, man, this is a real love letter!" The surrounding area began to buzz. "Tonbo, that apprentice sailor?" "That kid wrote such a passionate letter..." That was when it happened. An angry shout rang out. "It was you!" When Kiki turned around, an old man past seventy was standing there, leaning on a cane. It was the clock tower caretaker, Old Man Ino. He was hard of hearing, but his eyes were unusually sharp. "It was your magic that tried to damage the clock tower! A witch flying around on a broom for mischief—it's outrageous!" "That's not it. The letter was blown by the wind, and so—" "Silence! A witch who uses magic for mischief should leave this town!" Kiki was at

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Episode 1

Name: Kiki's Delivery Service: Azure Seas and a Month of Misunderstandings
Author: Novelia

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