One night of indulgence left the girl with a touch more allure.
I stroked her short hair damp with sweat, looking at her sweet sleeping face, a smile tugging at my lips.
…
On the other side, after Doraemon and the others escaped the Demon King's castle, they were besieged by demon guards.
"This time, we must capture them!"
"Be careful—don't let those guys hide again."
The demon guards rode red dragons, encircling Doraemon and the group.
Under the encirclement of so many demons, even with Doraemon's variety of gadgets, it was hard to cope.
"Everyone, put on the Pebble Hat now, then scatter and escape!"
"Then, we'll find a chance to regroup!"
In this crisis, they had no choice but to scatter and break out. However, these demon guards seemed to have received orders from Demon King Demaon and brought along special dragons with keen senses of smell.
"Over there!"
As the special dragon sniffed the ground fiercely, it lifted its head toward a certain direction. The demon riding the red dragon then unleashed magic, sending a bolt of lightning.
Suneo and Gian were instantly electrocuted and fell to the ground, losing the ability to resist.
Shizuka was surrounded. Seeing Suneo and Gian's fate, she didn't resist and surrendered obediently.
Fortunately, the demons didn't seem intent on killing them immediately.
They just captured them and took them back.
Among the group, only Doraemon escaped the encirclement. During his escape, he hurriedly pulled out a gadget from his four-dimensional pocket to erase scents.
That allowed him to evade the demons' pursuit.
Doraemon reached a stone forest and finally slowed down.
"Damn it, has everyone been captured?"
Doraemon anxiously smashed a nearby stone pillar with his little round hands.
"If only I'd pulled out a better gadget in time."
"I wonder how Nobita is doing?"
Thinking of that, he couldn't help feeling more worried.
He shouldn't have used the what-if-telephone-booth to come to this magic world—maybe none of this would have happened.
It seemed the only option was to use the Time Machine to go back to that day and stop their past selves from using the what-if-telephone-booth.
With that in mind, Doraemon took out the Obtaining Bag and pulled out Nobita's desk from his room.
He opened the desk drawer, crawled into the time tunnel, boarded the Time Machine, and headed to the past timeline.
But just in case, before leaving, Doraemon left a marker for Nobita to find him.
…
At that moment, Medusa, to make up for her failure and avoid punishment from Demon King Demaon for only finding half of the Demon Realm Chronicles,
Volunteered to capture the escapees. After a long journey and magical detection, she finally spotted Doraemon crawling into the desk.
"I've finally caught you."
Medusa also crawled into the desk and entered the time tunnel.
Doraemon was piloting the Time Machine in the time tunnel when it suddenly showed someone chasing from behind.
But how could someone be chasing in the time tunnel?
As Doraemon wondered, he looked back and saw it was the demon Medusa pursuing him.
Doraemon accelerated the Time Machine, then quickly climbed out of the tunnel exit upon reaching the destination.
"Damn it, Medusa actually followed!"
At that point, Medusa also emerged from the time tunnel.
Doraemon ran while fumbling in his pocket for a gadget, but he couldn't pull anything out. While escaping, he accidentally fell from a downstairs window.
"Damn, I forgot I wasn't wearing the Take-copter."
Doraemon grabbed a nearby broom and instinctively shouted "Take off" like in the magic world.
He regretted it immediately—he'd forgotten this wasn't the magic world.
But suddenly, he felt himself flying.
How? This isn't the magic world!
Before Doraemon could think more, Medusa attacked from behind.
Doraemon chaotically flew the broom in circles, dodging Medusa's magical attacks.
But you can't dodge forever—amid multiple magical strikes, Doraemon was hit by one.
Then, Doraemon turned to stone, becoming a statue. The broom, uncontrolled, kept flying forward, and the statue Doraemon plummeted straight down.
It smashed right into the roof of Nobita's house.
Time closed the loop at that moment.
…
…
I stepped out of the tent and stretched lazily—last night had been incredibly satisfying.
Behind me was Miyoko, her face full of shyness.
Waking up in the morning and seeing her cute appearance, I couldn't resist playing with her a bit more.
"What should we do next?" After dispelling her earlier thoughts, Miyoko decided to follow my arrangements.
"Mm! I'll go meet up with Doraemon and the others first!" After thinking, I figured it was best to regroup and then brainstorm ways to defeat Demon King Demaon.
After all, more people mean more strength—maybe someone would come up with a good idea.
"Okay!" Miyoko nodded.
I packed up the gadgets, and we walked out of the cave together.
I took out the tracker—that was what Doraemon had given me earlier, to let me know his position.
It was a long-range signal emitter, specifically for locating.
"This way!" I led Miyoko in a certain direction.
At another stone forest, I also found the marker Doraemon left.
A dorayaki symbol—that was what I'd agreed on with Doraemon before.
I discovered my desk right there.
Why did Doraemon bring the desk here?
It seemed just like in the original story—he wanted to go back to the past and change the fact that we used the what-if-telephone-booth.
But could it really be changed?
I remained doubtful.
Opening the desk drawer, I found the Time Machine still there.
So I directly asked the Time Machine if Doraemon had already gone to the past.
The Time Machine replied that it had indeed sent Doraemon to the past, but it also said they encountered a magical creature's pursuit in the time tunnel.
It must be Medusa—I thought of the Doraemon statue we'd encountered at home before. It seemed Doraemon had been turned to stone.
I had to go back and save him—after all, I didn't know if Dorami would show up like in the original to save Doraemon.
"Let's go! To the time point where Doraemon is."
I said to the Time Machine.
"Miyoko, wait here for me a bit! I'll go save Doraemon first."
Seeing me board the Time Machine, Miyoko was puzzled but obediently followed my words—after all, last night's efforts weren't for nothing.
They'd taken a lot of my energy.
The semi-intelligent Time Machine heard my command and automatically locked onto the time and space, carrying me to the past.
After a while, passing through the time tunnel filled with floating clocks, I reached the exit and climbed out of the drawer.
I'd returned to the past time point.