Nobita's Time Heist

Seeing that her earth-shattering revelation had no effect whatsoever, Zashiki-warashi seemed to have suffered a great blow, and her voice even became dejected.

"It is said that... in the distant star space beyond our sight, the Hundred-Eyed King was defeated by a man 'wearing a red robe, with purple hair and horns on his forehead,' barely escaping with his life and fleeing all the way to Earth. He wanted to use the souls of intelligent life here to make a comeback."

“No wonder he wanted to exterminate the demon race.” Lingyin suddenly realized and murmured, “A man with horns on his head…”

Could it be a demon?

Reason told her no, no demon race could possibly defeat such an opponent. Since the universe is so crowded, it must have been a powerful being from another extraterrestrial race.

What struck her even more was that even though he was a loser in the starry sky, once he changed course and landed in the demon realm, he became an invincible being. This demon of Mount Ooe, who had guarded it for over a hundred years, was encountering concepts related to celestial bodies for the first time, and also realizing his own insignificance for the first time.

Looking up, separated by a pale white mist, the faintly visible starry sky appeared so strange, as if it had transformed into a hundred eyes of different shapes, watching me from afar.

"In the end, I... am nothing more than a creature born from this tiny speck of mud, like an ant..."

"Hey, hey, are you alright?" Zashiki-warashi shoved her irritably. "Going to fight Hyakume-oh in this state will result in a very ugly death."

"Whether it looks bad or looks gorgeous, it's only a matter of four days."

Lingyin said with a somewhat reckless attitude, "If I'm in a doomed situation, I don't need to think about anything. I'll just do my best and leave the rest to fate."

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.

It's a bit much to ask of a Zashiki-warashi, who has absolutely no combat ability, to join the team.

According to her, not all demons were wiped out; some surviving tribes, led by Ibaraki-dōji, the eldest disciple of Shuten-dōji, managed to survive and scattered throughout the demon realm. Her immediate priority was to guide these comrades to a safe place to live. They absolutely could not show themselves until this fierce battle was over. Even if the final campaign failed, at least some remnants would be preserved for future plans.

Fortunately, before leaving, the girl didn't waste the meal she ate with Nobita and his friends, as she drew up a reasonable attack route for them.

Flying through the air is definitely not an option; it would be too conspicuous and easily noticed.

Items like the "Anywhere Door" cannot be used either. It seems that some monsters are very sensitive to changes in spatial structure, and it is very likely that they will be surrounded as soon as the door is opened.

"The only feasible route is to cross the Vicious Mountains, which are considered a forbidden land for demons, and head north. We must traverse the mountains within four days to reach the White Bone Palace in the northernmost part of the demon realm. If all goes well, the Hundred-Eyed King should be there."

"However, before entering the mountains, a deadly hurdle awaits..."

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 group hid inside the dollar bill that had been turned into a jeep, cautiously peering out through the windows.

On the mountain peak stood countless swords, forming a huge sword mound.

As its name suggests, the buried weapons no longer gleam with a cold light. Even if their surfaces still appear sharp, they are like rusted, blunt instruments, completely lacking the intimidating aura of a deadly weapon.

A figure stood on the rocks, beneath a tall pine tree. He was tall and slender, wearing a red coat over his shoulders, holding two swords, and his long ponytail swayed slowly in the wind.

Wait quietly.

Chapter 274: The Demon Slayer

"That's the Demon Slayer."

Watching him from afar, everyone felt their hair stand on end. It wasn't about bravery; the fear was more like an instinctive reaction, the subconscious trembling of an unarmed human encountering a ferocious beast like a tiger or lion. Fat Tiger's fighting instinct was the strongest among them, which is why his feelings were all the more profound.

“That guy… is a killing expert, I’ve lost count of how many people he’s killed!” He swallowed hard and said something quite perplexing, “Even if he had nothing on him, he could still kill us all.”

“I don’t know when it started, but he began guarding the entrance to this vicious mountain range. Anyone who dared to cross this line, whether demon or ghost, was killed by him.” Lingyin’s voice was a little weak. Clearly, in her current state, she would surely die if she faced the Man-Slaying Demon. “Among demons, he is a complete anomaly. He doesn’t communicate with others at all. Or rather, the sword in his hand is the only way he knows how to communicate.”

"See the mask on his face? That's the 'Asura Mask,' formed from the countless people he killed on the battlefield during his lifetime, completely consumed by his killing intent. Now, he's a killing machine driven by a desire to attack, indiscriminately attacking anything that tries to cross into the Vicious Mountains. If we just walk past like this, we probably won't get away with it."

"No...it can't be that bad..." Suneo's sixth sense for danger was quite sharp. Just seeing this figure standing motionless on the cliff had already terrified him, and he couldn't stop trembling as he spoke. "After all, monsters and humans are both kinds of living beings. Don't we still have US dollars? He easily killed one monster before, so he should be able to kill another one now, right? Right?!"

"Let me make this clear from the start, I have no doubt about the fighting capabilities of this behemoth." Lingyin patted the window of the car with the US dollar, causing the latter to let out two smug hums with a metallic tremor.

"but……"

The sudden turn of events made everyone prick up their ears.

“The Demon Slayer and the Needle Woman are completely different types. Let me put it this way... if the Needle Woman were to step into this place, she wouldn’t even last a second before being killed by him. The difference between the two is that exaggerated.” Rin sighed. The first step of the battle plan had been incredibly difficult, which made her vaguely uneasy about the outcome of this journey. “Of course, if we really have to fight, by combining all our strength, we can probably still win.”

To put it bluntly, it's a question of whether it's worth it or not.

We haven't even met the enemy leader yet, and we're already wasting a lot of energy on this elite monster blocking our way. There's a high chance of casualties during the fight.

Once again, everyone's eyes were focused on Da Xiong, waiting for him to make the final decision.

……

"Lingyin, you just said, how did he get the mask on his face?"

"?" Lingyin was confused at first, but she repeated, "He killed too many people on the battlefield. After his death, his murderous aura remained stagnant, which is why..."

"That means he was actually a 'human' just like us before, right?" Nobita seemed to have found a completely new perspective, raising the corners of his mouth to reveal a mischievous smile.

"Do you expect to persuade him to give way with words?" Asur warned. "A guy who has killed so many people that he's become a ghost has probably lost even the last shred of humanity. The chances of him listening to you are practically zero!"

"No, no, what I mean is, since he was a human for so long, his way of thinking must be very similar to that of a human. We can take advantage of this to avoid fighting him head-on... Apart from the Hundred-Eyed King, who is a must-defeat target, we don't necessarily have to fight our way through the others."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a can of powder.

"【Tombu Ramen】—!!"

(Tombra Powder: When applied to the body, the ground becomes like water, allowing the user to swim underground. It provides excellent concealment and can be used as a diving tool. However, when using this tool, the concept of "land" disappears, and the user cannot go ashore. The user must allocate their physical strength and route according to the needs, otherwise there is a risk of "drowning". This tool appears in the theatrical versions of "Nobita's Galactic Express" and "Nobita's Space Wars".)

"Go underground?" Shizuka immediately guessed Nobita's intention and asked worriedly, "Is it okay? From here, it's several thousand meters to cross the Sword Tomb. Are we going to swim all the way there? I can only swim a maximum of two hundred meters, and Suzune's current condition can't handle slow movement, can she?"

"I can swim 800 meters without stopping," Fatty Tiger patted his chest and said casually. "It's okay, I'll carry her on my back. She's just a little girl, as light as a piece of paper."

"Oh right, Nobita, isn't there a submarine?" Suneo's eyes suddenly lit up. "It's the one on the back mountain, the one where we played sumo wrestling together. You beat us both up, and when we ran home, you left a shoe and your schoolbag on the back mountain. Remember that? That strange submarine, isn't it also a Doraemon gadget?"

"Wait a minute, Honekawa-kun, I didn't hear wrong, did I?" Dekisugi was immediately startled. "Who hit whom?"

"We were playing a wrestling game on the back hill, and then it got serious..." Nobita couldn't help but laugh as he recalled the few times he'd beaten these two in a head-on fight during his childhood. (This is from the original story; this is one of the few times Nobita's fighting prowess erupted—he kicked Suneo in the chin and then kicked Gian in the face with his shoe. But his display of strength only lasted a short while before he was immediately chased away again.)

"However, that won't work. I've already considered it. That submersible has to surface every 500 meters to wind up, and there will be a very loud propeller noise underground. It's highly unlikely that it will escape the ears of the Man-Slaying Demon."

"I have a way to do what you're talking about, wait a moment..."

After rummaging through his pockets for a while, Nobita pulled out his three-piece diving kit from his underwater walk – [Deep Sea Face Cream], [Nose Breather], and [Underwater Walking Shoes]. The dollar bill transformed back into its car form and went directly into Nobita's pocket, saving everyone space. Once everyone was dressed, Nobita added [See-Through Lenses] to his diving goggles, so that even underwater, they could still observe the surface by simply looking up, allowing them to scatter and escape if things went wrong.

"Once we're underground, try not to make any noise. We need to minimize any possibility of being discovered."

Nobita pointed in the direction of the Sword Tomb and instructed, "Gian and I will take Rinne. The rest of you can swim on your own. At least until you can no longer see the small hill where he's standing. Then we'll..."

"There!"

He pointed to a peak of the Vicious Mountains emerging from the mist and said in a deep voice, "We'll meet at the foot of that mountain."

This scene of splitting up and then meeting up at some point reminded him of some unpleasant memories. It seemed that his desperate escape on the Demon Realm Star was similar to the current process.

"no, I can not……"

Da Xiong secretly clenched his fist, trying to reassure himself.

"If we could defeat the Demon King last time, we can definitely do it this time too!"

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.

He smeared dombra powder on his body and, as the last general to escort the troops, was the last to enter the underground.

……

After they all sank into the ground, thousands of meters away, the Demon Slayer, who had been standing on the mountaintop facing them sideways, slowly turned around and cast a glance in their direction.

Chapter 275: What is the shortest distance between two points?

As he swam, Nobita sensed that something was very wrong.

Out of concern for the team's safety, he would look up every few minutes to check on the state of the Demon Slayer. As a result, this guy stood motionless on the mountaintop, just like a statue. Not only that, he also concealed all his presence. Several strangely shaped birds landed on his shoulders, seemingly mistaking him for something like a dead tree or a stone.

He didn't even bother to intercept them; he carefully suppressed his hostility, as if afraid of disturbing Nobita and the others from getting through this ordeal.

Gian swam over to Nobita. Because they had applied "Deep Sea Cream," they could still talk in the liquid land, just like on land.

“We’ve been discovered… He probably knew from the very beginning, but just didn’t take any action.”

Although this statement was baseless and based entirely on Gian's intuition, deep down, Nobita was inexplicably convinced that it was true.

For reasons he didn't yet understand, the Demon Slayer spared them, acting as a silent, immobile block of wood, and released them into the Vicious Mountains.

why?

Is it that his "slaying" actually has certain special criteria, and is not indiscriminately killing all those who approach, as Lingyin understands it? Or is this route a trap from the start, and Hundred-Eyed King anticipated the arrival of his group, so he deliberately left a trap open for them to walk into?

Ultimately... even if we safely pass the hurdle of the Demon Slayer, judging from what the Zashiki-warashi said earlier, the Vicious Mountain Range itself is not an easy path to traverse.

Being in the very center of the enemy camp, Nobita couldn't think of any positive possibilities.

More importantly, in either case, there was no turning back. They could only swim with all their might, without stopping, until they crossed the Sword Tomb and reached the entrance to the Vicious Mountains. Fortunately, they had these items that greatly reduced their energy consumption, especially these [Water Walking Shoes], which allowed them to move forward a considerable distance in the water with just a slight push of their legs.

……

As they passed the Sword Tomb, the Demon Slayer remained motionless, only slightly shifting its body as Nobita and the others moved forward, always facing them, as if solemnly watching them leave.

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.

"Ha ha……"

No matter how effortless they tried, they were still under considerable psychological pressure after completing the long trek of several kilometers and returning to "land." Everyone was a little out of breath. Looking around, the seven of them were still safe and sound; not a single one had fallen behind or been lost. They had all safely crossed the Sword Tomb!

"The underground operation was a great success!" Xiao Fu shook the water off his hair, pulled a comb from some pocket, and began to style his complicated triangular hair. Looking at the hilltop in the distance, he muttered, "It went so smoothly, nothing happened... According to the usual adventure routine, this part would definitely require me to pull out one or two props."

"Have your adventures become so frequent that we can summarize the process?" Dekisugi couldn't help but complain. "Nobi's thinking is very correct. If he was human in his previous life, even if he changed species, he would still retain human mindset. He probably thought that the enemy would only attack from the ground and the sky, and he didn't investigate what was below the ground at all."

"Oh dear, that guy's not quite right in the head." After the crisis, Suneo immediately perked up, waving his hands and grinning, "I even used the bushes to float up and sneak a peek, but he was just like a block of wood, frozen in place."

"If I had known it would be this easy, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble to go underground. I could have just put on an invisibility cloak and walked over from the main road."

“Strange… Logically speaking, this shouldn’t be his level.” Lingyin was equally puzzled, her brows furrowing slightly as she looked towards the Sword Tomb and murmured, “Legend has it that his five senses have been honed to the divine level, allowing him to distinguish the sound of a dragonfly’s wings flapping from thousands of meters away. His swordsmanship is also divine, capable of severing the wings of mosquitoes and flies in one stroke. To be honest, I initially thought that going underground wouldn’t be safe enough.”

"You think things are going too smoothly?" Asur tilted his head, wringing out the water from his hair as he said irritably, "Don't be too happy yet, the real difficult journey is just beginning."

The atmosphere froze again, and everyone looked up at the ancient mountain peak that stretched before them in perfect unison.

It's no exaggeration to say that if one of them had megalophobia, they would probably be passing out by now.

Big.

Too big.

Humans have always yearned to climb to the top, and the bigger the mountain, the more it ignites a traveler's desire for challenge. But... just looking at this mountain range stretching as far as the eye can see, it takes courage just to resist turning and running away.

Da Xiong rarely used such words to describe a mountain, but he had never seen anything so "bizarre": starting from his feet, a sheer cliff with an extremely steep incline stretched out directly; if it were any steeper, it would be no different from a precipice. The mountain peak was covered with lush vegetation, yet it exuded a suffocating, deathly aura, with pale white mist swirling gently around the summit like ribbons of feathers.

Looking left and right, the rock face is covered with eerie purplish-red flowers, spreading like wildfire, with no end in sight.

"Because no one has ever explored this place before, there is nothing here that can be called a 'road'. If nothing unexpected happens, we should be the first pioneers to arrive here."

Lingyin pointed to the mountain peaks hidden in the clouds and said in a deep voice, "For most demons, this place is still a forbidden zone. Even those with the ability to fly will carefully avoid the clouds and mist in the mountains. According to legend, even just passing over the Vicious Mountains will result in being swallowed up by them and never returning."

“There are eight such peaks in total, all about the same size. What we see now is only the first one. The other seven are hidden by it, and we'll have to climb over them to see them.”

……

The sight of mountains stretching for thousands of miles can easily make one want to give up, especially those that seem endless at first glance, which can be even more disheartening.

To put it dramatically, even Mount Everest isn't this impressive.

"So...we're going to cross all the mountains in four days?" Xiaofu's voice trembled, and his earlier boastful words quickly vanished. He could only smile bitterly and say, "By the time we get there, it'll be too late."

"Can't we fly across using a bamboo dragonfly?" Shizuka suggested a new idea. "If we rush across in one go, it will only take four hours at most."

“It’s best not to… The composition of that fog is still inconclusive. But none of the demons that have entered it have ever returned. I don’t think we’ll be any different.” Lingyin looked at the pale white fog swirling around the top of the mountain and said in a deep voice, “In the demon realm where strange creatures roam, to be called ‘vicious’ must be something extraordinary.”

Unable to fly and with impassable mountain roads, the team seemed to be stuck in a stalemate once again.

Nobita chuckled softly, cleared his throat, and asked in a pretentious tone, "You guys are really... you're overcomplicating things."

"Between two points, what is the shortest distance? A straight line is the shortest, right?"

"Well, Nobi-kun, to be precise, the shortest distance is a straight line..." Dekisugi held back for a long time, but still couldn't help but correct him slightly.

"Well, Kosuke is right, the shortest distance is a straight line." Nobita didn't care at all and pulled out a prop from his pocket that was used almost 100% of the time in the movie.

"【Passage Zone】—!!"

"We should just follow the line segments!"

Chapter 276: Sneaky Stealth

"Cough! Cough cough cough... So much dust..." Shizuka coughed repeatedly, choking on the dust. She had to put on a mask and squinted her eyes. "I don't think I've ever had anything like this before when I used the access ring."

"Something's strange." Da Xiong looked around, reached out and gently wiped the inner wall of the "road" created by the passageway. His fingers were covered in dust, and he immediately became alert. "It seems we didn't 'pass through' it, but instead dug a new cave in the Vicious Mountains?"

"Oh well, who cares? It's not like we can't move." Fat Tiger waved his emergency light at the front of the group and called out, "Come on, everyone, hurry up and keep up, don't fall behind, the sooner we finish, the sooner we're done!"

……