The sky had stopped pretending to be a sky.
That was the first thing I noticed after Pippo and I landed on the ruins of an old watchtower. Above us, the world looked like someone had shaken three universes in a blender and hit "frappe."
Clouds flickered between cotton and static. Stars blinked in daylight. And somewhere in the distance, Zanda Claus was fighting a wyvern like a festive fever dream.
I sat down on the cold stone floor, sword beside me, lungs burning from too much running, too much fear, too much everything. Pippo paced in circles, flapping his wings like a distressed toddler trying to warm up soup with enthusiasm alone.
"Okay," I muttered, rubbing my forehead. "Okay, think. We need a plan. We need… something."
Pippo stopped pacing. "Nobita… what are you planning? Be honest."
Ugh. Honesty. My worst enemy.
I closed my eyes. The dragon's voice echoed in my head. Calm, ancient, annoyingly smug.
"Your blade cannot kill him. Odorome is not a creature. He is a concept with a crown."
Yeah yeah, I get it, wise lizard Gandalf.
But something else happened in that memory ,a detail the dragon didn't expect me to notice:
When worlds collide, their rules overlap.
Zanda Claus's here.
The dream realm where I fought the Nightmare King at age ten.
The mirror dimension Odorome stole.
My actual reality, glitches and all.
If all of them were merging…
Then every power, every artifact, every stupid childhood object enlarged by the Big Light should exist here too.
I looked at my sword. The blue memory blade flickered softly, like a lantern at the end of a long tunnel.
"Useless," I whispered.
Pippo's feathers puffed. "Huh?! Hey—!"
"Not you. The blade."
I sighed. "It's strong, yeah. But not Odorome-strong. He's built different. Like… final boss with DLC power-ups different."
Pippo tilted his head. "what's DLC?"
"No."
I stood up, gripping the hilt.
"But I'll use what this sword means."
He blinked. "was that an answer?"
"Yeah. And that's my superpower."
"Oi, don't ignore me!"
I turned to him fully. "Pippo, listen carefully. I need you to understand this before I say it."
A gust of wind howled past us, carrying the distant screams of battles happening across the warped landscape. Everything was falling apart , worlds grinding against each other like broken gears.
"Odorome's real strength," I said quietly, "isn't his army. Or his dimension. It's that everyone thinks he's invincible. Every time people look at him, they give him power."
Pippo's eyes blinked. "…Oh. And?"
"Yeah."
I swallowed.
"And so do I."
That was the hardest part to admit.
"I can't beat him head-on. I can't outsmart him. I can't even outrun him."
"So what do we do?" Pippo whispered.
"We change the story."
I tapped the sword against the stone, letting sparks arc. "We use his own logic against him."
Pippo shuffled. "Nobita… you're scaring me."
"Good."
I forced a smile ,too sharp, too tired, too full of decision.
"Because the next part will be worse."
I walked to the edge of the tower, staring at the battlefield below. Metropians fighting tooth and nail. Riruru's wings stained with soot. Civilians trying to live with courage they didn't ask for. All of them believing I'd come back stronger.
All of them believing in me.
A sinking, bitter weight filled my stomach.
This was the price.
"Pippo," I said softly, "remember when you asked if I'd really not help you?"
He nodded, small and shivering.
"You were right to doubt me."
I exhaled. "Because to help you… I have to break you first."
His confusion stabbed me harder than any blade Odorome could summon.
"Nobita… what do you mean?"
I gripped his shoulders.
"I'm going to betray you."
His eyes blew wide. "W-What?!"
"Not for real. But it has to look real. Real enough that Odorome believes it. Real enough that the Metropians believe it. Real enough that everyone...even riruru…"
My voice cracked.
"…believes it."
Pippo took a step back, wings trembling. "You can't do that. She trusts you. They trust you. You saved us. Nobita, you can't—"
"I can."
I looked down at my shaking hands.
"And I have to."
I pointed toward the distant shining pillar at the center of Odorome's empire, the Core.
"That thing is keeping the war alive. Destroy it and this entire nightmare collapses. But Odorome guards it like a paranoid hoarder guarding his last brain cell."
Pippo gulped. "So we need a distraction."
I was glad he didn't ask why I knew it.
"Not a distraction."
I forced my voice steady.
"A tragedy."
The wind stilled. Even the broken sky seemed to hold its breath.
Pippo whispered, "What's the plan… exactly?"
I sat down beside him, pulling him close.
"First, I show up in the middle of the final battle."
Deep breath.
"And I destroy the Metropian front lines. Ruthlessly. Publicly. Loudly."
Pippo stared at me like I'd grown four heads.
"Then," I continued, "I confront Riruru. I tell her I never cared. That I only came for power. That her hope was a joke, her trust was a burden, and everything she believed about me was wrong."
Pippo's voice wavered. "Th-that'll make her… sad."
"I know."
My chest tightened painfully.
"That's why it'll work."
"Odorome will be watching. Everyone will. When they think I've defected, you fly in at the last moment. You yell something dramatic. And then…"
I hesitated.
Pippo whispered, "I kill you."
"You kill me."
Silence again. Heavy. Eternal-feeling.
He burst into tears. "No! No, I-I won't! I can't—!"
I pulled him into a hug, hands trembling despite my forced calm.
"Pippo… look at me."
He did. Slowly.
"There is no other way. If I stay the hero, Odorome wins. If I die a villain, you get the opening to destroy the Core."
"But… but you'll die!"
"Maybe."
I laughed weakly. "But I've got dragon plot armor, right? Semi-immortal or whatever. Worst case, I wake up in a ditch."
"That's not funny!"
"I wasn't trying to be funny."
He sobbed harder.
I wiped his tears with my sleeve.
"When you strike me down… don't hesitate. If you hesitate, they'll know."
Pippo shook violently. "It's stupid! Can't we just destroy core in another way?!"
"…It's fine."
I smiled, a tired, crooked thing.
"If that's the price of saving them… I'll pay it."
His breath hitched. "…N-Nobita…"
"I've always been the guy who messes up, Pippo. The guy who gets blamed. The guy who ruins things."
I stood.
"Maybe for once, I can weaponize that."
He stared at me like he was looking at someone else entirely....a Nobita who shouldn't exist, a Nobita who finally understood what sacrifice meant.
I extended my hand to him.
"Partner?"
He swallowed his fear, his grief, his tiny bird-sized heartbreak.
"…Partner."
We shook hands.
A pact sealed in tragedy.
A plan built on lies.
A future held together by a thread.
And as the sky cracked open with thunder shaped like memories, I whispered the quiet promise only the universe heard:
"Riruru… I'm sorry."