Nobita's Time Heist

Regardless, having reached this point, the initial plan has officially failed. Despite its current aggressive pursuit, it hasn't let its guard down for a moment. Using only the lingering scent in the air, it instantly struck Nobita, who was attempting a sneak attack, knocking him from the sky to the ground.

If it weren't for the effect of a softball, this shot would have been enough to pulverize a normal person.

“A sneak attack is pointless now. If we still want to use the previous tactics, there’s only one way.” Arthur steadied himself, urging his brain to work at lightning speed, and said, “Just charge! Forget everything else. Since they can spot you, let’s go all out, charge straight onto the dragon’s back, shine that flashlight on it, and it’s over!”

"That means he'd have to compete with a dragon in aerial combat! Even setting aside whether he has the ability, the hardware simply doesn't support it." Asur's voice deepened. "The gadget he wears on his head is called the 'Bamboo Dragonfly.' It looks like a propeller, but it's essentially a product of anti-gravity technology; it's what powers Nobita's flight. Even so, its speed is only 2.7 meters per second. It's just a gadget for a child in the future to experience flight; in terms of speed, it's no match for a dragon."

"In the future world, there are relevant regulations. For safety reasons, the highest-speed flight device that childcare robots can carry is the [Bamboo Dragonfly]. Even though it can accelerate and fly very fast for a short time, using it that way will quickly cause the Bamboo Dragonfly to overload. If you want to fight a dragon in the air, this range is far from enough! Do you understand!?"

"There's no other way. My personal suggestion is that you do some more mental preparation, then set up the hotline gun, and soon..."

……

"Thump—!!"

A distant explosion abruptly interrupted her. Amidst the smoke, Da Xiong, like a swift piercing the sky, suddenly rose and then abruptly changed direction. Because of the distance, Asur only vaguely saw him make a flapping motion of his arms, mimicking a bird flapping its wings, before a Mach ring exploded behind him.

With a thunderous roar, the reaction force propelled his body forward like an arrow released from a bow. With each swing of his arms, a sonic boom created a hemispherical acceleration zone behind him. After several such swings, he easily surpassed the bamboo dragonfly's overload speed limit, leaving Asur dumbfounded.

"Impossible, impossible! Any faster flying device would violate the safety regulations for childcare robots! How could he have..."

“wuolokae——!”

Meijin emitted a somewhat excited mechanical sound, as if happy for Nobita's return to the battlefield, while transforming into a long, cylindrical telescope on the back seat. Asur eagerly pounced on it, adjusted the telescope, and looked in Nobita's direction, wanting to understand how he had done it.

In his field of vision, Nobita's figure flashed by, but in that brief moment, Asur clearly saw that what he was holding was not some kind of flying device, but two ordinary red fans.

"..."

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked, seeing her incredulous expression as if she'd seen a ghost. He roughly guessed what had happened. "Did he do something illogical again?"

"【Wind God Fan】...How is that possible? That's clearly a tool for summoning hurricanes! How could he use it to fly? Judging from his posture, he doesn't seem like a novice at all. It's as if he's practiced before. How did he come up with these strange and unusual uses?"

(Doraemon's essential summer gadget, as the name suggests, a gentle wave of the fan releases an amazing hurricane powerful enough to blow an adult away. Nobita developed its flying function. From episode 1118 of the Ooyama version of the anime, "The Powerful Wind Fan")

"Although I don't understand what happened, he must have found a new use for these magical gadgets, right?" Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. "Anyway, it's good that he's alright."

"No, something's not quite right."

Asur kept his binoculars in hand, following Nobita's flight path, and murmured, "The power of the Wind God Fan alone cannot create such a rapid acceleration. His current state is more like something unseen is pushing him forward from behind."

"What is it?"

She squinted, trying to see through the underlying color surrounding Nobita, and murmured in an almost lip-reading voice, "What makes you so special... Nobita?"

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.

At the same time, high in the sky, the dragon's attention was once again drawn to Nobita.

With the wind god fan moving, such a large commotion meant that both sides were essentially revealing their cards. It wasn't stupid; it immediately let go of the fleeing minions on the ground, bared its sharp teeth and claws at Da Xiong, flapped its wings, and gathered light at its throat, a blazing flame already brewing.

Facing the ever-opening maw of a dragon, it would be a lie to say he wasn't nervous at all. But the perfect moment in Da Xiong's mind hadn't arrived yet. He could only grit his teeth and continue fanning himself, leaving all his doubts behind along with the explosion. To outsiders, it looked as if he were deliberately charging headlong into the dragon's jaws.

"Roar----!!!"

His hard lips curled up slightly, as if mocking his foolishness, and a triumphant smile also emerged in his crimson vertical pupils.

The distance of several hundred meters was covered in the blink of an eye.

Fifty meters to go.

thirty.

twenty.

ten meters.

Using momentum, Nobita was almost right under the dragon's nose. Finally, the moment he had imagined countless times, the moment that would decide the outcome, arrived.

"Fengzi..." he closed his eyes slightly, "Give me a hand!"

"Thump—!!"

The downward-flapping fan unleashed an effect far exceeding the prop's limits, almost allowing Nobita to perform a double jump in mid-air with increased acceleration. At the same time, the dragon opened its massive maw, spewing out a breath of hot air. Some stray fragments of flame struck Nobita's lower body, but for some reason, a whirlwind that materialized out of thin air covered his body like armor, neutralizing every single flame.

In the nick of time, no one noticed this detail, not even Da Xiong himself. He used an extremely risky close-range double jump to successfully leap over the dragon's head, landing firmly on its back. This move was something he had devised after carefully observing the black dragon's anatomy on the snowy mountain.

Like most cold-blooded animals, its neck is quite strong, and it can twist left and right to shoot flames downwards, but it cannot lift its head.

This breathtaking leap landed perfectly in its blind spot, securing the dragon's back. If Nobita were a katana user, he'd already be washing his back by now.

Unfortunately, the next item he pulled from his pocket was not a weapon.

"【The All-Purpose Reins】—!!!" (The All-Purpose Reins: When you put a rein on any animal, it will have the ability to be a "mount." Even small animals like cats and dogs can theoretically be ridden if you can sit on them. Of course, even so, it still takes time to tame them, and not all animals are suitable to be mounts. From episode 147 of the Ooyama version, "The All-Purpose Reins")

The moment the reins were put on, the dragon showed unprecedented resistance. It roared and began to thrash and spin wildly in the air, trying to throw Da Xiong off its back.

Da Xiong gritted his teeth, wrapped the reins around his wrist several times, and pulled on its neck, dragging the dragon off its original flight path, trying to force it to land on the open mountain.

The battle between humans and dragons has begun!

Chapter 69: How to Train Your Dragon - Nobita

"What's going on?" Arthur took out his own binoculars from his bag and looked at the battle in the air. He couldn't help but get anxious. "They're already on his back. Hurry up and use that flashlight to shrink them down! Are dragons so easy to tame? It took me more than ten minutes to tame that Arabian horse."

"Perhaps the shrinking flashlight is no longer usable, and this is a new tactic he came up with on the spot. The way he sprinted just now didn't consider shrinking it at all; he went straight for its back."

Asur's expression was remarkably calm, quite unlike her somewhat youthful face. However, in the current situation, this composure undoubtedly gave Arthur a great deal of confidence. "The original plan has been disrupted. All we can do is adapt to the situation and do our best to cooperate with his tactics. As for now... the biggest help he needs is to 'do nothing'."

"Do nothing?" Arthur repeated with a suspicious look.

“That’s right.” Asur nodded, saying with an air of seriousness, “Doing nothing is the same as not doing anything wrong.”

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.

Just as Asur had guessed, Nobita was sent flying hundreds of meters by the powerful blow from the tail. His shrinking flashlight slipped from his grasp the moment he hit the ground, and who knows where it landed. After finally stopping, Nobita quickly used his [Item Retrieval Bag] to collect the shattered parts, but he didn't have time to put them back together. Instead, he immediately pulled out his Wind God Fan—mainly because he was worried about Arthur and the others' safety.

He subconsciously accelerated his flight, subconsciously flipped onto the dragon's back, and subconsciously pulled out the [All-Purpose Reins]. This series of actions took no more than two minutes, each step unplanned and entirely improvised. Only at times like this did Nobita's mind become exceptionally sharp. Brain cells that usually dozed off in class would suddenly become active, countless gadgets' appearances slowly unfolding before his eyes, their various effects repeatedly rehearsed in his mind until he found the most suitable one.

Doraemon once commented, "I wish you were this smart when you were studying."

As with most adventure games, the convenient shrinking flashlight has been banned. So, what item can we use now to achieve the same happy ending as always?

……

"Whoosh, lulululululul..." The dragon kept twisting and turning, trying to throw Nobita off. The oncoming hurricane almost tore his cheeks off. He tried to open his mouth, but only managed to utter a series of bubbly sounds. Even in this situation, Nobita still persisted in Doraemon's verbal tic, firmly and proudly calling out the name of his gadgets when he took them out, as if doing so would somehow enhance their effects.

"【NS Badge】--!!" (A classic early Doraemon gadget. N and S represent magnetic poles. When attached, it produces both repulsive and attractive effects. Once activated, it cannot be interfered with by any external force except when the badge is removed.)

“Put an N on me, and then…”

Having learned his lesson the hard way more than once, Nobita checked repeatedly, muttering "like repels like, opposites attract" several times, and then stuck the "S" here!

"Snapped!"

The unbreakable magnetic chain took effect, binding Nobita and the dragon tightly together. No matter how skillfully the dragon performed its aerial acrobatics, it couldn't shake him off.

“Ouch————!!!”

Sensing this unusual force, the dragon became even more annoyed. At this moment, it was like a person whose back muscles were too developed to scratch an itch, tormented by tiny jumping insects on its back, which gave Nobita an opportunity to take advantage of it.

"You...give...me..."

"Behave yourself—!!!"

Normally, with human strength, it would be impossible to contend with a dragon. But with the aid of the [Universal Reins], Da Xiong's arm strength was amplified infinitely by the item's effect, actually managing to pull open the dragon's mouth and raise its head several tens of centimeters higher. For a dragon, this action was tantamount to exposing its Achilles' heel, further igniting its already raging anger. Da Xiong spread its wings and began the legendary Crimson Dragon Dance.

Sometimes soaring through the air, sometimes crashing to the ground, sometimes performing a giant loop in place, but no matter what method he used, Da Xiong remained firmly attached to him, never falling off. The piercing wind swept past his face as he gripped the reins tightly with both hands, using his meager strength as a human to contend with this terrifying dragon.

……

"My God! No wonder he's the character depicted on cigarette cards..." After parking the car in a safe enough place, Arthur put aside the heat gun, his ultimate weapon, and watched the aerial battle through binoculars, seemingly forgetting his lung disease, smoking one cigarette after another. Because the scene was so exciting, before he knew it, all the cigars were gone, leaving only the premium cigarettes.

Little Jack had shown him a picture book about a hero fighting a dragon, but as an adult, he was naturally not interested in it.

but……

Seeing it today, he realized that the real battle between heroes and dragons is a million times more exciting than the stories depict!

"Daxiong is expending its energy... very clever! Based on experience in horse training, this is a game of strategy, they are vying for dominance in flight!"

Asur's tone was somewhat uncertain, "Can a human's physical strength compare to that of a dragon?"

Taking a swig of strong liquor, Arthur explained with an air of seriousness, "At least for now, he's still sitting firmly on the dragon's back, which means he hasn't fallen behind!"

"Next, we'll see who can hold out longer."

"...Could that be?" Asur thought to himself, but did not say it aloud.

As they teamed up, not only did Nobita become familiar with her, but her understanding of Nobita also deepened with each unexpected event.

Will this prop genius really be satisfied with just using a rein to hold his opponent back?

Or has he already quietly arranged all the other backup plans?

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.

"【Momotaro's Mochi Dumplings】!" (A tool for taming animals)

"【Banana Leaf Fan】!" (An enhanced version of the Wind God Fan, capable of customizing the wind to suit the user's needs. From tropical monsoons to Arctic winds, it can do it all.)

Nobita temporarily released the reins; the powerful magnetic connection ensured he wouldn't fall. Using both hands, he simultaneously pulled out two gadgets. He took a handful of glutinous rice balls from the bag, pressed the knob at the bottom of the banana leaf fan, and shouted, "Give me a gust of wind that can blow the rice ball into its mouth—!!"

Like playing badminton, he tossed the rice ball up and waved his banana leaf fan.

……

To be fair, this requirement is indeed a bit excessive. Your target's landing point is constantly moving, and its speed is constantly changing. To make the dumpling make a big turn in the air and land precisely in its mouth—just think about it, and you'll understand the difficulty.

but……

Just like when he used the Wind God Fan, the spirits of wind seemed to be especially kind to him. Even with such an absurd and impolite request, they helped him fulfill it.

"boom----!!"

The gust of wind swept up the glutinous rice ball, making a figure-seven acceleration motion in the air before it landed with perfect precision in the dragon's throat.

The dumplings meant for human consumption were far too small compared to the size of a dragon, so small that it didn't notice them at first glance.

Da Xiong yanked the reins hard, forcefully turning the dragon's head around, and growled, "Go—!!!"

Chapter 70: The Props Genius Performs Consistently

"It seems like we won! Nobita succeeded!" Arthur's voice trembled with excitement. To him, it was like witnessing his childhood idol create a miracle once again. He threw the cigarette butt he hadn't finished smoking to the ground, clenched his fists, and watched with boiling blood. "Being able to force the mount to change direction is the beginning of success!"

"He used a prop... probably a glutinous rice dumpling or something."

Asur observed everything happening in the air and couldn't help but ask curiously, "It seems like he's planning to take it somewhere?"

“There’s nothing in that direction. I caught my white Arabian horse in that area before… If we go a little higher, maybe there’ll be a camp left behind by the Howling Wolf Gang?” Arthur took out a map from his satchel, compared it, and told them all the information he knew. “If I had to say, there seem to be some very rare white bison around Lake Isabella.”

"Lake Isabella?" A thought flashed through Asur's mind. "Is there a lake there?"

“Yes.” Arthur blew twice into his palm, spread out the map, and pointed it out to her. “It’s right here… there’s a grove of trees over there, which I’ve marked. The white Arabian horse is on the left side of the lake.”

"This lake seems pretty big." Asur gestured with his fingers to indicate its size on the map, did some mental calculations, and quickly got a rough idea. "I see, I understand... US dollars!"

"olalpo—?"

He cupped his hands over his eyes, using them as makeshift binoculars, and was engrossed in watching the show when his name was suddenly called, leaving him looking completely bewildered.

“We have to follow them. I have a feeling…” Asur said confidently, “This farce is about to end!”

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.

"boom----!!!"

Realizing it had just eaten something unclean, the dragon immediately breathed fire, hoping to incinerate it in its esophagus. Unfortunately, the dragon's digestive system was far superior to that of ordinary animals, and in just a short while, part of the glutinous rice ball had been completely digested.

It was clear that although it still possessed some intelligence, it was generally closer to a wild beast, the kind of creature Momotaro could handle. Nobita could sense that the dragon's will to resist had weakened considerably, and with the strength of the reins, controlling it became less difficult. He tightened his grip on the rope, using every ounce of his strength to propel the dragon towards Lake Isabella.

……

At the summit of the snow-capped mountain, the group of people who had been rescued one by one by Miss Beth were terrified when they saw this scene.

"Oh my god! It's that dragon! How did it get back?!"

"It must be Dutch! He still doesn't intend to let us go... The people from Saint Denis should all be in his stomach by now, right?"

"God...do you want me to live or die?! I don't want to end up dying in a dragon's belly!!"

Emotions are contagious; more and more screams rose and fell, and suddenly the scene was filled with despair.

"Alright, shut up, all of you!" The eldest, Hosea, opened his eyes and roared, "Is this all the backbone you have?! We haven't even let you face it yet. The people who are actually fighting it haven't given up. What's the use of yelling here?"

That's why they say having an elder in the family is like having a treasure. Old He's shout seemed to forcefully slam on the brakes, and the crowd calmed down. Upon closer inspection, some observant people noticed a young boy's figure on the dragon's back—he was holding the reins with both hands, battling this terrifying behemoth above the clouds.

"Nobita..."