That same day after school, Shizuka walked home by herself. Going around the neighbourhood while learning which was the most efficient route she'd take when going home from her new school.

The sky was in the shade of blue and bright orange, with bands of yellowish-white clouds cruising through the sky. The sun was still sitting pretty high above the western horizon, shining the world with its bright yellowish light, making the flocks of flying birds glisten in the air.

Smooth gusts of less-refreshing spring winds blew softly onto her face. The fresh scents of someone's homemade cooking caught her nose as she went through the neighbourhood.

As she walked along the pavement, many thoughts and questions lingered in her head. At once, she thought of how much Nobita had changed since she left for Osaka a few weeks ago. She just felt that he wasn't like his older self that Shizuka remembered. It wasn't because she was disappointed with the 'change' that Nobita went through, though. She was surprised and amazed after seeing Nobita in her class today.

Shizuka approached an intersection, where she noticed a familiar blue spherical figure, queuing in a bakery on the corner of a street under a sign with "Fresh Dorayaki buns! Buy 2 get 1 free!" written on it. Immediately knowing who it was, her face grew into a smile. (Assuming that everyone in this whole world thinks that it was normal to have a technologically advanced robot from the future roaming around the streets, of course)

After passing through the nearby junction, she nudged the blue cat robot's head from behind, successfully gaining his attention.

"Shizuka-chan! It's you!!" Doraemon exclaimed.

"Dora-chan..." Shizuka replied, putting both of her hands on each side of Doraemon's head. "It's been a while since we've last seen each other, correct?"

"Yeah, I missed you a lot, Shizuka-chan!" beamed the blue robot cat.

"Queuing up for some Dorayaki eh?" Shizuka asked.

"Yeah, it's on a discount right now..." Doraemon replied. "You want to buy some?"

"Sure, why not?" Shizuka said, queuing right behind the blue cat robot.

After a few minutes, both finally got their dorayaki and were on their way home.

"What were you doing while in Osaka, Shizuka-chan?" Doraemon asked,

"Ah, I stayed in my grandmother's home, hung out with my Osakan friend, and a few martial arts here and there..."

"Oh, martial arts?" questioned Doraemon.

"Yeah, I've been practicing fencing since I was 9 if you haven't known about it. It's just a hobby that I thought I want to get into since I don't really have any particular interests in any sports." Shizuka explained, "I learned Japanese Swordsmanship while in Osaka, and that's basically it."

"Wow, I never knew that you were into fencing, Shizuka-chan..."

"Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you guys sooner!" Shizuka smiled, scratching the back of her head. "By the way, I haven't had the chance to ask about it, but how are things going?"

"Hm? Everyone went fine while you were away. What's wrong?" Doraemon replied. "You haven't met with them yet?"

"No, I have met them already. It's just... I felt something was quite different about Nobita-san when I met him in the class." She said,

Bemused by it, Doraemon peered over to the double-pigtailed girl walking beside him. "How so? What's different about him?"

"I don't know... It's funny how I felt that there's something quite different about him, but at the same time, I couldn't really tell what about him was different." She spoke.

"Eh... Not really." Doraemon said. "It happens sometimes."

Doraemon then paused for a second, before turning again to Shizuka. "I mean, if you ask me whether there's something different about Nobita... There's something I should tell you."

"Hmm?"

"Well, over the summer he started trying out a bunch of different things. He learned to play the guitar, and he's pretty good at it. He even learned a bit of French while you were away." Doraemon replied. "I also taught him some basic common sense that he lacked, so that he can think a bit more... logically."

"Why did he learn such things though?" asked Shizuka.

"It's a long story... Basically, he tried to win over Suneo and Gian, and that's basically it." Doraemon replied.

A "Ah okay... It's just me who thinks that he has quite a different look, then."

Doraemon didn't respond to her statement, but as he returned his attention back to the road, he thought, "Wait, she noticed something's different about Nobita? She shouldn't have noticed any change in his look!". He continued his thought with, "Did I miss a procedure or something?"

But as those thoughts ran through his head, a voice called Shizuka from behind. "Shizuka-san!!"

Both Doraemon and Shizuka looked behind them to find that Nonko was chasing after them this whole time. Doraemon knew who this girl was, but he kept his mouth shut for a moment. "Nonko-san!"

"Non-chan? The girl who got her red shoes stolen by Nobita?" Doraemon thought.

"Shizuka-san... Is this Tanuki your friend?"

"I'm not a Tanuki!!!! I'm a specialised and highly advanced 22nd century cat robot who can do basically anything!"

"A-alright alright, I'm sorry." Nonko replied, after being caught off guard by Doraemon's response. "I was too harsh on you, huh?"

"Well, Doraemon is Nobita's best friend from the 22nd century. He always does this when there's someone calling him a Tanuki." Shizuka elaborated.

"Hmm... 'Doraemon'... what a nice name..." Nonko remarked.

"Whatever..." Doraemon bluntly replied.

"Anyways, can I join you two walking back home?" Nonko asked.

"Sure!" Shizuka exclaimed.

Doraemon kept his knowledge about Nonko back then to himself. He knew that her former residence was just the house next to his.

However, it seems like Doraemon had other plans. "Umm, I'm sorry... But I think I have to part ways here. I need to head to Kawaguchiko Park real soon."

"Erm, sure thing! Be careful on your way there... eh!" Shizuka said.

As both of them part ways, Shizuka and Nonko were taking the left turn at the current junction while Doraemon went straight on the same road.

"So that's the time traveling robot that Nobita-kun owned?"

"Well, he isn't really the owner of Doraemon. He's just his friend that was sent from the future from his great grandson, Sewashi Nobi."

"O-Oh, alright." Nonko nodded.

Shizuka continued. "His original task is to make his life better. But instead, Nobita-san used him to win over both Suneo-san and Takeshi-san. Or to simply take vengeance against both of them but fails miserably most of the time."

"Hm? He still got bullied by both Takeshi-kun and Suneo-kun?"

"Beats me, the climax was when we were in our 5th and 6th grades of Elementary School."

"Wow, so he is pretty much a hopeless boy there."

"Yeah, if I'm honest." Shizuka sighed while nodding at her remarks. "Honestly, I really hate and am tired of his utter laziness, clumsiness, stupidity, and pessimistic traits that he has had since 4th grade."

"You know, that reminds me of when he forced me to take a bath with him back when he was 4, one year before you moved in. I remember him trying to strip me naked, thinking that it is okay to have a bath together with a girl." Nonko said. "His dad eventually came to my rescue and pulled me out of the bathroom." Nonko smiled.

"What a pervert..." Shizuka remarked.

"I wouldn't say that, though. He was a young and curious boy, so I kinda accepted his apology the day after." Nonko added. "I mean, he was a good playmate back then."

Shizuka looked at the brown-haired girl's face closely before returning her gaze back onto the road. "I guess so... He seemed to be likeable to some degree."

Nonko looked closely at her oblivious friend, then decided to pull a childish yet quick prank on her. "You have a crush on him, do you?"

Shizuka glanced up immediately, and with a composed manner, replied. "What are you saying, Nonko-san! There is no way I have some sort of feeling towards him."

"I see." Nonko replied. "Well, whoever he ends up with, despite living with that kind of 'stupidity', I hope he can make his future partner happy."

~~~

A few metres away, Doraemon walked happily across the pavement, still clueless at why Shizuka felt like something was off about Nobita. He swore to himself that he had restored every single bit that he changed about him, excluding some of his learned traits and some other things that have nothing to do with what Shizuka was concerned about.

Speaking of the devil, the boy whom he has been thinking of appeared right in front of him without warning. Nobita was with Gian and Suneo crossing the road while both stumbled across each other in the middle of the pavement.

"Doraemon!" Nobita called out. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I was just trying to get to Kawaguchiko Park. Mii-chan's waiting for me there!" Doraemon replied with a stunned glee.

"Mii-chan?" Gian said. "You are such a lovebird..."

"What's your problem, huh?" a ticked-off Doraemon scowled.

"Just get on with it, Doraemon! Let's head home instead." Nobita exclaimed, pulling him to the right in the direction of their house. "She must have been waiting for you there on our rooftop."

"How is that even possible? She told me that she'll be there at this hour!"

"I mean, how many times has she told you the truth?" Nobita replied.

"Umm, none."

"There you go! Let's get you home!" Nobita said, dragging one of his right arms.

"B-but-"

"Just go!" Gian pushed him, while Suneo trailed the trio behind while playing his PlayStation Portable with a headset on.

They headed straight to Nobita's residence, passing through houses, small intersections, and others. At once, they stopped by at the nearest 7/11 to get some drinks and snacks to be brought home.

They continued their journey, walking as proper mates. Something very contrastive to what their past selves had been doing when they were elementary schoolers. No one was hurt, and no one was being bullied, it's just pure laughter and a proper conversation.

Well, apart from Suneo, while the trio was walking in the front, he trailed them in the back. His slow walking pace means that the trio was slowly getting further and further as time progressed.

But then, as he was passing through one of the many intersections, at the same time, there was a girl the same age as the gang on a bike speeding through from the other side of the intersection. Suneo was too unwitting to notice.

Seeing that her route was going right smack into that of Suneo's walking path, the girl immediately pulled the left-hand brake, immediately locking her rear tires up. She pressed on the other brakes to immediately stop her bike, but the front brake was broken this whole time, making a hard and painful collision inevitable.

"Watch out!!!" This girl exclaimed, but it was too late.

Crash!!

Both were thrown up to the ground, including Suneo's 'expensive' PlayStation Portable together with his headset meeting an unfortunate end. Luckily for them, it was a rather 'slow' speed impact because the bicycle has slowed down just enough for them to avoid having a full blown and possibly, fatal high-speed crash.

"Use your eyes when on a bicycle!" He called her out, "Were you even looking at the road when I crossed the intersection? Geez!"

"I-I'm really sorry!" This girl pleaded.

"Now look, you've broken my PSP up! You owe me a new one for this!" Suneo exclaimed, a menacing atmosphere of rage can be felt around him.

"I-I'm so sorry! I will buy you a new one-" This girl begged, but then froze as both finally met each of their eyes.

Suneo looked closely at this girl that seemed to be quite familiar to him, and so did the girl. This blue-eyed girl has long blonde wavy hair tied with a big cyan ribbon into a ponytail behind her head. She was wearing a blue on white dress, resembling that to the semi-European dressing style.

"Do I know you?" Suneo asked her,

"Are you S-sune-Suneku?" Suzume started, pointing at the boy that has a rather weird morphological feature in his face. "Nice to see you again-" She tried to greet him in a friendly manner, but Suneo was having none of it.

That nickname of his that came from one girl that he knew in the past speaks for itself, it was the girl that Suneo had tried to make her fall for him. "I'm not Suneku, my name is SUNEO HONEKAWA! Not Suneku!!" He exclaimed in annoyance, spelling his name for her.

This girl stopped for a bit, before smiling "Ah! So, you are Suneku-kun!" this girl said. "I'm sorry for my past behaviour!" she smiled.

"What the heck did you expect from me by putting me in a room full of snakes!?" He confronted her. "Are you crazy!!?"

Offended by his insult, her expression turned 180 degrees to the other side. "Huh??! What are you saying to me?"

"I said... Are you crazy??" Suneo replied.

"Hey look, I got the wrong idea because YOU didn't tell me who exactly you were. You literally just whispered to me that SUNEO is your name behind those large bouquets that you have!" this girl defended, blaming the delivery of his introduction. "It was literally a whisper, and what?! You expect me to do some telepathic magic to magically learn who your name was?!!"

Just as she was finished delivering her counterargument, a gust of wind blew from behind Suneo. The wind was blowing surprisingly hard, enough to lift up this girl's blue accented skirt. Being the curious devils they were, Suneo's eyes took a glance.

"Wow... panda-" Suneo thought before thinking.

Immediately a huge barrage of slaps knocked the poor Suneo out of his inner thoughts, Suzume's hand gave his head enough momentum to land back onto the ground with considerable striking power to knock him partially unconscious for a few minutes.

"You pervert!!!!" This girl exclaimed on top of her lungs, "Please if you saw something like this, just forget you saw it!!"

"How rude!!! Blame the law of physics, maybe even Aries!! Not me, you half-arsed-crazy-looking-street-roaming-gorilla!!" He insulted, threading on her toes hard down.

She stood back on her feet, replying to his rather offending insult with a mere glare right into his eyes, in which he replied with a scoff. "Anyways, I wanted to continue my journey. Go back to whatever hole you nested in your lizard-headed-imbecile, before I dig you a bigger one and bury you in it!" She rounded back at him as she was leading her bike along the street.

"Go away, not even a single one of my individual cells would want to see you again!"

As Suneo was on the ground, still rambling about his broken PSP, his friends came to his rescue.

"Suneo! Where have you been?"

"We've been looking for you this whole time!" Gian added.

"Where did you think I was this whole time? I'm just sitting here, hurt both physically and mentally," Suneo replied.

"Uh, that's a bad bruise that you got on your forehead..." Doraemon remarked. "Let me get a band aid for you."

"For real though, what has happened to you? Did someone hit you or anything?" Nobita asked.

"Or perhaps, someone punched him right in the face..."

"Quite a bit of both if I'm honest. I got hit by a girl on a bicycle."

"Did she just run off?" Gian asked.

"I can't say that for sure... She did uhh... 'apologised' to me." Suneo replied. "I would rather not talk about it though... It's all done now."

"Alright... Let's continue our journey back if everything's been sorted out." Nobita said.

After a few minutes, the boys continued their journey back home. Passing through their old elementary school before taking another turn into one of the streets that will take them straight to Nobi household. Walking together under the afternoon sunlight like proper mates, they discussed things that boys normally discuss.

"Ah, we still have plenty of time to spend this evening..." Gian said, looking towards the blue sky. "Let's play some baseball, Suneo!"

"Sure thing, I will let the rest of the boys know..." Suneo replied. "Just like usual right?"

"Yeah..." Gian replied, but then, he noticed that Nobita was walking quite far behind them. He then instinctively approached the bespectacled boy and quite literally, punched him in the back.

"Ow! What's wrong with you!?" He confronted him.

"Are ye free this afternoon?" Gian grimaced.

"N-n-not really! It's just, uhh... I have some family stuff that I need to do!"

"Knock it off, Nobita... It's not that difficult to notice yer lies..." Gian remarked. "Don'tcha worry, I won't ask ya to participate in the baseball games t'gether with us."

Nobita looked over to his brown skinned boy that was walking beside him. His eyes truly showed a look of genuine perplexity. "Gian...?"

"Yeah, dontcha worry 'bout this... Mainly b'coz you'll just mess up our games caused by ye incompetence..." He grimaced.

Nobita showed a bitter smile. "That sounds rather painful... but alright."

"Ah, I think this is where we will part ways..." Gian said, noticing Nobi residence on his 11.

"Yeah, I guess so... See you tomorrow guys and be careful on your way home!" Nobita exclaimed, taking the left turn to enter his own house. Leaving both Suneo and Gian to continue their journey back to each to their homes.

On their way back, Suneo gave his own remarks on how Gian behaves himself just before that. "Rare to see you genuinely care about Nobita, Gian..."

Gian chuckled a bit. "I guess, I won't always be a bully for him. I honestly feel bad about hurting him and doing something bad to him as of late..." Gian said. "I feel like this is the time to give him a couple of dudes to lean on instead of cornerin' him and left him beggin' like a scared puppy on a dark alleyway all the time."

"True..." Suneo muttered, as he and Gian went back to playing ball.

~~~

Back at Nobi residence, Nobita entered his home together with his robotic companion. His mom, greeted the arrival of her only son from the kitchen, smiling wide as she saw a happy smile planted on Nobita's face.

"Welcome back, Nobi-chan..." Tamako greeted.

"Hey, what do we have for dinner, mom!?" Nobita asked while checking up on his mother in the kitchen.

"I actually trying to make a sauteed broccoli and vegetables from a recipe book that I got from Mrs. Minamoto." His mom replied, gesturing to a pile of broccoli, cauliflowers, and some carrots on a pan she was stirring.

Nobita showed a displeasing look right after he got a response from his mom. "What? A broccoli for dinner? Can't we have something nicer for dinner? Geez..."

Tamako, deciding not to have any of it, replied to his son's annoying ramble "Stop whining! You have not eaten any vegetables since Saturday!" She replied. "If you don't want to eat dinner, then don't eat it!"

"Okay okay, fine!" Nobita exclaimed, while Doraemon looked hopelessly at the bespectacled boy's action.

Tamako however, knew too well that her son would still go and eat dinner, despite all the fuss.

A few moments after Nobita left the kitchen and headed to the stairs, his dad returned home rather early.

"I'm home!" he announced.

A rather bemused Tamako came to the entrance. "W-Welcome home..." She replied. "How unusual..."

"What's wrong, dad?"

"Hmmm... I will explain all these later during dinner. For now, I want to relax a bit in the living room."

"Do you want me to prepare the bath for you?"

"No need, I just want to get changed." He replied.

Confused yet annoyed at the fact that his father won't tell him the reason why he was home early, Nobita really wanted to keep asking his father about his surprise. But since he was too tired, he decided to hold that question for himself for a while longer and return to his room in the meantime.

That night, the Nobi family was having dinner in the dining room. Nobita was present, despite showing an immense dislike in broccoli that was sitting on top of his bowl.

"Oh yeah, what do you want to tell us, dad..." Nobita asked.

"Oh yes... So today, I decided to quit my job in my workplace."

Nobita and Doraemon were equally taken aback with his father's statement. They didn't expect his dad is going to quit his job suddenly. "WHAT?! W-why did you quit your job?!"

"I quit my job because I feel like I'm not productive enough when I work in that workplace. It's not even within my field of expertise, so I can't really improve on my skills." He spoke. "I have talked this with your mom though, so my decision is calculated and closely executed."

Tamako looked rather calm, "So you did quit your job huh?"

"Yeah, I have a job offer coming from my friend from when I was in university. It was a job vacancy letter; they've offered me to work in an electronics company." He replied. "I'm going to prepare myself for a job interview the day after tomorrow."

Doraemon saw a good prospect in his stepfather's steps, said something rather optimistic. "Good luck on your interview, dad. I hope they will accept you as one of their employees."

"Thank you!" Nobisuke replied,

The Nobi family continued their dinner just like usual that night. After cleaning up, Nobisuke returned to the living room to take a rest and prepare himself mentally for the interview tomorrow.

Nobita, as he went back upstairs to his room, had different plans for the night – mainly homework related.

As he sat by his studying desk with his papers in hand, his vision wandered away towards the night sky, the little twinkling stars of the night sky already out. He pondered over the fact that today, him seeing Shizuka made his mind flash for a split second.

He turned around, only to be met with Doraemon lying down on his stomach while reading his favourite manga. He asked him,

"Doraemon?"

"Yes?"

"The dream that I had earlier, it's still bothering me..." Nobita explained. "You sure there's nothing particularly unique with that dream that I had?"

Doraemon closed the manga that he's currently reading and sat on his bottom on top of the tatami mat. "Are you still questioning the dream that you had last night?"

"Yeah, it's just..." Nobita began. "Today, when I first saw Shizuka-chan in class... my brain had a flashback to that dream of mine I had earlier, just for a split second. But I don't know if that was her who caused it, or the other girl standing behind her."

"Who's the girl who was standing behind her?" asked Doraemon.

"Remember Non-chan?"

"Ah yeah, the one who likes to wear red shoes, right?"

"Yeah, it was her. I'm not sure whether it was Non-chan or Shizuka-chan who made my mind flash." Nobita said. "I just want to get things out of my mind, that's all. It's been locked in my brain for most of the day."

Doraemon sighed, "Alright, if you insist..."

He took a gadget from his pocket, a gadget that resembles the Time TV that Doraemon often used. The differences that it had was, this gadget had a larger computing unit and was more sophisticated than the Time TV.

"I introduce to you, the Mind Reading gadget! This gadget can read the deepest end of a person's memory, including the past dreams that someone had."

Nobita, thinking that this would be the answer to everything that he got in mind at that moment, was enthusiastic. "That's cool! Let's analyse my dream quick!" He persuaded.

"Alright, sit down next to me. I will place a few of these detection chips on your head and we will begin the analyse."

Nobita did what he was told to do. He sat right next to Doraemon, in which Doraemon then put 8 wireless chips that connected to the gadget in 8 separate regions in his head.

A few seconds later, Doraemon fiddled around with the gadget, scrolling through dozens upon dozens of different memories that he had created today. And then he met with a particular slot in the screen with date and time that matches the time when the dream happened.

He entered the slot, and it took quite a long time to parse every single memory. Doraemon knew instantly that something was off because parsing a memory in someone even with a severe case of dementia is not going to be this long.

After a full one minute, the scene finally loaded in, and what Doraemon sees surprised him.

The scene was full of vague information in it, he knows that he walked in a grassland on top of a hill somewhere near Mount Fuji in the night.

When he arrived at the scene where Nobita met this 'girl', he didn't expect to see the utter vagueness of the girl. It was a mere silhouette of a girl with rather short ponytail and a beautiful smile of a girl so generic that it didn't match any of the girl that he knows.

"Nobita-kun, I think I found the image of the girl that you see in your dream."

Doraemon showed Nobita the scene,

"Yes, that's what I've dreamed last night!!" Nobita exclaimed, "But, that girl... why there's no facial features on that girl? I can only see a silhouette of a girl."

"Not sure, it never happened before." Doraemon replied, "Let me increase the strength of the detection."

He did, but to no avail, the silhouette was still a silhouette.

"Why won't it detect the face of the girl?"

"It could mean one thing, the face of the girl that you met really looking like this, or you completely forgot the detail of the face. But I doubt the second one was the case because this machine never fails to detect even the most forgotten memories."

Nobita looked at Doraemon, "So, it means that I might never find out who this girl was?" He asked, looking a bit worried.

"That might be the case, I'm afraid. But again, I'm not sure." Doraemon replied. "If it was because of your memory, you could somehow... trigger this memory along the way. If it does, then we should see some development in this silhouette."

"I see..." Nobita replied,

"I have a question though, why do you think that this dream is significant in your daily life? Looks pretty mundane to me..." Doraemon asked.

Nobita denied it immediately. "No, you would never understand it, Doraemon!" He exclaimed. "It is hard to explain but, I can feel my heart saying that this dream was definitely something important."

"Now that's a ridiculous claim..." Doraemon remarked while taking off most of the chips that he has put in Nobita's head.

"Arrgh! Why don't you believe me, Doraemon!" Nobita exclaimed, "It's getting under my skin!"

"I'm sorry but I just couldn't believe what you said. It sounds extremely unrealistic if I'm honest..." Doraemon said, "I think you can rather seek for an answer from religious figures, like a Buddhist monk. Or rather, you can visit the nearest shrine and look for the people that can translate dreams. My gadgets can't interpret anything."

It alleviated Nobita's annoyance a tiny bit, "Maybe, but I'm not sure about doing it." He replied. "If I talked this to Gian and Suneo, what would happen?"

"If that wasn't obvious enough, of course you will be a laughingstock rather than getting the proper answers." Doraemon replied, "I really doubt that Gian and Suneo would be sympathetic to the problem that you're having right now."

"Yeah, you've got a point..." Nobita replied, "Well, I think I can consult this dream to a professional I guess..."

"Alright, we will visit the nearest shrine from here on weekend and perhaps, we can ask the shrine maidens. I think they might know the person who can interpret dreams." Doraemon said.