Nobita's Time Heist

……

On the other side, the Needle Woman, who had been blasted in two, opened her eyes without warning—or rather, her eyes were still tightly closed, but the mark left on her forehead by the Hundred Eyes suddenly split open after writhing wildly, becoming her third eye. However, this eye clearly did not belong to her; it was opened in another world infinitely far away, through her still-present body.

Within his black and gold vertical pupils, a pale gray eye contracted and expanded several times, its cold gaze sweeping back and forth over the group of people not far away, finally settling on Asur's petite body. She was pressing one hand against Shuten-dōji's chest, trying to suppress her injuries, and for some reason, this action made him instinctively feel threatened.

And so, the abyss-like darkness quickly gathered in the light-colored eyes, like puddles on the road when a storm is about to break.

In the blink of an eye, the first to notice the anomaly was a purebred human.

"Watch out—" Rinne wanted to shout out like a heroine in TV dramas and anime, but there was no time. This move was completely instantaneous. Even for Rinne, the all-consuming black light had already shot out from her third eye the moment she noticed it. All she could do was use all her strength to shove Asur hard without holding back.

"..."

"laugh!"

A light, sharp voice, like a beam of light flowing gently, quietly pierced through the girl's left shoulder.

"boom----!!"

Upon sensing the attack, Meijin reacted almost instantly, raising her hand and firing a cannon that completely annihilated the upper half of the Needle Woman's body. However, in the moment of turning to ashes, Da Xiong clearly saw the third eye located on her forehead...

He cast a mocking glance at himself.

Chapter 268: Three Methods of Murder

"The art of killing with the eyes." Shuten-dōji's eyes sharpened instantly, abandoning his previous frivolous demeanor. He struggled to sit up and said in a deep voice, "So that's how it is. The marks left on them can be transformed into his 'eyes' when he needs them."

"Rinne? Rinne!"

Asur quickly helped Lingyin to her feet, but his pupils involuntarily contracted sharply—the miracle did not spare the girl's good deed. After being pierced by the black light, most of her body had begun to turn to ash.

"Woo...Woo..."

Although it doesn't cause pain, watching one's flesh and blood, which one has used for nearly twenty years, rapidly crumble into ashes would terrify any normal person. Lingyin couldn't understand what was happening to her; her breathing became heavy, and she began to sob, instinctively wanting to seek help. But at that moment, her mind was firmly gripped by terror, so much so that she couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

"Ah...you're so stupid! Really, how come I never realized? You're even stupider than I thought!" Asur pressed his free right hand against the edge of the hole in her waist and abdomen, his tone fluctuating so much for the first time, almost clenching his teeth as he pleaded, "Da Xiong!"

"Swipe-"

The sound of the time capsule unfurling in the air.

For some reason, this tool has been used by the experienced Nobita to treat patients, especially wounds of unknown origin, which are extremely useful.

He wrapped the Time Wrap around Rin, making sure it covered her wounds. Shizuka knelt down, gently held her hand, and stroked her head, softly comforting her, "I never knew you were so brave. You're a completely different person from the one I met that day."

"Don't worry, this gadget is really powerful! It can turn back time, and that injury is just a little scary-looking. Nobita will definitely heal you!"

"Um...I..." Enveloped by Shizuka's unique aura, Rin felt a little relieved and recalled her encounter with Shizuka yesterday, a warm feeling rising in her heart. "Thank you..."

"I'm sorry to suddenly dampen your spirits, but it might not be that simple." Shuten-dōji struggled to sit up and looked at the human girl with some sympathy. "Objectively speaking, the spirit and body of the oni are stronger than those of untrained humans. Don't let my appearance fool you; I'm considered one of the best oni, but even so, I couldn't withstand that guy's eye-killing technique."

"After being hit by that attack, can a human body... really be saved?"

These words, though harsh, were a necessary form of harsh criticism, quickly conveying the seriousness of the situation. Shizuka lifted a corner of the wrapping cloth and, upon seeing the girl's injury, gasped in shock—the invincible, god-tier item had failed to work this time. Logically, the wound had only been there for a minute, yet despite the wrapping cloth having been on for so long, the hole remained, though it hadn't widened.

"How could this happen...? My body should have been intact before I was injured!" This was the first time Nobita had encountered such a situation, and he scratched his head and became anxious.

Shuten-dōji sighed, her eyes filled with melancholy. If Hyakume-ō's abilities were so simple, she wouldn't have been stripped of her title as Demon King. She wanted to say something to lighten the mood, but the words seemed so powerless—Hyakume-ō hadn't even appeared on the scene; merely by opening an eye on one of his subordinates from across two realms, he could launch such a deadly attack.

This time, Lingyin used her extraordinary spiritual vision to block the attack for Asur, but what about next time? And the time after that? For the Hundred-Eyed King, as long as he succeeds once, he can reliably eliminate an enemy, which is a sure-fire way to make money.

The situation is extremely unfavorable to us.

"...As far as I know, there are three ways to kill a person...or rather, 'kill' a creature defined as living."

Asur pressed on the girl's empty abdomen, his expression serious. He held up three fingers to Nobita and the others, explaining, "The first type, which is also the most commonly used by you humans, is the body used to kill others. The body is the foundation of everything, a miracle formed by the aggregation of matter. Once the body collapses, consciousness will also dissipate. Human weapons development has always been dedicated to how to destroy more bodies efficiently in the shortest possible time."

"The second type is the forbidden subject that a small number of mystics or magicians spend their lives studying—killing the souls of others."

"In the world of dark magic, there was once an ancient spell that, when recited, could instantly kill a person's soul while leaving their body intact. This method was too vicious and would generate a very powerful karmic force, so it was quickly abandoned. Even the Dark Lord himself, who invented the spell, eventually died from this curse, his soul completely destroyed, almost like a curse."

"As for the third type... in a general sense, it is not yet available to humans because it is too advanced and too complex, and has exceeded the limits of human control."

Asur paused, as if giving Nobita and the others time to think. Once they caught up with his train of thought, he revealed the answer: "The 'time' to kill the other."

Da Xiong felt a buzzing in his head, and all the things that were happening at once suddenly made him realize something.

"Having witnessed his ability to kill with his eyes up close, I am fairly certain that the Hundred-Eyed King used the third type, which is the most complex in composition and the most astonishing in effect. He has the ability to directly erase individual entities on the timeline, therefore, your time-based artifacts cannot cure him."

"Uh-huh……"

Lingyin could no longer speak; her face grew paler and paler, and she could only let out weak moans. Asur had said so much, but very few words actually reached her ears. To her now, everything here felt more like a dream—vague and indistinct, as if from another world.

Staying awake in a dream is easier said than done.

"Life is formed when the body, soul, and time act simultaneously on the same individual—at least that's the view of traditional mysticism. If any one of the three is damaged, it will inevitably affect the other two."

"Even if the [Time Wrap] can barely keep her wounds at the 'time' level from getting bigger, it will probably be difficult to save her life. In the end, this kind of attack is almost impossible to defend against at the macro level." Asur gritted his teeth. When he thought that Lingyin had fallen to this state because of protecting her, a deep sense of unwillingness and resentment welled up in his heart, and he clenched his small fists.

The hatred for Jaqen Helma reached its peak at this moment.

"If... if I weren't in this state, maybe there would still be a way..."

……

"It's not entirely hopeless." Shuten-dōji seemed to have made a great decision, looking at the girl's body wrapped in cloth, and murmured, "The mortal body is too fragile. After taking a blow, the soul will quickly dissipate. Relying on others is useless..."

"If I can successfully 'possess' her, perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope."

Chapter 269: Side Quest, Defeat the Hundred-Eyed King (Progress 1/9)

"Nobita!"

Upon receiving the message, Fat Tiger and his two companions rushed to the back mountain. As soon as they arrived, Nobita raised a finger to them, signaling them not to make too much noise.

Looking closer, Rinne, wrapped in the Time-Binding Cloth, was helped up and was sitting cross-legged with difficulty, while Shuten-dōji had his legs crossed behind her, his lips tightly pursed, as if he were wrestling with something unseen. A golden light path connected the two girls, and Shuten-dōji's figure was gradually becoming transparent, turning into particles of light, and flowing into Rinne's body.

"The possession ritual is only halfway through," Shizuka explained in a low voice. "If you make a sound, you'll get a sore throat, so please keep your voice down."

"Possession?"

Taking advantage of this free time, Nobita quickly recounted the whole story. Perhaps because he often cried to Doraemon as a child, he had unknowingly developed the ability to quickly summarize situations into words. Of course, after each such complaint, Doraemon would always say, "I really can't do anything with you, this is definitely the last resort to help you out," while pulling out his gadget. However, Nobita always forgot the lessons learned, so this daily routine never got boring.

However, at this moment, facing another major event that is about to cause the sky to fall, Nobita has no one to confide in.

He has become the backbone of the team.

……

"Hiss..." Dekisugi shook his head, a look of utter exasperation on his face, and repeated, "A yokai... like this, a yokai..."

Of the remaining three, he had the strongest comprehension skills and naturally understood what Nobita was saying quickly. However, for this boy who had established a firm materialistic ideology since childhood, the existence of the demon world was somewhat disruptive to his worldview. This meant that his lifelong belief that stories were just silly tales made up by adults to scare children might actually be true. Thinking about this, his worldview began to crumble, and he could only comfort himself by thinking that so-called demons and monsters were probably just another kind of creature that humans hadn't yet discovered, nothing to be surprised about. Given enough time, they could be understood, and even killed; the Needle Woman they had just killed was a good example.

"A hundred...a hundred ghosts parade at night..." Suneo swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he laughed. "Sounds exciting, huh? Halloween just passed and they're already putting on this?"

Are there any of Doraemon's gadgets specifically designed to exorcise demons?

“This…” Nobita scratched his head, looking troubled. “I can’t think of anything right now, but who knows, maybe I will.”

"It's okay if there isn't one. What kind of monster is it? As long as the firepower is strong enough, we can still take it down!" Fat Tiger, the warmonger, showed no signs of fatigue. Instead, he became excited, clenched his fist, swung it in the air, and said in a deep voice, "Perfect. We didn't have much of a chance to show off last time... As long as we take down that Hundred-Eyed King, that should be enough, right?"

"Gian, what are you saying?!" Suneo jumped in fright and quickly tried to dissuade him, "That's some kind of demon king from another world! We only have five high school students and an elementary school student. It seems like we have no chance of winning, right?"

"Elementary school student..." Asur lowered his head, glanced at his flat chest, and murmured, "Elementary school student, huh?"

"So what?" Fat Tiger said nonchalantly, "When we were all in elementary school, we did this kind of thing all the time."

“This time is different. This time the opponent is too dangerous! An ambitious warlord who also controls enormous power is not someone we should provoke!” Xiao Fu, unusually, did not change his mind immediately, but insisted on his opinion, “Report this to the Time Police and don’t get involved. This is not our war at all.”

"Isn't that right?" Fat Tiger's voice rose as he argued, "The Hundred-Eyed King's target is the entire human world, which certainly includes our town. If the monsters really attack, do you think you and I can escape? What if they come at a different time, like the previous monsters, to exterminate humanity by rewriting history? Wouldn't that be even worse!"

Shizuka, however, was clearly worried about something else. "Besides, if we don't take the initiative, Suzune might..."

……

"Everyone, good news! My 'possession' has been successful. With the little magic I have left, this girl's spirit and body can be maintained for a while longer."

Suddenly joining the conversation, Rin's voice became somewhat repetitive, with what sounded like the lingering tone of Shuten-dōji mixed in with her words. Looking in the direction of the voice, one could see that her eyes had turned the bewitching crimson purplish-red unique to Shuten-dōji, but her face remained bloodless, deathly pale. Her shoulders trembled slightly as she spoke—all signs of utter exhaustion.

"Bad news..."

“From this moment on, this bundle can greatly delay the death of me and this girl, but this state can only be maintained for four days at most. After four days, I will be in no condition to save myself.”

Four days.

96 hours.

"Nobita...?"

His friends' eyes were fixed on him, which gave Nobita a strange, heavy feeling, as if he were fighting with something incredibly heavy on his shoulders. He didn't like adventures with such a heavy purpose from the start, but sometimes, out of a sense of responsibility, he seemed to have no other choice.

"Will killing King Hundred Eyes break the spell?"

“No one can guarantee anything.” Lingyin shook her head and said in a deep voice, “However, this is our only hope right now… Most spells in the world lose their effects upon the death of the caster. At the very least, if there is a way to break the spell, only the caster himself would know it.”

For 96 hours, infiltrate the demon realm, secretly advance, defeat and capture the Hundred-Eyed King, and force him to reveal the method to undo the Eye-Killing Technique… provided that the method actually exists. Finally, carry out the decapitation strike, killing him completely and ending the war between humans and demons.

Just thinking about it in my head, this mission is definitely hellish, no less so than the Demon Realm Adventure I remember.

"Of course, all the factors I mentioned are only our perspective. In fact, after eliminating me, the biggest element of resistance, King Hundred Eyes has completed the integration of most of the demon realm's fighting force and is in a state where he may descend upon the human world at any time."

“Ordinary demons can grow stronger by devouring human souls. To them, the human world is like a fertile pasture. Once they break free of their shackles and descend upon the human world, our chances of defeating them will be even slimmer.”

Lingyin sighed and then revealed an even more despairing truth. The Hundred-Eyed King wouldn't care about time constraints; to him, this was simply a war that was bound to happen sooner or later. On the other hand, for Da Xiong, four days felt like invisible shackles, forcing them to make a decision immediately.

"In that case, we have no time to waste here..."

He glanced at Lingyin's battered body, gritted his teeth, and said, "Knowing that such a powerful demon is keeping his eye on things, I'm sure this New Year won't be a good time. I'm going to take care of him once and for all!"

"Those who are willing to act with me, let's meet here in half an hour."

Chapter 270: The Great Tengu

Just like their grand adventure to rescue Luca on the moon, the five-person group reunited on the back mountain thirty minutes later, carrying large bags of changes of clothes with perfect understanding. The ever-carefree Gian even brought a ton of snacks, seemingly turning this trip to the demon realm into a school field trip. Seeing his companions' unwavering support, Nobita felt secretly moved and relieved, yet also inexplicably nervous.

Those immortals who called themselves "Ping Tianqi" seemed to have mentioned that friendship was the source of their strength. They would do anything to protect their friends.

However, this also means that the lives of all his companions are now in his hands.

Interestingly, because he'd been doing similar things a lot lately, Nobita had even gotten used to it and didn't feel particularly nervous. Before the trip even started, he'd already entered adventure mode, pulling gadgets out of his pocket.

"【Imitation Robot】—!"

“Unlike last time, this time we’re operating within the normal timeline. We were too rushed; we didn’t even have time to come up with an excuse.” Nobita pressed the robot’s nose, and its surface began to unfold like a silkworm emerging from its cocoon. Soon, it transformed into Nobita’s likeness. Except for a slightly red nose, its appearance was completely identical to Nobita’s.

“When we’re not home, these robots will take our place and live with our families.”

Gian circled the replica of Nobita, frowning. "I seem to remember using this robot when I went to my uncle's house before?"

"Uh..." Da Xiong was immediately drenched in sweat.

"Ah, I remember now, Doraemon used him to chop wood before." Suneo suddenly shuddered. That night wasn't exactly a pleasant memory for anyone except Nobita. "Nobita... you turned him into a ghost later to scare us, right?" (From the short slice-of-life story "The Ghost Appears," a short story that the author really likes. It's rich and interesting, revolving around two gadgets: the mimic robot and the forgetfulness stick. Highly recommended.)

"You two were clearly just trying to scare me..." Nobita sighed helplessly and muttered, "But this robot's brain circuits aren't working very well. The last time I walked across the seabed, Dorami said that this thing almost destroyed the house."

"Could he help me record my daily advanced French lectures?" Xiaofu asked suspiciously, fiddling with his clone robot. "Things are fine at home, but the problem is we still have to go to school. If I slip up at school, my perfect student council president persona will be ruined."

"Save it, what kind of persona are you..." Fat Tiger waved his hand irritably. "Do you know what they call you behind your back? 'Three-Eyed Fox,' meaning you're like a fox with a third eye, slippery and cunning. Your image is ruined."

"It's okay, because we'll be back soon."

Nobita vaguely sensed that his friends were deliberately talking about trivial things, just like actors who are actually very nervous on set but have to act relaxed. However, no matter how superb the acting skills are, they are still two different things from true relaxation.

As the leader of a team, he must stand up at this time, reverse the gradually spreading negative emotions, and say a few polite words.

"Four days."

"We'll be back in four days at most. Let's treat it as a short trip to places we can't usually go. Last time we went to the Demon Realm, none of you had a chance to go with me... This time, we're all here in the Monster Realm, so it's sure to be an unforgettable trip." Da Xiong deliberately lightened his tone, raising four fingers and saying seriously, "After we get back, I'll use the [Portable Congress] to get a few days off, and we'll have a good rest!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The Demon Realm. Located in the far north of the Northern Continent, it is the designated palace of the "Demon King".

On a rugged red clay plain, stands the skeleton of a colossal creature. Despite the erosion of countless years, it remains upright, hundreds of meters tall, and the outline of its former human form can still be vaguely discerned, though it is hundreds of times larger than an average human.

Its flesh had been gnawed by countless scavengers, leaving its surface perfectly smooth, yet it remained in the posture of its hands raised high and its body leaning forward. Judging from the position of its hands, it must have been holding some weapon in life, about to make a slashing motion, but was frozen in that moment forever.

Perhaps this is a trace left by a demon ancestor who fought desperately in his last moments?

However, in the dog-eat-dog world of demons, there are no concepts of greatness or glory. In their lives, there are only the weak and the strong, the living and the dead. For this enormous "dead" remnant from ancient times, all the demons can do is exploit the last vestige of value in its skeleton. They smashed and hollowed out a portion of this mountain-sized bone, creating a ghostly palace, which they called the "White Bone Palace." This skeleton can gather the surrounding yin energy, making it a natural feng shui treasure for the inhabitants of the demon realm.

For this reason, the Demon Kings of all ages have resided in this place. In this lawless land, only absolute power and fear can unite these monsters.

The man who defeated the previous Ghost King and sat atop a throne made of bones... was the same.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

A clear and elegant bird song emanated from the stagnant black mist. A streak of blue light fluttered its wings in the darkness and slowly landed in the palace built of white bones. At first glance, the bird appeared to be half crane and half stork, with slender legs and pure dark blue feathers that resembled woven silk. The mere sight of it gently perching on the palace floor perfectly embodied the idiom "a crane standing among chickens," exuding unparalleled elegance.