Kiki's Delivery Service: Azure Seas and a Month of Misunderstandings
Kiki, a thirteen-year-old witch, has started a delivery service in the seaside town of Koriko with her cat companion, Jiji. One day, she receives a very special delivery request: a letter from Tombo, a young sailor-in-training, to a woman in the next town. She quickly realizes it's a love letter, and her heart pounds as she takes off into the sky, determined to deliver it. But a sudden gust of wind snatches the letter away, leaving it stuck on top of the town's clock tower.
The scattered pages
Kiki's Delivery Service: Azure Seas and a Month of Misunderstandings - Stormy Love Letters and a Confession Echoing in the Sky
——I have to fly.
That single thought drove Kiki's entire body forward.
The sky before dawn was dark as spilled ink. The horizon of the Rusha Sea was just beginning to take on a faint bluish tint. A cold sea breeze rattled the window of the attic room above the Gütiokipan bakery.
With trembling fingers, Kiki gripped the red-ribboned bag tightly once more.
Inside was the letter Mimosa had spent all night carefully copying out. A pristine envelope, bearing Tonbo's clumsy but earnest feelings transcribed within. On the front, in Mimosa's rounded handwriting, were just the words: "To Lilia."
She would deliver it.
(I'm a delivery girl, after all.)
Kiki picked up her broom. The ash wood handle was cool and smooth against her palm. Just two days ago, it had been heavy as stone, stuck fast to the floor — but now, it responded properly to her touch.
The bristle tips gave off a faint golden light. As if answering her resolve.
Jiji leapt down from his cushion by the window.
"Kiki, you're really going. I can see Rusha storm clouds in the eastern sky. If you take off now, you'll definitely get caught in it."
Kiki nodded.
She was a little scared.
But the words everyone had given her yesterday glowed warm inside her chest. Tonbo's "Sorry." Umi's "Go, Kiki!" Mimosa's "Do your best, Kiki!" The smiling faces of her friends from the Flight Club.
Carrying everyone's feelings, she would fly.
"I'm going, Jiji. I'm going to deliver Tonbo's letter to Lilia. This is my job as a delivery girl!"
"Haaah... Fine. It's not like I could stop you anyway. Then I'll stick with you to the bitter end."
Jiji hopped onto Kiki's shoulder.
Kiki threw the window open wide.
Cold wind rushed into the room. In the distant sky, a low rumble of thunder echoed. The harbinger of the Rusha storm.
She straddled her broom.
The golden light at the bristle tips seemed to grow just a little stronger.
"Fly!"
The next instant, Kiki's body was pulled up into the cold dawn sky.
——But the sky was not so forgiving that resolve alone could carry her through.
"Whoa!"
The moment she passed beyond the town of Koriko and reached the skies above Hamakaze Hill, a violent crosswind slammed into Kiki's small body. The broom tilted sharply, her vision skewed diagonally. Raindrops struck her face, stinging like needles.
The howl of the wind tore at her ears.
Her hair, her skirt, her red ribbon — all soaked through in an instant.
"Kiki! On your right — thunderclouds closing in from the right! Cut left, now!"
"I-I know!"
Kiki desperately tilted her broom, trying to ride out the wind. But the wind was like a giant invisible hand, seizing her and shaking her relentlessly.
It was as if the sky itself was testing her.
(Flying really is terrifying.)
(If I fall, by some mistake, I'll...)
Dark imaginings flickered through her mind. Her hands, gripping the broom too hard, trembled.
That was when——.
"Kiki! Cut right! Now!"
A familiar voice cut through the wind's roar.
She looked up.
Ash-blonde hair, wet with rain, glittered and sparkled. The star earring on her left earlobe gleamed, catching a faint flash of lightning. Eyes the pale blue-gray of a calm sea gazed at Kiki, cool and steady even in the storm.
It was Umi.
She was flying right beside Kiki on her homemade glider. Her thick cotton jacket was already drenched, her tied-up hair whipped violently by the wind. Yet on her face floated her usual composed smile.
"Umi!? What are you doing here!?"
"My earring — you're holding onto it, right? Can't have you getting lost up here."
Umi pointed to her left ear. Kiki remembered — the star earring Umi had entrusted to her was inside her bag.
"According to the wind current data from earlier, the wind direction will shift in fifteen minutes. If we reach Partia by then, we can avoid the storm's center. But you need to pick up the pace. At your current speed, you won't make it."
"That 'pride as a delivery girl' thing of yours — I've kind of taken a liking to it. So let me see it through properly."
With that, Umi tilted her glider's wings, riding the wind current to glide smoothly ahead of Kiki.
(Umi...)
Kiki's chest tightened with warmth.
She was scared — but she wasn't alone.
That alone made her feel so incredibly brave.
"Got it! I'll definitely deliver it!"
Kiki clenched her teeth and urged her broom forward.
The wind grew stronger and stronger.
Raindrops pelted her face, making it hard just to keep her eyes open. Her vision was a mess of tears and rain.
Every breath, the cold air stabbed at her lungs.
"Kiki! Lightning strike coming from the left! Get down!"
At the same moment as Jiji's shout——.
BOOOOOOM!!!
An ear-splitting roar exploded right beside her.
For an instant, the world was dyed pure white.
(...Huh?)
The sound vanished. A strange stillness, as if time itself had stopped.
In that silence — Kiki remembered her mother's face.
*'When you lose confidence, you lose the ability to fly. That's the true nature of a witch's power.'*
The night before her departure.
When Kiki had said, "I'm scared," her mother had smiled and said that. Back then, she hadn't really understood what those words meant.
But — now she understood.
Confidence isn't about believing in yourself.
It's about being honest with your own feelings.
Being able to say you love what you love. Being able to say you're scared of what scares you. Not running away from the feeling of wanting to deliver something.
That — that is the true nature of the power that lets a witch fly through the sky.
——I see.
So that's what it was, Mom.
Tears spilled from Kiki's eyes.
But they were no longer tears of fear or sadness.
Kiki raised her head.
The bristle tips of her broom — were shining gold. Far brighter than before. As if they had captured the dawn sun and held it tight.
"I can fly! I can still fly! I really can fly!"
Kiki shouted.
The broom sliced through the wind and accelerated.
"What is that light...!? Kiki, you——"
"Umi! I'm okay now! Being honest with my own heart — that's what it meant! That's what confidence really means!"
Her face still a mess of tears and rain, Kiki smiled.
She smiled from the bottom of her heart.
"...I see. Then go deliver it properly. As a professional delivery girl."
Umi's voice sounded gentle for the first time.
The townscape of Partia came into view beyond the curtain of rain.
Stone-walled houses, the green of vineyards, the blades of windmills. A hill town, smaller and quieter than Koriko.
Kiki dismounted her broom in front of Lilia's house.
Her soaked clothes clung to her body, cold and heavy. Her hair was a mess, her ribbon crumpled. She was far from presentable, to say the least.
But — she had made it here.
She had come to deliver it, properly.
With a trembling hand, she knocked on the door.
After a moment, the door opened.
The person who appeared was a girl with gentle features and light brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Probably around Kiki's age. Her large brown eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the drenched Kiki.
"Y-you're...?"
"My name is Kiki. I'm a delivery girl from Koriko. This is a letter from Tonbo."
Kiki took the letter from her bag — the letter she had kept so very, very carefully. The pristine white envelope Mimosa had copied out was slightly damp, but not torn.
With trembling hands, she held it out.
Lilia accepted the envelope with a bewildered expression. Then, she opened the letter.
A quiet moment passed.
Only the sound of rain echoed through the small alley.
When Lilia finished reading the letter, her eyes widened in surprise, and then — softly, like a flower blooming, she smiled.
"...So that's how it was. Tonbo, writing something like this. He's always been so clumsy, always putting off the important things."
"Lilia...?"
"Thank you, Kiki. Coming all this way through such a storm to deliver this. But... could you tell him for me? Tell Tonbo I'll see him when he's grown up a little more. Because I still don't understand my own feelings yet either."
It was neither the fulfillment of love nor heartbreak — it was a gentle reply aimed toward the future.
As if turning the very first page of a story about to begin.
Deep in Kiki's chest, a strange feeling swelled — like she wanted to cry, like she wanted to laugh, all at once.
(It was delivered... I really delivered it.)
The tension drained from her shoulders.
In that moment, the golden light at her broom's bristle tips shone even brighter.
On the way back to Koriko, the storm had already passed.
Gray clouds still lingered in the sky, but the east was beginning to brighten. The rain had eased to a drizzle, and the waves of the Rusha Sea were gradually calming.
Kiki's heart was clear and bright.
And at the same time — thinking about what she now had to tell Tonbo, her chest pounded uncontrollably.
When she landed at the harbor, someone was standing on the pier.
Reddish-brown curly hair, flattened and damp from the rain. Hands shoved in pockets, fidgeting restlessly. Large brown eyes went perfectly round when they spotted Kiki.
It was Tonbo.
"...Kiki! Are you okay!? You were out in all this rain the whole——"
Tonbo came running over. A worried face. An anxious voice, as if his usual "Perfect!" had been a lie.
Kiki smiled brightly.
Her heart was racing.
But she wouldn't run away anymore.
"Tonbo. I delivered the letter. To Lilia."
"Really!? That's great...!"
Tonbo's face lit up.
"And, um... Lilia said she wanted me to tell you. She'll see you when you've grown up a little more. Because she still doesn't understand her own feelings yet either."
Tonbo's expression became something indescribable — a mix of relief and loneliness.
"...I see. Well, yeah. Of course. Just suddenly sending a letter out of nowhere... it'd be confusing."
Tonbo gave a wry smile and ran a hand through his wet hair.
Kiki took a deep breath.
She filled her lungs with the cold sea air.
——Now.
It was time to be honest with her own feelings.
"And also — there's something I want to tell you, too."
"Huh?"
Kiki ran to the edge of the pier.
In the middle of the sky and sea, where the salt wind blew through — Kiki threw her true feelings out, as if shouting to the whole sky.
"I like you, Tonbo! I've liked you for a long time — ever since that first day we met! But I don't need an answer! I just wanted to tell you that right now!"
Through a break in the clouds — the morning light sparkled through.
Kiki's drenched hair shone gold.
Tonbo stood there, stunned.
His face turned bright red in an instant, his mouth opening and closing, but no words came out. And then — his face crumpled, and large tears spilled down his cheeks.
Silently, just crying.
That clumsy Tonbo.
At that moment——.
At the very top of the clock tower, there was a lone figure.
Ash-blonde hair swayed in the wind. The star earring was absent from her left earlobe. Slender, pale fingers gently stroked the bare skin.
It was Umi.
Her usual composed smile was gone. In its place was an expression so serious it surprised even herself.
Umi had heard Kiki's shout. She had seen Tonbo's tears.
(Ah, I see——)
With her left hand, she gripped her right wrist. Because her brother's keepsake earring was now entrusted to someone else.
"I might get serious about this too."
On the rain-soaked cobblestones, Umi's murmur reached no one's ears.
The next morning.
On the second floor of the Gütiokipan bakery, Kiki woke up.
Outside the window, an unbelievably blue sky stretched wide. The Rusha Sea sparkled, catching the morning sun.
She picked up her broom.
The ash wood handle was warm and light. Just a slight touch, and it floated gently upward. As if yesterday's storm had been a lie.
(Thank goodness... It's back to normal.)
"Morning, Kiki. Looks like you can fly properly today."
"Morning, Jiji! Yeah, I'm fine now. I'm in top form!"
As Kiki answered with a smile, Osono-san from downstairs knocked on the do
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.