Kiki's Delivery Service: Azure Seas and a Month of Misunderstandings - Kiki Who Can't Fly and Tonbo Who Is Angry

Kiki just sat on the floor, clutching her broom. Outside the window, the eastern sky was beginning to take on a faint bluish tint. She didn't have the presence of mind to appreciate the beauty of the Lucia Sea glittering in the morning light. Over and over, she tried to mount the broom. But the broom clung to the floor like a cold stone, not budging an inch. Just yesterday, it had been ready to leap into the sky the moment Kiki touched it. Jiji jumped down from his cushion by the window. " Kiki... can you really not fly?" Kiki couldn't answer. She had no strength. No, that wasn't it. It wasn't that she had no strength. It was the letter Tonbo had told her to read, saying, "You should know better than anyone." A straightforward, pure love letter from Tonbo addressed to a girl named Lilia. The moment she traced those words, something sleeping deep inside her cracked with an audible sound. *I was in love with Tonbo.* But at the same time, she remembered the face of her best friend Mimosa, tossing and turning with fever in the room below the bakery. She, too, had long admired Tonbo. When she found out he liked someone else, the shock had given her a fever and left her bedridden. Pure, gentle Mimosa. Her precious best friend, whom Kiki never wanted to hurt. *(I... I can't fall for the person my best friend loves.)* The moment she thought that, something cold ran through her fingertips. The next instant, the broom would no longer float. Jiji's voice trembled. " Don't tell me... is it Kokoronagi?" Kokoronagi — a phenomenon where a witch's magical power itself vanishes when she is struck by deep emotional turmoil or self-blame. That's what it was called in old legends. In the worst cases, it was said some witches never got their magic back. " What... what should I do...?" Her voice was hoarse. The clock tower bell tolled, low and deep. Eight o'clock in the morning. The delivery deadline was sunset today. *(And I can't even fly anymore.)* *(If I can't fly, I can't deliver the letter.)* *(If I can't deliver it, my job as a delivery girl is over.)* She couldn't stop her knees from trembling. Just then— From the floor below, she heard Osono's voice, sounding slightly flustered. " Kiki! You have a visitor! And... a whole bunch of them!" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ When she went down the stairs, there were familiar faces in front of the Gütiokipän bakery. Tonbo. His reddish-brown curly hair, stiff from the sea breeze, was bristling wildly. But the usual brightness in his cheerful brown eyes was clouded over, replaced by a burning flame of anger. And behind Tonbo— Three sailors, all large in stature. Every one of them had thick arms and faces blackened by the sun. They were faces she recognized from the Gull Tavern. The smell of alcohol and fish drifted all the way to the shop front. One of the big men grinned when he saw Kiki's face. " Heh, so this is the rumored witch who can't fly? She's tiny." Another let out a vulgar laugh. " If you can't fly, you can't deliver letters either!" Kiki couldn't say a word. Tonbo slowly stepped forward. He stood there, fists clenched, without his usual habit of scratching the back of his head. " Hey, Kiki." His voice was low, and she could tell he was desperately holding back his anger. " Did you deliver that letter properly or not!?" The words caught in her throat. She had to say it. *I'm sorry, I haven't delivered it yet. I can't fly anymore. It's my fault—* But her mouth wouldn't move. Tonbo's eyes grew even harsher. " I asked you to do it! I told you to deliver it properly, without showing anyone! And yet, you went and got the letter stuck on the clock tower!" His voice grew louder and louder. It was a shout loud enough to startle the seagulls at the harbor into flight. The big men behind him, emboldened, joined in the jeering. " Yeah, yeah! That's what you get when a mere witch gets too big for her britches!" " This is why you can't trust witches!" " Hurry up and deliver it! The love-letter boy's crying over here!" Tonbo's face turned bright red in an instant. " Shut up! You guys stay out of this!" Tonbo turned around and yelled at the three of them, then faced Kiki again. His face was crimson, and his eyes even looked like they were welling up. " Because you scattered that letter everywhere, I get teased every single day! Everyone at the harbor found out, and it's all, 'Who's the girl?' 'You messed up over a stupid letter?' If weird rumors reach Lilia too, then I'll—" Tonbo's voice caught for a moment. Shouting a girl's name must have been deeply embarrassing for him. But his anger won out. His fists were trembling. " If you're a delivery girl, then deliver it properly! If you can't do that, then I'm never asking you again!" —*I'm never asking you again.* Those words pierced right through the center of Kiki's chest. Her mind went completely blank. *(He'll never ask me again...)* *(I'm done for as a delivery girl, too.)* She couldn't fly. She had hurt her best friend Mimosa, and she had realized her own feelings of love—and now, she had completely lost Tonbo's trust as well. She had nothing left. " I-I'm sorry... I haven't delivered it yet..." Kiki forced the words out. But she couldn't say, "I can't fly." To Tonbo, it must have looked like she was just making excuses. " 'Yet'!? You've got to be kidding me!? You, honestly—" The laughter of the big men filled Kiki's ears. She couldn't take it anymore. Kiki ran from the spot. " Kiki, calm down!" She heard Jiji's voice at her back, but her legs wouldn't stop. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Even the usually bustling town of Koriko loomed before Kiki today like a gray wall. The cobblestone streets, the red-roofed buildings, the cries of seagulls from the harbor—everything felt distant and cold. She ran, and ran. Before she knew it, she was in a back alley of the town. A narrow lane where people rarely passed. Just then— Something cold pattered against her cheek. Rain. The sun had been shining just moments ago, but the wind from the sea had suddenly brought in dark clouds, and it began to rain. A sudden change in weather, common in Koriko at the start of autumn. The rain quickly grew stronger. Soaking wet, Kiki leaned against the wall and collapsed. The strength left her knees, and she sat down on the cold cobblestones. The hem of her wet skirt clung to her skin. So cold. Her breath came out white and cloudy. " I'm... the worst..." Tears streamed down her face, mingling with the rain. She couldn't fly. Far from supporting her best friend Mimosa's first love, she had ruined everything with her own messy feelings. She had lost Tonbo's trust. His angry shouts still echoed in the back of her mind. *(Everything is my fault.)* *(This is... I'm a failure as a witch.)* Jiji, his fur soaking wet, pressed close to Kiki's knee. Even Jiji, who was usually so full of sarcastic remarks, seemed at a loss for words today. He just pressed his small, warm body tightly against her. Only the sound of rain echoed through the narrow alley. Just then— There was a quiet footstep, splashing in a puddle. She looked up. Ash-blonde hair, heavy and wet from the rain, swayed around her shoulder blades. On her left earlobe, a small silver earring in the shape of a star. Her pale blue-gray eyes, like a calm sea, looked down at Kiki coolly even in the drenched alley. It was Umi. She must have been on her way back from the Tobikaze Flying Club workshop. The shoulders of her thick cotton jacket were wet, but Umi stood there without an umbrella. " So you can't fly right now." Her usual blunt tone. But there was no teasing lilt in her voice. She was just quietly confirming a fact. Kiki couldn't answer. She hung her head. Umi watched Kiki in silence for a moment, then eventually reached up and removed the silver earring from her left ear. She held it gently in her wet fingertips. " I'm someone who couldn't fly, even when I wanted to." Amidst the sound of rain, Umi's voice reached her quietly but clearly. Kiki looked up involuntarily. On Umi's face, which was always so cool and unreadable, there was an expression of pain for the first time. " It was two years ago. My brother and I were doing a flight experiment with a glider. It was a test to take off from Hamakaze Hill and ride the wind. But a gust came... what they call a trickster wind from Lucia." She brought the earring she was holding to her chest. " My brother shielded me and crashed. I was miraculously saved, but my brother died... Ever since then, I've been terrified of flying." " Umi... something like that happened to you...?" " But when I watched you and Tonbo, it made me so angry. Flying freely through the sky like it was nothing. Why aren't you guys scared? Why can't I fly anymore? I was jealous of you." It was a confession. Umi had laid bare not just her face as the senior from the flying club who had helped Kiki until now, but the ugly feelings of a single human being. " This earring is a memento of my brother. He gave it to me so I wouldn't get lost in the sky. But my brother... he's gone now." Umi stared intently into Kiki's eyes. In contrast to the cold rain, her eyes held heat. " That's why I told you, you should read that letter. You can fly, but you're just running away from your own feelings. You take on the job of keeping other people's letters, but you turn your eyes away from the contents of your own heart." Those words pierced deep into Kiki's chest. *Running away.* That was it. She hadn't wanted to discover her feelings of love for Tonbo, and that's how things had ended up like this— " Well, I guess this is my loss. Putting my own issues aside and taking it out on you was a bit immature of me." Umi put the earring back on her left ear and swept her wet bangs up. " But you know, if you don't get to where you can fly properly, then my jealousy is just something ugly. So go deliver that letter properly. That's what being a pro is all about, right?" With just that, Umi turned on her heel and walked away down the rainy alley. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Night came. The attic room of Gütiokipän bakery. Kiki had changed out of her wet clothes and sat wrapped in a blanket. Outside the window, the rain-washed cobblestone streets shone pale blue in the moonlight. In her head, Umi's words echoed over and over. *'You can fly, but you're just running away from your own feelings.'* *'My brother shielded me and crashed.'* *'I was jealous of you.'* *(Umi was suffering this much.)* Even now, she couldn't believe that Umi, who was always so logical, so dry, so composed with her teasing, had laid her heart bare to that extent. Jiji gently rested his head on Kiki's knee. " Kiki, you're not acting like your usual self." " ...Yeah." " Wasn't your greatest magic helping people in trouble? Right now, you've just lost sight of yourself. Delivering Tonbo's letter is your job. The person who delivers a letter makes someone happy—that's the key to finding your way back to yourself." Those words truly reached Kiki's heart. She remembered what Mimosa had said. *'Let me help you deliver Tonbo's letter.'* The image of Mimosa, pure and strong, shedding tears yet still wishing for Tonbo's happiness, rose in her mind. *(I've only been thinking about myself.)* *(As a delivery girl, I have to properly deliver Tonbo's feelings to Lilia.)* *(Once that's done, I'll face my own feelings properly.)* Having made that decision, Kiki picked up her broom. She looked once more at the crumpled letter. *'To Lilia.'* Tonbo's handwriting. Delivering this wasn't just a simple delivery. It would be her first real battle as Kiki the delivery girl, and as Kiki the witch. " I'll deliver it properly... so wait for me, Tonbo..." Kiki steadied her breathing and mounted the broom. Jiji gently rubbed his head against Kiki's palm. —*I can go.* She thought so.

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 5

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

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt