Nobita's Time Heist

"ah----!!"

She let out a sharp, animalistic roar, the crystal cluster transforming into a short dagger in her hand. She turned to stab, but Nobita rolled away to dodge. Like all Western gunslingers, Nobita's diving shot was exceptionally skillful; his record was once easily securing four kills with a single roll. The Mother of Insects' dagger was too sharp; it pierced too deeply into the soft ground, becoming difficult to pull out. This gave Nobita ample time to get up, and he casually pulled a flashlight from his pocket.

Upon closer examination, Doraemon actually has quite a few flashlights among all his gadgets. Besides well-known types like the magnifying lamp and shrinking flashlight, there are many other types. Many of these flashlight gadgets are rarely even mentioned, except in specific situations.

"【Moonlight Lamp】—!!"

(Moonlight Lamp: This flashlight emits pure moonlight of a special wavelength. Being shone on it can transform you into a werewolf. It's a prop that kids in the future would use for cosplay. The effect only lasts for a short time after each exposure. It can be surprisingly effective in situations where moonlight is needed.)

In an instant, pure moonlight filled the girl's eyes.

……

"ah-------!!"

As if touched by fire, she let out a heart-stopping scream, clutching her head and shaking it frantically, as if trying to shake something out of her brain. In just a few seconds, Shizuka also reacted, quickly taking out several moonlight lamps from her pocket and turning them on all at once, illuminating the Mother of Insects' body with pure moonlight to ensure there was no blind spot.

A wisp of black smoke rose from the girl's body, a scene that reminded Nobita of the ancient "Baqi" ritual in the story. However, the curse personally cast by the Demon King was undeniably powerful. Even with the Moonlight lamp running at full throttle, the shadow rooted in his soul refused to emerge, still lingering behind the girl, its claw-like fingers stroking her scalp while whispering in her ear.

"Hiss..."

It sounded like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

Centuries ago, Narniadis herself inscribed runes on the moon, turning it into a colossal magic circle and imbuing its light with extraordinary power. Who could have imagined that, after the passage of time, this power would once again come to her, becoming her lifeline?

The purification of the moonlight and the curse of the demon tore at her soul. This pain must have been a hundred times more intense than Nobita had imagined; otherwise, her expression wouldn't have been so agonizing and ferocious, nor would she have let out such heart-wrenching screams, repeatedly shouting "Kill me!" in various languages.

……

"Nobita..." This scene was truly heartbreaking. Although they had been enemies not long ago, and strictly speaking, even now, the two sides had not completely severed their enmity, Shizuka still felt compassion. No need for many words; simply calling his name softly was enough for Nobita to understand.

"Her condition is very bad; the Demon King has planted a curse in her memory." Nobita quickly explained the results of his verbal sparring to his companions. "If the curse can be removed, she will no longer be an enemy."

"Ugh... Ah... Ah—!! Damn humans, how dare you do this to me..." Narniadis's consciousness weakened, his teeth seemed to sharpen, and crystalline clusters slowly rose from his ankles, covering his body and transforming into a transparent armor. He roared at the crowd, "I will cut you in half! Slice you open! Chop you to pieces! Ugh—"

Fat Tiger turned up the power of the moonlight, and with a scream, the Mother Insect's eyes rolled back, and she almost fainted.

"Is that so?" Xiaofu swallowed hard, looking at the Insect Mother who was extremely fierce a second ago, but was now tormented to death and pale. He couldn't help but smile bitterly, "I have serious doubts about this."

"Susususu..."

Having undergone countless evolutions, the vines slithered down from the ground, like agile giant pythons, instantly coiling around the girl's limbs. However, as a weapon of war, Yggdrasil maintained its integrity and did not develop into a "magical girl and tentacle monster" scenario. The vines simply and quickly wrapped around her joints, binding her tightly and preventing her from escaping the direct sunlight of the moonlight.

For the Mother of Insects, this was more like torture. The curse began to unleash its vicious nature, like tiny snakes burrowing under the girl's skin, bringing her excruciating pain.

"The key is memory. The Demon King tampered with her memories. Like a virus that contaminated the entire database." Nobita actually knew nothing about computers, but he still tried his best to find a suitable analogy. "The curse had been rooted in her memories for too long, so..."

"【Time Baggage】—!!"

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.

If we were to compile a list of "which gadgets Doraemon pulls out that make you feel like you've got it in the bag," the Time Cloth would definitely be on it. When Nobita specifically instructed Yggdrasil to tie her up tightly, and then slowly stepped forward to gently cover her with the Time Cloth, his friends all breathed a sigh of relief.

until……

An arc of electricity shot out from her wrist, interrupting the clock's rewinding. The bundle was flung aside by the force, while the girl continued to suffer horrific torment without any improvement.

"what……"

"Hahahahahaha!"

A sinister yet familiar deep male voice came from the void. In that instant, Nobita clearly saw Daimao's shadow flickering behind the girl.

"You vile spy, I curse you...swallow the wildfire of rage, lose your mind, become insane with hatred, crawl on the ground, and for all eternity associate with lowly insects! It will haunt your memory until the day you forget everything about yourself, forget who you are, and only then will it be released."

"I, Demao, King of the Demon Realm, hereby issue this curse. From this day forward, until the end of time and space!"

"From this day forward until..."

"The end of time..."

……

"The end of time..." After the initial surprise, Nobita quickly understood the meaning and suddenly realized, "No wonder! I've been wondering why the curse wasn't automatically lifted even though Daimao is already dead. So that's how it is."

"It sounds like a strongly correlated proposition. Aside from 'forgetting who you are,' there's no way to break the curse, not even the death of the caster!" Suneo analyzed from the side, looking troubled. "Even the Time Wrapper couldn't remove the curse...?"

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.

Everyone began to realize the difficulty behind it.

Until one day, they forget everything about themselves, forget who they are.

Even if the curse is truly lifted, what will happen when that day comes...?

What meaning does it all have now?

Chapter 140: This comic only has four pages, how can we not hurry?

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

After pondering for three seconds, Da Xiong suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I've got an idea!"

"Huh??" The surrounding companions all wore classic confused expressions, with Gian rubbing his head and asking, "Are you playing the role of the clever Ikkyu here?"

"After all, this comic is only four pages long, how can we not hurry?"

Nobita used a rather obscure joke, basically only known to him and Doraemon. One time, Gian couldn't hold his concert due to a vocal problem, but this guy, perhaps with some foresight, had pre-recorded three hours of hit songs on cassette tapes, ready for seamless looping. That kind of singing, even listening to just thirty minutes would make you dizzy; listening for three hours straight would probably kill you. Based on the principle that saving everyone is saving yourself, Nobita and Doraemon sneaked into Gian's yard, intending to destroy the tapes.

"Well, Doraemon, have you thought of a solution?"

"Ah!" Doraemon slapped his thigh—although his legs were a bit short, he could still slap them if he really wanted to. "I've got an idea."

"So fast?"

"Of course." Doraemon confidently began rummaging through his pocket. "This comic only has four pages, how can we not hurry?"

……

"【Forgotten Grass】! 【Performance Boosting Spray】!!"

(Forget-Me-Not Grass: It looks like a tulip-shaped grass. After smelling its scent, you will temporarily forget what you are doing. The longer you smell it, the more you will forget. This forgetting effect is not permanent, but it is extremely powerful. You will even forget physiological needs such as eating and going to the toilet.)

(Performance Enhancement Spray: After spraying, it can enhance the performance of a certain object. It can be used on almost any object. After spraying it on Nobita's head, he was able to get all his homework, which was usually full of mistakes, right. The spray is not permanent and lasts for about fifteen minutes.)

"Ugh, this thing... disgusting..."

The moment Suneo saw the Forget-Me-Not, a chill ran down his spine; a flood of "wonderful" memories overwhelmed him. Whenever Doraemon pulled out a gadget, Nobita was always the first to mess it up, and Suneo was usually the second. Using a bit of cleverness, he managed to trick Nobita into giving him the gadget, but he always failed because he didn't understand how to use it, ultimately getting himself into trouble. The one who accidentally inhaled the Forget-Me-Not and forgot to go to the toilet was actually him…

In the end, he urinated right there in the street, which was his own fault.

He was already quite sensitive, and seeing this prop triggered his PTSD on the spot.

"This thing is really powerful, find something to plug your nose! Yuk..."

Before Nobita could finish speaking, several cork plugs, just the right size to block everyone's nostrils, fell from a nearby tree. Everyone plugged their noses and got ready, and Nobita sprayed the forget-me-not on the forget-me-not. The purple tulip, which had been closed, seemed to be forced open by the spray and was quickly delivered to Narniadis.

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.

Caught off guard, he inhaled a large waft of the scent of forgetfulness grass. The girl's fierce expression gradually faded, and her eyes cleared considerably, no longer filled with hostility, but instead showing a look of utter confusion. This expression filled Nobita with a sudden pang of guilt, much like performing a lobotomy on a disobedient patient—though the noise had stopped, it was practically the same as killing the person.

"What...what am I doing? Why are you tied up?" She seemed to have drunk too much, confused and uneasy about her situation. "Are you druids? The Eternal Temple and the Emerald Court have always kept to themselves, let me go!"

The group exchanged glances, and in each other's eyes, they saw joy.

After working so hard for so long, from the moment we entered Golden Township until now, we've finally made a tiny bit of progress!

"Is this considered a success?" Xiaofu didn't dare to get too close, only observing from a distance, and asked, "Her memories have been erased?"

“No, this is just short-term memory. She still remembers that she is Narniadis. This won't work!” Nobita’s tone was very firm. He took out a sword-shaped gadget from his pocket and adjusted the settings on the hilt, saying, “To truly achieve the level of ‘forgetting oneself,’ a little external force is needed…”

"【Forgetfulness Stick】————!!"

(Forgetfulness Wand: Use the knob on the hilt to set the time. Tapping it will cause the user to forget all memories within the specified time. This item is extremely powerful. Some memories may be permanently lost after being hit, so use with caution. From the original classic manga "The Ghost is Out!")

From the moment she fell into this world until today, a full two hundred and seventy years have passed. When Nobita swung his Forgetfulness Stick and struck her on the head...

The pain, oppression, and despair of those two hundred and seventy years of darkness vanished in an instant.

……

The girl stopped resisting and made no further movements. She just stood there blankly, her pupils dilated and her eyes lifeless. Apart from her breathing and heartbeat, it was almost impossible to tell that she was alive.

"Hey, hey~" Fat Tiger walked up to the girl with a nonchalant air, stretched out his hand, and waved in front of her. However, such direct provocation failed to elicit a response from her. "It's more like she's just gone completely idiot than lost her memory."

"Is this normal?" Shizuka asked with some concern. "She looks a little..."

“It’s normal.” As the only person present who had been hit by the Forgetfulness Stick, Nobita was quite confident about it. “Back then, we went to visit Gian’s uncle’s house in the countryside. The first night, I was hit by the Forgetfulness Stick, and the feeling was similar to hers.”

"I stood by the toilet for a long time, and the memory of that time was completely erased. When I came to my senses, my ankles were freezing cold. When I got back to my room, I asked Doraemon and found out that I had been in the toilet for almost forty minutes."

Only now did everyone truly realize how terrifying Doraemon's gadgets were. Even if someone committed an extremely heinous crime, a light tap with this stick would render the victim completely unaware of it.

These deadly secret gadgets are being used by Nobita... That's great.

"Even erasing just ten minutes of memory has such a strong aftereffect. Now, I've erased over two hundred years of her memories all at once, how could there possibly be no side effects?"

"How long will she stay like this?" Seeing that she was no longer a threat, Xiao Fu finally mustered up the courage to walk up, reach out and poke her arm. "If she doesn't wake up, wouldn't that be the same as turning her into a vegetable?"

"Don't worry, I've already thought about it..."

At this moment, Nobita is like a magician on stage, drawing all the audience's attention to him and then performing one miracle after another.

"[Memory Disk]—!"

He gently placed the disk on the unconscious Narniadis's head, and after the memories were recorded, he played them back one by one. Upon closer inspection, this device inevitably raised concerns about invading privacy, so he intentionally sped up the clips, jumping directly to the two hundred years she spent underground after becoming the Mother of Insects. After marking them, he ejected the disk.

With a stroke of his pen, he completed the purchase and sale of all the goods.

Chapter 141: The End of the Story

"Okay, it's about time to wrap this up..."

Jia Kun patted his thigh, and as he stood up, his signature enigmatic smile remained on his face. "I should go."

"Aren't you going to watch anymore? Maybe there's still a chance." The priest's tone was somewhat dazed, as if he had just woken from a dream. Everything had been planned perfectly, but then two Gundams passed by and crushed his plans. Fortunately, he was wearing the bird-beak mask, so no one could see his incredibly pained expression.

"Defeat is understandable, my friend. This time you are facing a savior who has saved the world countless times. Losing to him is not shameful at all." Jia Kun slowly turned his head, his eyes narrowed to slits, making it impossible to read his emotions. "However, if you stubbornly refuse to admit it and pin your hopes on a non-existent miracle, that would be rather unseemly. What do you think?"

……

Looking at the Golden City now completely filled with greenery, the priest sighed silently. Even if he was unwilling to face reality, he had to admit his defeat. Yggdrasil had already taken control of everything in the Golden City; at its rate of evolution, nothing should be able to contend with it anymore. The only reason he was still alive was because the conspiracy hadn't been exposed yet; it hadn't identified him as an "enemy," probably just a survivor in the city.

But as the war ends, sooner or later someone will remember the priest who never appeared throughout the entire war. No matter how meticulous the conspiracy, its execution will always leave traces. Once suspicion arises, it's only a matter of time before the conspiracy is exposed.

Moreover, the aura belonging to the Mother of Insects had completely disappeared and could no longer be sensed. Staying here would bring him absolutely no benefit.

“Come with me, ‘Shadow Priest’, Paisius.” Jaqen extended an olive branch to him. “There is no place for you here now.”

"..."

Paisius remained silent for a moment, carefully observing the obsidian-skinned man before him through the bird-beak mask. What truly terrified him was that he sensed no spiritual energy emanating from Jaqen, not even the most basic elemental affinity. If it weren't for the gleaming nine-ringed pendant on his chest, one might mistake him for a mere mortal devoid of any spirituality if they saw him on the street.

"It sounds like you've had this in mind for a while?"

“There is still a bit of improvisation involved, although… after I knew it was 'them' who came, I didn’t have much hope for your plan.” Jia Kun turned his head and looked towards the direction of the Great Archives—at this moment, in that direction, the giant trees had grown to a height that blocked out the sky. “To defeat them, a plan of this caliber is definitely not going to work.”

"If, as you say, that bespectacled stranger is a 'time anchor,' then isn't he your nemesis?"

Pacius asked in bewilderment, “As long as he lives, your plans will always be in vain. No matter how you distort spacetime, he will always be able to correct it.”

"If you want to change the past, you'll have to kill him sooner or later."

……

“Your idea is horrible, Pacif.” Jaqen laughed heartily. “Why must we kill him?”

"The cause and effect of time and space have their own mysterious ways, and the 'correction power' will never die. Even if Nobita is killed, another one will be born."

"However, if the anchor is allowed to revise history, then there is no such thing as 'revise'. As long as he approves of the change, it will become part of history. So far, he has completed many similar closed loops through his own will."

Although his expression was not visible, it was not difficult to tell from his posture that Pacius was shocked at this moment.

"Was it...deliberate?" he asked in a deep voice, as if he were encountering this world for the first time. "Using the power of the Time-Space Anchor to guide him to reshape the past, is that your true purpose?!"

"Well, strictly speaking, our boss is someone who doesn't really have a 'plan,' he just goes with the flow, like a slippery slope. Like father, like son, we're pretty much all like that, but..."

He half-opened his eyes, revealing black "whites" and golden "pupils," making him look nothing like a human, but rather like a wild beast trapped in a human body. This was probably why he kept his eyes closed the whole time. His gaze pierced through layers of obstacles, locking onto Da Xiong in the distance, like a beast unleashed from its cage, ready to devour anyone at any moment.

"There's no need to rush, Nobita. The experience in the Golden Village is just dessert after dinner."

"The real 'main course' prepared for you is yet to come."

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.