Sunday, 22 July 2012

08.20 Local Time

Third Person Perspective centered around Nobita

~~~

"I really like you, Nobita!"

"I want to be with you for the rest of my life!"

Those were the words that echoed in Nobita's memory from the dream that he had in April. It has been a few months since he first had it, and he'd yet to even come across a single clue about the girl in the dream.

While it was true that his visit to the shrine gave him helpful information on where he should look to find the clues, now he knew for a fact that the answer was either right in front of him, or perhaps it came from somewhere that he didn't expect before.

It was just a matter how he will find the clues that will ultimately lead him to the answer.

That day played out just like usual. Nobita was laying down on his tatami mat, staring towards the outside of his window. The atmosphere wasn't that hot, and the sky was thoroughly covered with clouds. As a result, it unintentionally made the day a bit uncomfortable, as it was neither too hot nor too dark.

Aiko was lying down on her stomach right next to him, drawing some stuff in an empty unused notebook that Nobita happened to have. She was mumbling some kids' song as she scratched the piece of paper using her crayons.

"Hmm, family huh?" Nobita thought, remarking what Aiko said yesterday. "Aiko had some sick joke right there."

However, those thoughts soon led him to a question. He wondered why Shizuka got a little flustered and embarrassed by that little joke that Aiko had made. It was clear that Shizuka's attempt to keep herself intact wasn't as effective as it used to be.

This questionable behaviour has caught Nobita's attention and he was curious as to what the cause might be. This wasn't a thing before Shizuka's holiday in Osaka, so there must have been something happened there.

"Is that because she likes me?"

Nobita quickly shook his head in response to the unlikeliness of that thought.

"No no no.... That couldn't be it!" Nobita thought.

"Hey, Nobita-kun..." Doraemon called the bespectacled boy, snapping him out from his fantasies for a second.

"Hm?" He replied.

"So, enjoying this awkward and uncomfortable weather?" Doraemon asked, eating the last batch of Dorayakis that he had bought at a bargain price.

"Not so much." Nobita murmured. "I've got nothing better to look at anyways."

"Why don't you pay Shizuka-chan a visit?" Doraemon asked.

"I'm not sure..."

"You haven't been visiting her very much lately, have you?" asked Doraemon. "You used to visit her every so often when you had free time."

"Yeah, I did... It's just, I don't want to bother her too much." replied Nobita. "She might be fine with it. However, I just don't feel like that's the case behind the curtain."

"So, now you realize how annoying you are to her, huh?"

"Perhaps...." Nobita nodded as he sighed out of regret. "It feels wrong if I just barged into her home without much of a reason, other than just to hang out."

"I don't know, Nobita-kun... But perhaps, you can talk to Shizuka-chan about your dream." Doraemon said,

The room fell silent (excluding the humming sound that Aiko made), as Nobita felt like an idea has popped up inside his head. He knew what Doraemon had said has some truth to it.

However, he soon realized something, and the idea died down a bit, "It honestly sounds like a kamikaze mission, Doraemon."

"Why is that?"

"I mean, I don't even know how to confirm if my speculation is true. If it was false all along, then she'll ridicule me or even be disgusted."

"That's quite unlikely to happen you know, even though your speculation is false."

Doraemon and Nobita exchanged a little gaze.

"Yeah... I think that's fair." Nobita replied.

As the two were having a conversation, Aiko had finished with her business and was quite bored.

"Nobita!" Aiko exclaimed.

"Yeah?"

"I want to go to the festival!" She exclaimed.

Nobita stopped in his tracks for a second. He was now in a dilemma, the other side of him urging him to say yes, and the other side telling him the opposite. The memory of yesterday was still really haunting him.

Before he could give her a solid answer, Aiko added: "I want to go with Shizuka onee-chan too!"

"Shizuka-chan?"

"Yeah!"

At this point, Nobita was frozen in place. He didn't have the mental capacity to process the next thing that he should do. Sure, the most logical thing to do was to give her a call and would be it. But in this case, it was different.

Many complex variables flooded his head, all of them conflicting with each other and making it harder for him to process such a simple request.

Asking Shizuka out was not in his table at all. Sure, it would give him his most fantasied thing that he had, having some private time with Shizuka. But adding the awkward relationship between the two into the table, it didn't look like it was going to work.

Thankfully, Doraemon came to his rescue. "Nobita-kun... Why don't you just give Shizuka-chan a call?" He asked.

Nobita glanced towards the blue cat robot. "Y-yeah... that might be a good idea..."

He took his phone out and slowly, he went through the many pages that led him to Shizuka's contact page. His hand was trembling as he hovered above the green phone button.

"Why are you so nervous?"

"No! It's not that I'm nervous or anything!" he denied. "Asking her out was literally outside of my comfort zone, Doraemon! With all the things that I've been dealing with."

"And you said you're not nervous?"

"W-well...."

As Doraemon and Nobita were 'arguing', Aiko grew impatient. She snugs her way towards Nobita and pressed the green call button immediately. Of course, this caught Nobita completely off guard.

"Aiko!!!!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile at Shizuka's house, Shizuka was lying down on her bed, absentmindedly playing with her Rubic's cube.

But that's not all she was doing...

In fact, she seemed to have many thoughts ran through her head while doing so. A thought so complex that even herself couldn't process what is it about.

Despite her best efforts to forget it, the memory of certain event always came back to her. This was the source of her complex thought.

Just as it started to bother her again, the sound of her phone ringing caught her off guard. She dashed straight to her phone that was sitting on top of the counter. Glancing towards the not-so-special contact name of 'Nobi Nobita', she picked the phone straight up.

"Ummm... hello?" She started, "Nobita-san?"

"A...ah... Shizuka..." Nobita said through her phone with a rather trembled and rushed tone. "...chan!"

For whatever reason, the delay between her name and the honorifics surprised her a bit. It's not the fact that she got to hear him calling her name without any honorifics, but it was because it somehow triggered something in her head.

"N-Nobita-san... Are you okay?" She said, rather nervously.

Nobita cleared his throat, and replied, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"So, do you have anything to say? What's up?"

"Are you free today?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Do you want to go out with " Nobita asked, piercing through Shizuka's soul in an instant.

"N-N-N-N-N-Nobita-san?? Wh-what's with that?!?" Shizuka exclaimed with a crimson red cheek.

"No, I mean... Aiko would like to ask us both to go somewhere." Nobita added.

Shizuka calmed a bit, "Ohh o-okay..." she said, "B-by the way, next time you should really finish your sentence properly, baka..."

"Y-yeah... I was quite nervous."

"Nervous? Why?" Shizuka asked,

There was a short pause from Nobita's end.

"Well... Forget about it." Nobita said.

"Well anyways, where do we want to go today?"

"I'm not actually sure about it. I don't know where to bring her today." Nobita said, "Do you have any ideas?"

"The Tokyo Skytree maybe? I heard that there's a large festival being held at the tower today."

"Oh, that is a good idea!"

"I know, Aiko told me yesterday that she wanted to go to a festival. We can fulfil her wish and take her on a tour of the Tokyo Skytree."

"Yeah, I'm thinking about doing that too!"

"Alright, I will get myself prepared then."

"Okay, I'd be there around 10."

"Okay, noted!"

After the two said their goodbyes, Nobita told Aiko about their plans for today. Aiko was of course, excited about going with her two favourite teens.

Nobita also took his time to let his aunt know about their plans for today, to which she was excited to hear about. She was also planning to pick her husband up in Haneda Airport to reunite with his family after a long time working overseas.

As for Doraemon, during Nobita's conversation with Shizuka, he had left the room and headed downstairs to get a drink for himself.

The fact that Nobita briefly forgot his existence made him feel a bit glad, as opposed of being sad and aggrieved. He felt this way because it proved that he would think and made decisions more independently.

He stumbled across Nobita when he was about to return upstairs.

"Ah, Doraemon! S-sorry to tell you that I will be going with Shizuka-chan today... I forgot to ask you out too..."

Doraemon immediately shut the bespectacled boy's mouth, "It's fine, Nobita-kun. I'm happy to see you go without ever begging me to go without you."

"B-but..."

"No, go enjoy yourself with Aiko and Shizuka-chan. Perhaps you might get the answer to your problems." Doraemon said, "I mean, I could have just watched you guys from afar if you're that worried, right?"

Nobita stared at his blue robotic friend, before giving him a gentle smile. "Okay, I will try my best to seize the day."

"That's the spirit! Now, get yourself ready."

"Yeah, I should probably do that now."

Meanwhile at Shizuka's place, she took a quick shower (despite taking a bath less than 2 hours ago) immediately after the call.

After the brief shower, she headed straight towards her wardrobe, scanning through the many beautiful dresses hung inside the drawer. Many variables came up in her head to decide which dress she should be using.

She then took a white dress decorated with pink bodice, with a rose-red ribbon for her ponytail. Unfortunately, that took up the leftover 32 minutes that she had to dress and make herself up.

She liked to be as natural as possible, so she didn't use any make ups whatsoever other than just a little lip gloss to make her lips look glossier.

After finishing her preparations, she checked herself in the mirror for a while, making sure that she looked good enough.

"Well, try to be cool, Shizuka Minamoto!!" she mused at herself.

She then took out a small red purse from her drawer and placed her little wallet (with 5000 yen just in case), her phone, and some identifiable information into it.

After all was ready, she went downstairs. Her mom was watching some TV in the living room before she then noticed her daughter's attire, which made her curious.

"Shizuka, where are you going?" asked Michiko.

"I'm going to the Skytree with Nobita-kun and his cousin, Aiko."

"Really? What's with the attire?"

Shizuka contemplated her decision to look good as possible as if she was going on a date or something like that.

"A-ah!! It's n-nothing!" Shizuka exclaimed, her cheek went a bit red in the process.

Bemused at her daughter's behaviour, her mom put on her smug face, with Shizuka having none of it.

"Hihihi, well then... Goodluck with the date... Shi-zu-ka!" Her mum teased, putting her palm in front of her mouth in the process.

"Mooom!!!!!" She exclaimed

Then just as she finished arguing with her mom, the bell rang.

"He's here mom... Please don't make any funny jokes about it again." She said, rousing herself as she put on her pink sneakers.

She then opened the door, revealing a bespectacled boy wearing a bright blue on yellow shirt he was very well known for. Under it, was a long denim jean, which was unusual for him to wear. Beside him, was a very excited Aiko.

"Ah, Shizuka-chan... Uhh... Hi!" He nervously greeted her while resting one of his hands behind his neck.

"Morning, Nobita-san! Morning Aiko-chan!" Shizuka exclaimed. "You guys ready for the journey?" She exclaimed, with her happy and usual tone. Which to be clear, she forced herself to do it to cover her nervousness.

Said cover-up, however, was soon broken by Nobita's remarks towards her attire.

"Shizuka-chan... You good in that outfit..." he remarked, glancing away as his cheek went a little red of embarrassment.

As if the blush was contagious, Shizuka's cheek also went red as she was quite embarrassed by his remarks. She quietly muttered, "Th-thank you, Nobita-san..."

"Oi, what's up with her... She shouldn't have worn an outfit like this!" Nobita thought to himself.

Aiko was apparently watching both teens behaviour closely and was seem amused by it for some reasons.

"A-Anyways, should we go now?" Shizuka said, after rousing herself back. Her statement was acknowledged by Nobita with a single nod that he gave.

The three started their journey on foot, with the train station as their first destination. Luckily, it wasn't a busy day at that time, so the train station wasn't too crowded. They were able to catch a train bound to Tokyo Skytree train station that arrived 30 minutes later.

It was an uneventful journey for the trio, with Shizuka and Aiko holding each other's hands while Nobita sat right across the two. Nobita didn't know what he should bring up to spark a conversation with her, because she seemed to have something in mind then.

They disembarked the train and walked straight to the building itself.

In front of their eyes, stood an aijiro (bluish white) coloured building 630 meters tall, that was said to be the world's third tallest manmade structure. It was quite crowded, with the majority being tourists that came from across Japan, or even from the rest of the world.

Aiko was amused at the sight. The building that she had always seen in newspapers or in picture somewhere in her books was now standing right in front of her eyes.

"Let's go up!" She pointed straight towards the spire at the top.

"You want to go up there?" Shizuka asked.

"Yeah!"

Aiko ran inside the building, followed by the careful eyes of Shizuka, and accompanied with the rather undoubtfully careful eyes of Nobita.

With the money that Nobita's aunt gave to him, he bought 3 tickets for the three to go up the tower. Initially, Shizuka was about to pay her ticket herself, but Nobita insisted that his aunt paid everything for them.

Soon after, they found themselves in the observation deck of the tower. Immediately, the awesome view of Metropolitan Tokyo greeted them.

Aiko was ecstatic about this view, the view that she had never seen back in Fukuoka.

"Shizuka onee-san! Look at that!" Aiko pointed at multiple things in her sight. She was in awe at many things in the distance, such as the tall red structure in the middle of the city.

"Oh, that's Tokyo Tower!" Shizuka introduced her to the many things that she had known about the city, entertaining her friend's cousin in the process.

Nobita on the other hand, was ostracized by the two girls. He walked on the other side of the observation deck. He decided to use one of the telescopes available.

As he was about to put a 10-yen coin inside the slot, he noticed something concerning right in front of his eyes.

It was a large span of dark clouds that covered the whole eastern horizon, a sign of a storm coming right into the city.

After his little observation session with the telescope, he returned to the girls to convey the bad news.

"Shizuka-chan..." Nobita called,

Shizuka glanced to the bespectacled boy, curious. "Hm?"

"I don't think we can go to the festival today..."

"Hm? What happened?"

"Look at the view to your left."

Shizuka did just like what she was told to, and she was surprised to see a looming cluster of dark clouds on the eastern horizon. "Oh wow... what should we do now?"

"I don't know... I'm afraid that Aiko will get angry or disappointed." replied Nobita.

"Hmm... You're right."

As the two were discussing what they should be doing, Aiko interrupted them with the very thing that they were concerned about.

"Nobita! Shizuka onee-chan! Let's go to the festival!" Aiko requested, seemed to have enough of the view.

"Aiko..." Shizuka knelt, "I'm afraid that we won't be able to go to the festival because of the incoming storm."

"What do you mean?" Aiko responded, "We must go to the festival!"

"No Aiko... We can't-"

"No! I want to go!" Aiko exclaimed and in response, he turned to Nobita which yields the same answer to that of Shizuka.

Then, it started to rain down, hard...

"We can't, Aiko... You are going to be sick in house if you insisted on going." Shizuka said. "You don't want to be sick, right?"

"Aiko doesn't want to get sick, but Aiko wants to go to the festival....." Aiko muttered weakly, as the faint sound of her sobbing started to play out.

This made both Nobita and Shizuka panic, not only that it will disturb the other tourists, but it will also made them look bad in the public for obvious reasons.

"Shhh.... I-I-It's okay, Aiko-chan..." Shizuka tried to calm her down. "W-We're going to get you some food, i-is that okay?"

"Yeah, w-we're going to get some curry ramens in the restaurant!" Nobita added,

This calmed her down a bit, but she was still crying.

Both teens then calmly brought her to one of the restaurants located 2 floors below. Despite being a fancy restaurant by itself, it was quite cheap in comparison of the same kind of restaurant somewhere else. Which surely would fit the tight pockets of both Shizuka and Nobita.

It was a big restaurant (the whole floor is basically the whole restaurant) that is not too crowded at the time of their arrival. The waitresses greeted them with glee, and they soon felt the comforting atmosphere of the restaurant.

"Good afternoon! Do you need a table for how many people?"

"Table for 3, please!" Shizuka replied.

"Alright, follow me!"

The waitress led them to a dining table situated right next to the window, which was completely useless, knowing that what they see outside was no more than a fogged-up view of the city.

The waitress gave them the menu. They looked through the pages, they were relieved to see that the foods weren't too expensive. Nobita and Shizuka ordered ramen, while Aiko ordered some rice.

"Oh, yeah... Shizuka-chan!" said Nobita. "You might want to help her eat, because her mother said that she can be hard sometimes."

"Okay, gotcha...." Shizuka nodded.

"Nobita-kun!" Aiko exclaimed.

"Hmm?" Nobita said, glancing away from his phone.

"You marry Shizuka-san...." Aiko exclaimed. Both teens quickly glanced away from their phone and looked at Aiko.

Both teens were immediately flustered by her words. Without knowing how to react, both comically glanced away from each other. Aiko, on other hand, laughed at the sight of the two flustered teens.

'Wait, why do I got flustered by those innocent word? What happened to me?' Shizuka asked herself.

"A-ah, your imagination is a-awesome..." Shizuka said, still flustered by the word.

Then Shizuka lent her phone to Aiko and try to shrug off the bombshell she just dropped. That strategy works every time.

Nobita looked at the flustered Shizuka, then Shizuka looked back at him. She responded by pouting her face as if to say 'what'cha looking at?'.

After Shizuka finally calmed Aiko down, their food had just arrived. Shizuka feeds Aiko slowly as she kept playing Shizuka's phone.

Nobita looked at both girls closely. He grinned as something popped up in his head.

"Shizuka-chan... you really looked like a mother feeding her own daughter..." Nobita grinned. "Thanks for helping me out...."

Shizuka, still with some bit of redness in her cheek, got flustered again by those words. She pouted (yes, really) at him and said what typical Tsunderes would usually say.

"A-ah, it's nothing.... It's for the sake of her..." She said as she spooned rice from the bowl. "W-why would I do it for you, anyways... baka!" She added.

"Haha, Nobita no Baka!!" Aiko exclaimed at him, showing her tongue in playful way.

"Ehhh!!" Nobita said defensively.

Nobita was surprised at Shizuka's sudden change. She has never been this 'cold' in the history of their friendship. But the thing was, he didn't catch the fact that Shizuka was trying so bad to be cold, not to raise suspicion.

Soon, they had finished their meals. And coincidentally, the rain had died down. That means that they would be able to get back now.

Just like they said before, they divided the bill into two.

"Having fun today?" Nobita asked to Aiko inside the elevator.

"Hmmm!! I'm still a bit sad because I didn't go to the festival..." replied Aiko.

"Yeah, it's too bad that we couldn't go to the festival...." Shizuka said.

"We'll go to the festival close to our house tomorrow.... How about that?" Nobita offered.

"I want to go to the festival!!" She exclaimed. "Shizuka-san will be coming?"

Nobita glanced at Shizuka for a second. He knew that she shouldn't be involved in things like this.

"Hmm, she won't..." Nobita replied. Aiko frowned as she heard Nobita's utterance.

"Why?"

"She got other things to do, Aiko-san...." Nobita said.

"Is it?" Aiko asked Shizuka. Shizuka hesitantly nodded.

"Hmm, that's okay!" Aiko exclaimed. "I want to go to the festival!" She exclaimed.

"That's my cousin!" Nobita said as elevator door opened.

Nobita, Shizuka and Aiko then walked towards the train station. The streets were wet; some droplets of rainwater still could be felt on their faces. On the ride back home, Nobita wasn't 'ostracized' by the two girls anymore. The three shared laugh and jokes (Nobita couldn't make any funny jokes to be honest, but he tries to play along)

Soon, they arrived back at the Nobi Residence. Apparently, his aunt, his mother, and his uncle had just arrived at the house. Aiko rushed into the house to meet with her father. Nobita was still standing outside with Shizuka.

"I think that's it..." Shizuka said.

"Yup, and again... Thanks, Shizuka-chan!" Nobita said to the ponytailed girl. "At first, it thought you would decline my request."

She turned around to face him. "J-Just a note, I did this for the sake of your cousin. I-It's not I like you or anything though!" Shizuka said, looking down as her cheek reddened up. "Anyways, y-you're welcome. And bye!"

Shizuka then turned around and walked away.

Nobita scratched his head in confusion, as he said to himself: "What a weird girl!" before entering the house.