Nobita's Time Heist

"Did you know that genuinely liking or disliking someone will trigger corresponding 'physiological reactions'? When you mention her, your pupils dilate, and your breathing becomes more rapid than before; these are physiological reactions that cannot be hidden."

Having seen through Nobita's thoughts, Asuka analyzed smugly, "Judging from the tone of your description, she must be a girl you cherish quite a bit."

“That’s right.” Nobita nodded. Recalling Shizuka’s voice and appearance, he truly felt a sweet joy welling up inside him. Therefore, he made no attempt to hide it and said directly, “I want to marry her in the future.”

……

Looking at each other.

This statement left Asuka stunned. After the Second Impact, the world's culture suffered a significant "shock," and everything became unreliable. With the apocalypse approaching, a hedonistic lifestyle of living one day at a time took hold, and the remaining "survivors" gradually lowered their moral and ethical standards. For children born in this era, "marriage" became a very old-fashioned and unfamiliar word.

She stared at Da Xiong with an incredulous look, as if she were looking at a two-legged bull. "Haven't you two done it yet?"

"...?!" Nobita was once again rendered speechless by the question. This was probably the second most difficult person he had ever talked to at night, after Rei Ayanami. Incidentally, Shinji Ikari was the third. He couldn't help but marvel at the excellent matchmaking system of this world. It was quite remarkable that such a small team could simultaneously gather both the Sleeping Dragon and the Phoenix.

"What's going on? Hahaha... I thought you liked her a lot, but you haven't even done it. Turns out it was just talk." Asuka lifted her little feet, defeating Nobita with her open-minded views on sex, like a victorious general. "You two are clearly adults. It's not illegal to do it, so why don't you? If you like each other, touching each other's bodies shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"What kind of talk is that?" Da Xiong wiped his face and retorted as best he could. "Do you plan to sleep with men as soon as you turn 18?"

"If it's a man I like, of course it doesn't matter. If I like someone, I don't mind doing anything." She closed her eyes and said this almost without thinking. "If we consider lifespan in ancient times, 17 or 18 years old is enough to have a child. What's so strange about that?"

"..." Da Xiong was rendered speechless by the pressure, as he had no experience in this area and naturally could not think of any rebuttal.

"If we didn't do it, we didn't do it. But what about a kiss? Surely we've done that before, right?"

"..."

"Never even kissed her? Ha...hahahaha...you're such an idiot." Asuka gleaned all the information she needed from his silence and burst into laughter. "At the very least, you should have confessed to her, or she should have confessed to you, right? If you haven't even done that, and you're just saying you like her, isn't that clearly just unrequited love?"

Since Doraemon left, Nobita's personality has become more composed, and he rarely shows the blushing expression of a manga character anymore. But it must be said, this girl has a natural talent for it; with just a few questions, she made Nobita blush. He then turned away sullenly and stopped answering her questions.

"I give up, really..." Asuka smiled compassionately, patted Nobita on the shoulder, and said meaningfully, "You'd better hurry up, I'm getting worried for you."

……

"Click—"

A slight friction sound.

The superpower training box suddenly floated up, held firmly in the air by an invisible force field.

"Huh?" The girl's attention was quickly drawn to it, and her eyes widened in disbelief. She looked at her hands in disbelief, then at the floating box, her eyebrows almost furrowing together.

"It wasn't me," Nobita said sullenly. "It was your superpower that activated. Get used to it, this is what it feels like right now."

"But... but I was completely clueless just now..." Asuka tried it out, using her thoughts to move the box, and it actually swayed left and right in the air as if it were an extension of her limbs. "How did I suddenly learn it?"

"I reckon it's because you were trying too hard and concentrating too much that you couldn't perform smoothly," Nobita continued, explaining in his lifeless tone. "These three superpowers should be similar to breathing and blinking. Once you're skilled at them, the abilities themselves become part of your senses, and you don't need to control them manually at all—when you breathe, do you think about how much air you're taking in? When you blink, do you think about how many seconds your eyes will blink?"

"You're putting too much pressure on yourself, Asuka. This excessive concentration is making you extremely tense, both physically and mentally, and you're unable to use the superpowers you've already learned. At this point, the best thing to do is to pause training and take a good rest, but you refuse... That's why I'm staying here with you to help you relax as much as possible."

By the end, Nobita's tone was somewhat helpless, "In the end, the result was still good. Of course, I would have been even happier if it hadn't been achieved by mocking me..."

Without a word, Asuka gave Nobita a bear hug, pulling him tightly into her arms. Her long, brown-gold hair brushed against his nose, carrying a pleasant sunflower scent. This embrace caught him somewhat off guard; it was probably the first time in a late-night chat that a girl had caught Nobita off guard. In that moment, the resentment, worry, and fear of falling behind vanished with that hug.

The girl didn't say thank you, and it seemed unnecessary.

She held onto the embrace for a long time without letting go.

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.

“You good students just can’t handle setbacks.” Da Xiong patted her shoulder gently, as if comforting a little sister, and said helplessly, “Someone like me who gets zero every day won’t even care about failing once or twice.”

Chapter 375: Asuka's Declaration of Victory

"Wow, that's amazing! You learned it completely in just one night!"

The superpower training box hovered three inches above her palm, spinning at an extremely fast speed. Her telekinesis was repeatedly manipulating it, so fast that it was almost invisible to the naked eye.

"..." Rei Ayanami remained expressionless as always, showing no intention of applauding. As she spent more time with her, Asuka gradually figured out her temperament. Only Shinji clapped politely, and even though it was just a perfunctory response, it made Asuka very proud, her head practically pointing to the sky.

"Hmph, I told you long ago, I won't let the two of you leave me behind." Asuka is the kind of person who, no matter how hard she works behind the scenes, always has to appear relaxed and carefree on the surface.

"Although we've acquired new abilities, we still need a lot of real-time training before we can apply them in actual combat." Rei Ayanami's words, befitting a good student, didn't give Asuka much time to be happy, pulling her back to reality as soon as she spoke. "Using telekinesis to move a 30kg object and using telekinesis to move a one-ton object are definitely two different concepts. In actual combat, considering the height of the EVA unit, the world we face needs to be scaled up proportionally, making everyday human training unsuitable for us."

"Let's practice then." Asuka put her hands on her hips, looking fearless. "When it comes to actual combat training, you won't be a match for me."

"Well, Asuka, calm down. Let's not even talk about how we weren't competing for the job..." Shinji carefully hid the concept of "comrade" behind his words, trying to implant it into the girl's mind. Seeing that she didn't show any clear opposition to his words, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "No matter what, my father won't accept lending the EVA unit as well. Without the unit, we're just three 14-year-old kids. Even if we wanted to train, it would be very difficult."

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.

……

Beneath the roots of Yggdrasil.

In the center of the spacious arena stood three neatly arranged mechs, each about eighty meters tall, resembling small mountains. Their shapes were remarkably similar to human anatomy, including a head, torso, and limbs. To use a comparison, they were like unpainted EVA units. Their surfaces were devoid of any reactive armor or connecting cables; they simply existed independently. Shinji noticed that, surprisingly, some emerald green seedlings and roots were sprouting from the seams of these mechs' outer skin.

"..." Asuka touched it directly, and it felt icy cold. It didn't have the flesh and blood feel of an EVA mecha. Instead, it felt like touching the bark of an ancient tree with a grainy texture. "How was this made?"

"On my first day here, didn't I have a battle with Unit-00 and Unit-01? All the battle data has already been uploaded to Yggdrasil." Nobita turned around proudly, the crown of the towering tree trembling slightly, and the veins of its leaves emanating a refreshing emerald light, as if in response to his words.

"Hoping that Commander Ikari will reveal the secrets of EVA to me is probably impossible. In any case, I used some other methods..."

Breaking into someone's headquarters at night is not a respectable thing, so Nobita vaguely glossed over it. "The whole thing was designed by Yggdrasil. The power level is not the point. The important thing is to recreate your driving experience in EVA. Five models were designed in succession. This is the sixth generation. The technology should be relatively mature. Even relatively outdated designs such as neural connections and driving plugs have been retained with the premise of minimizing damage to the body."

In Nobita's view, this method of manipulating the machine through neural connections is undoubtedly more harmful than beneficial. While controlling the EVA with human senses does make it more agile, it also means that the same damage will be transmitted to the human body via the machine—which is why Shinji and Zero were eventually defeated. If Alexander Cross and Unit-01 were to stab each other, Nobita would be unharmed, but Shinji would experience real pain. If similar blood-for-blood exchanges happened repeatedly, he'd likely die from the excruciating pain before anything even happened.

Unfortunately, there is currently no solution to this problem.

……

In his grand adventure 6 years ago, Nobita encountered a tribe called the "Light Clan," a hospitable people who revered Doraemon as "Zunbi" (meaning god) and invited them to stay as guests. In just a few days, Nobita and his friends witnessed the way of life in this primitive tribe from an outsider's perspective: there were no alarm clocks back then; everyone had to get up and work at the crack of dawn. Adults had their own chores, and children had theirs; everyone was like a wound-up toy, endlessly turning, with almost no time to rest.

Seeing that they were too tired, Gian and Suneo suggested that since they had already helped, they might as well lend them some more handy gadgets to make things easier for them, but Doraemon refused righteously.

"No way!" Doraemon shook his head and said seriously, "If people in the Stone Age were to master iron tools, wouldn't history be in chaos?"

……

The meaning of this statement was so profound that they at the time did not fully understand it.

After personally experiencing this time-traveling catastrophe, Nobita finally realized that history is phased, and the transition from one phase to another requires a long period of integration and assimilation. Each phase must be equipped with the tools appropriate for that phase. If people are given powers they should not have, it will only lead to disaster.

"So, they're all plants?" Asuka carefully stroked the surface of the simulator again, still unable to believe it. "How on earth do you manage to grow plants of this shape?!"

"Is it gene editing?" Rei Ayanami once again demonstrated her knowledge. "All the conditions needed to create EVA have been engraved into the gene pool. Evolution that would normally take a long time to complete has all been compressed into a seed. When it sprouts, it will naturally grow into this."

"boom-----"

Just as they were talking, the tightly closed gate on the other side of the square slowly opened, revealing a similarly tall human figure behind several meters of heavy metal.

Its metallic sheen, combined with the howling winds at high altitudes, accentuated its formidable sense of oppression.

"Shanda Cross!?"

“That’s right, it is your combat training opponent, the machine piloted by Yggdrasil, the Alexander Cross.”

Nobita looked up, gazing at the towering mecha bathed in the sunlight. He held a special affection for this old comrade who had fought alongside him for so long, and using it as a training subject was a way of placing considerable hope in the three of them. "The rules are simple: the area is the entire Fourth New Tokyo City. Alexander Cross will play the role of the invading apostle, and you need to eliminate him within a certain time. Weapons, tactics, coordination—everything needs to be devised by you. All ammunition will be live ammunition. Alexander Cross will attack you seriously, and you must fight back seriously."

"Don't worry about battle damage. No matter how severe the damage, I have the ability to repair this place."

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.

"Idiot Shinji, why are you making that face? Are you scared because you were captured by it once?" Asuka rubbed her nose triumphantly when she saw Shinji and Rei Ayanami hesitating. Full of interest and eager to try, she said, "Don't worry, you only failed last time because I wasn't with you."

She clenched her little fist and declared confidently, "I'll show this big metal shell the power of the strongest candidate right away!"

Chapter 376: Playing the Total War Game

“Bang bang bang bang————!!”

Asuka gritted her teeth and, as if venting her anger at the nearby Alexander Cross, fired all the ammunition she had, but these large bullets couldn't hurt him at all.

Rather, she seriously doubted whether humanity's existing weapons, when combined, could truly destroy Alexander Cross's machine. Despite countless failures, the girl's mental state remained remarkably healthy—because she wasn't the only one struggling; Shinji and Rei weren't far behind either. In terms of pure progress, the three of them were still on the same starting line, with none of them falling far behind.

Thinking about it this way makes me feel much better.

At Nobita's request, Misato was also instructed to observe the entire training process without interfering. All tactics were devised by the three 14-year-olds themselves. After a few days, they had roughly understood each other's tactical roles and began developing simple and easy-to-understand communication methods. By this point, they had lost count of how many times they had challenged this tireless opponent.

……

"Excellent student!"

"call out------!"

The instant Asuka spoke, the mecha piloted by Rei Ayanami hoisted the massive rocket custom-made for her, calibrated it, and fired while kneeling. This custom-designed, high-temperature armor-piercing projectile emitted a series of sharp whistles through the air, leaving a trail of flame between the skyscrapers. Alexander Cross handled the situation with exceptional composure, turning his head, his eye armor instantly completing its energy storage process, and a beam of high-energy particles shot out, striking the armor-piercing projectile precisely in mid-air with a "ding."

The difference between transmission weapons and energy weapons is now fully apparent.

The flowing fire and light exploded instantly, engulfing the nearby skyscrapers. A mere lick of the flames melted them like ice cream. Worse still, the intense fireworks obscured Rei Ayanami's vision, causing her to misjudge the situation and fail to initiate Instant Transmission. The high-energy beam easily pierced the simulator's abdomen; it was so fast and so powerful that it even caused a sensory distortion. Only when the explosion came from behind did the pain spread like ink in a glass of water.

"Woo..."

Even the pain of the piercing lower abdomen only made the girl groan softly.

The light spots on the eye armor were still converging; he wouldn't give himself any time to react, the next attack was imminent!

Rei Ayanami bit her lip; the pain in her abdomen prevented her from moving, so she simply opened her palm and used her telekinesis to grasp the one-sided tactical shield not far away. However, it was clear that the precision of her telekinesis still needed refinement; a metal plate tens of meters high rampaged through the city, shearing off corners from several buildings. Once in hand, she didn't hesitate for a moment, immediately holding the shield upright in front of her chest, barely managing to block Shandong Cross's second attack.

"Buzz—!!"

A sharp, piercing sound.

Even the special defensive structures created with nanomaterials cannot withstand pure gamma rays for long. Like ice against hot water, they may offer temporary protection, but ultimately melt. Rei Ayanami used almost all her strength, her simulator feet retreating backward along the road, finally managing to block the fatal blow.

Those precious few seconds, bought with all their might, were used to do everything possible for the ambush troops.

"It's up to me..."

Shinji took a deep breath, activated his most familiar teleportation technique, grabbed the particle vibration dagger, and stabbed it into the back of Alexander Cross's neck.

"when--!!"

Metal clashed, sparks flew. Though not very deep, a wound was successfully inflicted on the opponent. Alexander Cross felt no pain, and seemed unconcerned about the damage to his outer armor. He simply raised his Kusanagi sword with one hand, swung it once, and began close combat.

"Hell..."

At this moment, Shinji was like a seasoned Dark Souls player who had been stuck for days, intently watching Alexander Cross's opening stance, trying to predict what move he would make. His experience over the past few days had made it clear to him that if his mecha were even grazed by this sword, it would be utterly unable to withstand the pain and would immediately render him unable to move. He had only about 0.5 seconds to react.

Even one breath isn't enough.

He had to use teleportation frequently during these brief intervals to dodge all of his opponent's attacks and try to land a few blows with his most comfortable particle vibration dagger. Throughout the process, he had to be constantly and carefully try and fail, without making even the slightest mistake.

So far, he's doing very well, constantly moving left and right, and has already stabbed five times, much more than he expected.

But, that’s where it ends.

……

"Ok?"

A bad premonition flashed through his mind. Before the next teleportation, Shinji clearly saw Alexander Cross turn his head and look ahead at the landing point he had chosen. Fortunately, he was submerged in the pilot's solution; otherwise, this discovery alone would have been enough to send chills down Shinji's spine. What was even more terrifying was that he had long since made the use of his superpowers an instinct; once activated, it was like an arrow on a bowstring, with no reason to retract it.

Upon landing for the sixth time, he was greeted by a pair of large, metal-cast hands.

"boom------!!!"

Grabbing his neck and slamming him to the ground, Shinji felt his vision spin before he was thrown to the ground. Alexander Cross perfectly anticipated the others' movements; just as Rei Ayanami was about to get up to rescue her and leave the cover, two streams of high-energy electromagnetic radiation particles arrived, piercing through the shoulder blades of her machine. This further damaged the simulator Rei was piloting, rendering it incapacitated, and it collapsed to the ground.

The cold blade of the Kusanagi Sword pressed against the neck of the simulator Shinji was piloting, a chilling aura emanating from the blade, allowing him no room to move.

"Uh...sigh..." Asuka shook her head, sighed unwillingly, but still manipulated her mecha to raise her hands, her dissatisfaction seemingly overflowing from her tone, "I surrender, I surrender!"

Upon hearing those words, Alexander Cross immediately ceased his actions, retreating to a corner of the city like a neutral boss whose aggro had been absolved. Holding his sword in both hands, he stood frozen in place in a knight's stance, while the small octopus-shaped self-construction robot began cleaning up the mess, also giving him a quick check-up. Despite fighting from beginning to end, Alexander Cross had only suffered a few minor, insignificant scratches.

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.

"As expected, another failure..." Misato sighed. This outcome had played out far too many times. At first, when the three children came down, she would offer a few words of comfort. Now, after so many times, she had almost run out of words to offer comfort, and she didn't know how to start the conversation.

"We've been here for almost a month and a half, which translates to quite a bit of time on the ground. After training for so long, we haven't seen any real results." Seeing Nobita still smiling, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Nobita, aren't you worried at all?"

"Why the rush?" Nobita asked with a smile. "My opinion is exactly the opposite of yours, Ms. Katsuragi."

"In my opinion, they have already demonstrated enough ability to shoulder the responsibility."

Chapter 377: Who played the wrong game this time?

"So, tell me! Elite student, why did you retreat so far back? That guy's beams kept coming at us, we definitely needed someone to tank the damage! Didn't we agree when we were assigning roles that you were responsible for drawing his close-range fire and creating opportunities for that idiot Shinji? But what happened? We tried so many times, and we never coordinated well even once."

Asuka tossed her hair and rattled off like a machine gun, “And why would you pin your hopes on nanoparticles? They can only deal with military weapons. Against gamma rays, they’re like a cake that can be sliced ​​and crushed at any moment. Simulators can also emit AT fields, right? Using that for defense is the right solution.”

“My simulator was hit by a high-energy electromagnetic radiation particle stream. The pain from the penetrating wound was transmitted to my body through the nerve connections. For a moment, the phantom pain transmitted through the nerve connections made it impossible for me to concentrate on activating the AT field.” Rei Ayanami stopped walking, turned around abruptly, her ruby ​​eyes fixed on Asuka, and bit her lip slightly. “I think it was because Soryu (Asuka's surname, inherited from her mother) didn't do a good job of suppressing fire in the early stages, which allowed him to react in time to the high-temperature armor-piercing rounds I fired, which then triggered a chain reaction and led to a series of subsequent mistakes.”

"Huh?!" Asuka almost jumped up. "Where did you fail to suppress the fire? You don't believe me? Go watch the replay. I hit him with every single shot, okay?"

“It was just ineffective damage. The ammunition hit Shandong Cross’s outer armor without any effect, not even temporarily slowing down his movements,” Rei Ayanami said calmly. “Anyway, I at least blocked two high-energy particle beams.”

"Besides, Asuka, when you're shooting, shouldn't you at least consider the surrounding environment?" Shinji weakly joined their conversation. "When you unleash a hail of bullets on him, many of them ricochet, which can easily cause friendly fire."