I - THE WRATH OF CASH (Doraemon Reimagination Series)

EPILOGUE

A great bump and shushhhhh!
Nobita was lying flat on his back on a dense undergrowth of bushes amidst tall green trees; rising to the height of the blue sky overhead which was covered with black smoke now. he sat up in his place, staring around and wondering where he was. He jumped to a conclusion after a bit of inspection: apparently, he landed up in the forest, right below the Cash's ship. Realising that he looked up at the sky, which was now all black and grey due to the smoke of the massive explosion.

He still managed to get away, huh?

"Damn you, Cash!" muttered Nobita and stood up on his feet, beginning to run and making his way through the trees towards a clear opening where he could signal his friends to come and get him.
He did as he intended. After about ten minutes to continuous running, he finally arrived at the beach where he already found the main ship of Time Patrol stationed. He noticed a few of his friends standing there and waiting for someone to come: he reckoned easily that it was him they were waiting for. He saw Suneo, Jack and Doraemon outside on the platform, with their faces as dead and pale as they could possibly be.

Getting to see them finally once again was enough to bring a broad beaming smile to his face. Nobita shouted out their names, waving his hand enthusiastically, tears rushing down his eyes while he ran towards the only people who could comfort him from his failure at that moment. Suneo, Jack and Doraemon started and turned around to see him. It took them no time to fight through their anxiety and ran back at him.

Suneo shouted back at the top of his voice, "Gian, he's here. He came back. He's okay."

Doraemon jumped down from the platform onto the sandy stretches of the beach and almost put out his foot to start running at Nobita but resisted at the last moment. On the other hand, Gian joined Suneo and Jack and ran towards Nobita: Nobita towards them. As soon as they approached each other, there came a big blow on Nobita's cheek which toppled him on the ground in an instant. Nobita couldn't comprehend what just happened and clasping his cheek with his right hand, still on the ground, looked round.

Gian stood there with a closed fist, staring fixedly at Nobita and breathing heavy, deep breaths. Suneo and Jack both looked amused at Gian's reaction. Jack went to strike Gian but Suneo managed to hold him back at the right moment, before he could make things worse. Betty came out from inside too, accompanied by a few officers.

Nobita mumbled confusingly, his tears have stopped, "Gian!"

Gian couldn't keep down his anger anymore and pulled Nobita up from the ground, grabbing him by his shirt collar. Bringing his face closer to his, only about an inch away, Gian began shouting at him with no second thoughts, "What the hell were thinking, Nobita? Taking off with a time bomb in the ship all by yourself! Who the hell do you think you are?"

Nobita didn't reply. Gian continued, "Do you have any idea what it's like for us? While you decide to go around playing the hero, what becomes of us?"

Nobita finally spoke in a very soft, almost inaudible voice, "I just—I wanted to protect you." Gian, including everyone else got puzzled on hearing that. Nobita looked up at Gian, gathering courage, and said, "I couldn't let any of you near it, knowing how things could've turned out if we weren't lucky."

Gian let go of his collar and turned away from Nobita. He said, "Let's go inside the ship. Time for us to go home." Nobita didn't answer back to him. Standing up, they all began walking towards the ship when,

Betty, realising something missing said, "Hey, wait a minute, guys!" looking around. Everyone stopped and looked at her. she continued anxiously, "Where is Shizuka? She ran outside the chamber to go after Nobita on a ship, right?"

Nobita answered, bemused, "No, she never came to me and Doraemon. We were alone."

Suneo replied, "Yes, she did come outside. But we convinced her to stay put and chased her back into the ship."

Jack supported Suneo's words, "Yeah—that's what happened. She is supposed to be inside the ship with you Betty."

Betty shook her head and answered back, "No—Shizuka never came back inside."

Everyone slowly began to panic and without any delay, started searching all the two Time Patrol ships for Shizuka. Inspecting every nook and corner of the ships: the officers did a full swipe of the entire island for that entire night which stretched to the next day morning but found nothing. They found no trace of Shizuka anywhere on the Island or in the ships. Every 'no' increased Nobita's nervousness and concern for Shizuka ten times greater. He slowly began to lose his mind amidst all the disappointment. WHERE COULD SHE BE?

"Shizuka is not in this island. But you children have to go home, now. Finding Shizuka is our responsibility now. your parents must be really worried. I won't listen to a 'No'. She is now officially a missing child since it has been 24 hours. So we will file a complaint and consider as 'missing' so that we can continue the search to find Shizuka. You have no role in this. You've been through a lot already. Go home all of you."

After this, they were all sitting inside the ship; travelling through the deep meshes of space and time all the way back to home. No-one could bring themselves to talk throughout the journey after having lost a close friend in the island, each of them blaming themselves for her going missing in the first place, inside their minds. Meanwhile, Nobita was too moved and affected to even express sorrow or grief by tears. Suddenly a thought came to him out of nowhere:

"Mark my words, boy. I WILL RETURN. AND WHEN I DO FIRST, I'M GONNA DESTROY YOUR DREAM IN FRONT OF YOU AND THEN I'M GONNA KILL YOU; JUST LIKE YOU DID MINE......."

"It was him," Nobita finally muttered so softly that only Doraemon sitting right next to him could hear. He started and looked around at Nobita's pale and determined face. Nobita continued, ignoring Doraemon's look entirely or not even noticing he was there at all, "CASH! IT WAS CASH!!!"

He breathed heavily after saying these few words and finally a single drop of tear rolled down Nobita's right eye, down his cheeks and landed on his knees with a soft splash.....

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(Hope you guys liked my story. This was just a different outtake at the Doraemon Movie: Nobita's great adventure to the south seas. I just thought of using this movie's re-imagination as a way of introducing you guys to the alternate Doraemon universe: or rather my imaginated world. Stay tuned for the second sequel where the gang goes on a rescue mission to retrieve Shizuka. That is going to be much darker than this one. Vote if liked it and comment down your personal opinions about my story and writing style. See you soon with another whole new story.)