II - FOR THE ONE YOU LOVE (Doraemon Reimagination Series)

3 - CRACKING THE FIRST NUT

"Okay..... This isn't working!"
Gian screamed out in disgust and irritation. Everyone looked around from various corners of the yard in his direction. They witnessed Gian kicking the wall impatiently and inevitably hurting his foot. Hopping up and down on one leg and grabbing his injured foot with his hands, Gian swore under his breath in anger. The other three sighed and began approaching him.

Nobita advised, "You really gotta work on your rage issues, Gian. See! You've hurt yourself before we've even done anything." He knelt down on his knees before Gian and holding out his arms, continued, "Let me have a look at that."

Gian let go of his leg and replied calmly, "I'm fine. It was nothing. I didn't hurt my foot. My boot took most of the heat from that kick." Rotating his feet by its joint twice and flexing it a few times, he casually replied, "Besides, look who's talking. The most reckless guy on this team right now is probably you. You were almost offing into the hideout of a sadistic, psychopathic mad-dreamer who's got your love as his hostage," putting down his feet after that short feet exercise. "So, if I were in your place, I would think twice before giving advice to someone else."

Nobita made a sound which was somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle and an expression between an infuriation and a blush.

Gian reminded, "Anyways, that's not the point here." Making a frustrated look at the gadget in Doraemon's hand (it had an appearance of a vacuum cleaner but a sharp nozzle as its tip of the pipe), he continued, "There's no sign of an entranceway or a hole or anything of that sort here in this portion of the ground. We were supposed to find one using that gadget of yours and follow the path or tunnel until it led us to his hideout. We've already searched every nook and corner of this small piece of yard about nine to ten times now. And yet that gadget hasn't given even the faintest of beeps at any region. Also, it's going to be almost two hours we've been doing this."

Doraemon's head went down with the gadget still intact in his hand; his face clearly showing the aftereffects of an utter failure. He muttered, under his breath, "I don't know why this is happening. I had all of my gadgets checked and repaired before we went out on a mission like this. There ought to be absolutely no scope of error in anything we do, using these."

Suneo pointed out sadly, "But we didn't get any results after going through all this, did we, Doraemon? Even though the claim you make about your gadgets might be true. They are still gadgets and they can malfunction anywhere, anytime."

Gian rebuked, "Yeah. This isn't working. Something's wrong with your gadget. It's clearing not intending to beep anytime soon around here," realizing something else, "Or maybe the information itself was faulty. Maybe this gadget's not the one at fault, but the one you used to track down Shizuka's location......."

Suneo logically added, with his fingers on his chin, ".......which would explain why the gadget hasn't beeped at any spots yet. It'd be because we've been searching the wrong place this whole time." Doraemon didn't argue but endured all of their remarks of indirectly tagging him as an irresponsible robot because somewhere deep inside he was doubting himself to some extent.

"That's enough---"

Nobita's head was down; his chin pressed against his chest, his fists clenched on either side of his body. Everyone turned to look at him in awe. He slowly lifted up his face and said, "......all of you!" His eyes were shining, glimmering with an undefined passion. He spoke confidently, "This is the right place and I know it. I know it for a fact. We're not wasting our time searching the wrong place: a place where we'll never find Shizuka because this is the place."

"How do you kno---" croaked Gian

Nobita added, prominently adamant, "It's because I trust Doraemon." Doraemon gasped at him, surprised even more than Gian or Suneo at those words. "I agree Doraemon can be careless, irresponsible, immature, childish, and unreliable most of the time when it comes to handling his gadgets," Doraemon's pride went down the drain on hearing the 'compliments' from Nobita, "But this time it's different. There's no way he would afford to be any of those since it concerns someone I endear in my life and messing this up would probably put me in danger as well."
          Gian and Suneo kept staring whereas Doraemon's lips curled into a smile. Nobita looked around at Doraemon, and softly smiling, said, "That is why I'm so sure that this is it."