The crowd held their breath.

Then, NSP began to play a melody. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t fancy. It was a simple, skipping rhythm:

Then—a little girl whispered, “That was the best parade ever.”

They reached the town square’s big fountain. The sun was setting, turning the water to gold.

Hello Kitty smiled, tied a tiny red bow around NSP’s thimble drumstick, and sat beside him to watch the stars come out.

That night, Hello Kitty found NSP sitting on the edge of the fountain, dipping his tired feet in the water.

And at the very front, still tapping his thimble drums on the lamppost, was NSP. His tiny face was red with happy effort.

Keroppi, the energetic frog, hopped onto an overturned bucket. “Boom!” He slapped the side.

My Melody peered around a giant truck carrying squeaky rubber chickens. “The music floats are stuck! How will we bring smiles to everyone?”

That’s when a little, squeaky voice piped up. “We don’t need trucks to make a parade.” It was NSP—the tiny, cheerful mouse who loved nothing more than a good beat. He held two little drumsticks made of toothpicks and thimbles.

Here is the story of Hello Kitty and Friends: The Happiness Parade . The sky above Sanrio Town was a perfect, candy-floss blue. But down on Main Street, something was wrong. A huge, grumbling traffic jam of delivery trucks had blocked the entire route for the annual Happiness Parade.