It was a quiet day. The only sounds you could hear were of wind. The wind was an

indication of rain. By rain, I didn’t mean drizzle. Wind hinted at a heavy downpour. Not only

the wind, but the sky also hinted at it too.

During times like this when rain drops can decent any time, I am here at the drugstore,

buying medicines for Mom. I could have come here anytime but, something made me come. I

had a premonition that something good might take place.

I never believed in things like a premonition, but today it felt too good to be just a

premonition. I might be exaggerating it but...

As I was blabbing, Shizuka appeared from the gate of the hospital. She looked a bit

different. The last time I saw her, her appearance was not like this. It was obvious that her

appearance would change as the last time was twenty, might be thirty years ago.

“Hi, Nobita.” She said.

“Hello, how are you? How is your work going? I saw in the newspaper that you have

become a doctor and you donated 2 million American dollars for heart patients.”

“I am fine. And that's nothing.” “It is.”

“What are you doing these…” as she was asking downpour started. “Why don’t we

continue our talk inside my car?”

“Sure, but first I will get some medicines."

#

“So, what are you doing these days?” She asked. “I work as mangaka for Jaiko.”

"Wait, you mean Gian's sister, Jaiko?" she clarified. "Yes, that's her," he confirmed.

"That's quite surprising," she remarked.

"Oh, didn't you know? Jaiko and I got married," he revealed.

"You and Jaiko are married!" she exclaimed in astonishment. “You used to hate Jaiko.”

“Yeah, I myself can't believe that all of this happen.”

“Tell me what happened between you two.”

#

Doraemon died after 2 years of your departure. He died of his oldness. All of his parts

were old and he was old. We tried to search for his parts but we couldn’t find them as he was

of an old model and you might know how hard it was to find parts of old machinery. We were

able to save him for a few months. Doraemi gave him some of her parts but it did not last for

long.

Even the human who created him died, why won’t he die? It was predestined. Everybody

knew that. But who knew, that day would come so soon?

Seeing Doraemon, die in front of my eyes was hard. His suffering in pain and being able

to do nothing, it was hard for me. He had helped me with everything. He was there and did

everything that he could to help me. But when it was my turn to return his favour, I was

unable to do anything in return. I just sat by his side and wept.

I used to weep every day, seeing him in that condition. But what could have I done? I

neither studied properly nor was able to achieve anything. He came to me to help me make

my future nicer, but all his efforts ended up being vain.

The day he died I was at his side. Weeping.

“Sorry, Doraemon I couldn’t do anything for you.”

No reply came from him. He used to comfort me when I used to do that. And then I knew

that he was no more with me. Right then and there I stopped weeping. I knew that now

weeping will do no good. Now that he was no more with me, I had to be strong. I had to face

the reality.

My life coursed on. I continued with my study. My study was still horrible but, was better

than before. At least I stopped bringing Zeros.

“Do you know that I used to write letters to you?” I said. “ Yeah, but you stopped writing

it. Why did you stop?” “Just got bored writing.”

“So, what happened after Doraemon’s demise?”

#

I passed out with decent marks. But I wasn’t able to get into university. Neither was I able

to get a job. I searched many places for the job, and I gave interviews in many places, but the

result was nil.

I was unemployed. Dad was responsible for managing the household expenses. I had

become a kind of burden for them. But also they never said anything. Once I had said that I

will leave separately as I had become a burden for them.

“Where will you go? What will you eat?” They said. “I will manage. It will be easier for

you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We can take care of your expenses. It's not that much.

You just focus on finding your job.”

I kept trying to find a job but, I never found a job. Dad died before I found a job. Due to

Dad’s demise, all of the burden was on me. I have to see the household expenses now. There

was some money left by my dad but it was small in amount. It did not last long. Soon we

were in a lot of debt.

“Have you read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky?” I asked Shizuka. “No, I

haven’t.”

“I have read it once in the school’s library. I had a little bit of work and I had to wait for

some time, so in the meantime, I read some of its pages. In it, a character called Marmeladov

said that destitution is a vice. At that time, I didn't fully comprehend it but, when I was in the

pool of debt it was clear to me what it meant.

We had to sell our house and move somewhere else. “Why didn’t ask for help from Sunio

and Gian?”

“They left the town too after Doraemon’s death. Sunio went United States and Gian went

to Nagasaki.”

“What did you do then?”

At first, many suicidal thoughts arose in my mind. I used to have the feeling that when I

die everything will be fine. Everything will return to how it used to be. But I didn’t as I got a

call from Gian.

#

That one call from Gian changed the course of my life. He called me to Nagasaki to work

as an assistant artist for Jaiko. Although I wasn’t good at art and painting, it was the only way

to feed my mum and get rid of the debt.

It was then I got to know more about Gian. As we were speaking her car came to a halt.

“Ah, the fuel has run out,” She said.

“Let's walk up to that turn. There's a coffee store there” I said. “We will wait there for the

rain to stop.”

Both of us got off the car. Shizuka opened her umbrella. “Nobita, come under this

umbrella.”

“I don’t want it. I like rain.”

“As your wish.” She said and we continued by feet. “I will tell you what I learned about

Gian.”

#

Gian was from a poor family. Due to that he never got everything he wanted.

Once when he was just a kid. He went somewhere with his mother. He said he forgot

which place it was. When he was returning he saw a toy in a toy shop. He liked that toy and

he wanted that toy.

“Mom…Robot...Robot..”

His mom turned to see what he was pointing to. It was a large, high-quality metallic,

remote control robot that he wanted.

“It’s too expensive Gian. Let’s go home.”

“But..mom..” He said, but his mom didn’t listen to him and took him home. He had seen

that toy on a TV and he wanted it since then but, he was not able to get it.

That evening, he went to the park and saw that a kid has that same toy. He asked that kid if

he can play with it but, he refused it. It made him angry. He beat that kid and got the robot

from him.

#

This is how he said he started bullying others and getting their toys. If he can get it he will

steal it was his motto.

But the reason behind stealing comics was not the same. He did like to read the comics

and he did read the comics he stole but, he said that he stole them for his sister. His sister

always wanted to be a mangaka but his parents were not that rich to spend money on the

manga.

And now she has grown to be a famous mangaka. Employing me as her assistant.

He also said me about the reason for his singing. As he was growing up, he used to see

many concerts. From that, he got the idea that idols earn a lot. Seeing those glamorous

clothes, and fancy life style, he thought that to fulfil all of his needs and wants he has to be an

idol. But, there was a problem his voice was too bad. He said he knew that from the first. But

why he kept on singing because he thought that he will get good at it with more and more

practice. The more practice we do the better we will get, is what he thought.

When I heard him saying that, I kind of felts bad for him as we never tried to support him

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and help him with this. We just kept on making jokes about his singing. If we had supported

him, who knows he might have become a big idol.

#

“This is all of the new things that I have learned about Gian. OK then, let's continue with

the story of how I and Jaiko got married.” I said.

First thing, we had arranged marriage. After Gian’s invitation, taking my mom with me, I

went to Nagasaki and started working for Jaiko. The salary was less for the first few months.

But, it was fine for me, at least I can pay for my rent and food, also my art was not that good

so, the less salary is justified.

Over time, my art skill continued to improve and with the improvement in art skills, my

salary increased too. As I was her only assistant, she had no other worker, so, it was easier for

her to increase my salary and look over my work too.

As time passed, her manga became more and more popular. The sales increased, and so

did our relationship. We became quite close friends. The growth in our friendship rose

suspicion in our parents that, we love each other. So, they brought forth a proposal for our

marriage.

I was hesitant about the marriage as I had never envisioned her as my life partner. I love

you and only you, I could never imagine any other girl than you as my wife. I knew that I can

never provide the love or care, required by her, while I still fancy you as my beloved.

Neither Jaiko was interested in marriage. Despite repeatedly turning down their requests,

we eventually gave in to the persistent appeals and got married. I was not happy about the

marriage.

I had a dream of marrying you. Now that dream was shattered. I knew that I would never

get to marry you. But also, I had a faint hope. But it was gone with my marriage.

It was gone long before my marriage. It was gone during your marriage. You married

before me. And only after listening to that news, I had given in to the marriage.

When Doraemon was with me, we used to see in Time T.V, our marriage, yours and mine.

I used to be happy seeing that. I would often make plans and imagine what I would do once I

married you. But, all that was gone to vain.

Back to the story. After marriage, we started loving each other. When we saw each other's

struggles, our love for one another grew.

Jaiko’s manga loosed’s its popularity, resulting in a reduction in profit. To gain back

popularity, we increased our work time and tried to enhance the quality of our work as much

as possible. We sometimes used to stay up for a whole night to finish up a panel. Sometimes

we go on for 3 4 days without sleeping, having sleep-reducing supplements to finish up the

due work. Seeing each other's work and hard is what grew a love for each other. I don’t about

her, it is how I started loving each other. After that, we had a son, and our life went on.

#

“Tell me, how did you and Dekisugi got married,” I said and took a sip of coffee.

I and Dekisugi went to the same colleges, You know that. And, we both were in the same

classes too. To tell you the truth, I never loved him. I still don’t love him. I wished to marry

you, and I told my parents about that. And they didn’t like the idea.

“You will surely end up sleeping on the road.” They said.

It’s not that they don’t like you, they like you. But, they were worried about my future.

Their worry was justified too. They can’t see their daughter end up with someone, who can’t

carry out the required responsibilities. They can’t see their daughter sleeping on the road,

they can’t see their grandchildren barely clothed.

“He can even do simple stuff without Doraemon.” They say. “But, we can give him a

chance, we will see if he gets into university. If he gets into one, then we can think about

something.”

I did think of marrying you anyway. But, I changed my mind.

You know, I used to enjoy your letters. I used to wait for its arrival. That was what

motivated me, that was what worked as the hope for our marriage. But, you stopped sending

those letters and I thought you might have found another girl. And I thought that was justified

too, as I was the one to leave you. But, deep inside, I had a feeling that you might have

stopped writing due to other reasons. Doreamon’s death might be the cause you stopped

writing, I thought.

And then the news came.

“Nobita dropped his education,” Father said.

That was shocking, but not unexpected. We all had the premonition that you might drop

out and you did. That closed all of the gates for marriage.

Over time, I continued to receive new information from time to time. Most of the

information weakened my belief in you. I heard that you got into a lot of debt, you had to sell

your house to pay off your debts.

After that, I felt that my parents were right about you. It seemed that you were unable to

handle the responsibilities that came with being in a relationship with me. Whenever I

thought about you, a picture of crying used to arise in my mind. Picture of me in dirty,

tattered, not washed-up clothes holding up those kids in my hand, those kids crying with

hunger.

And then, Dekisuki and my parents brought forth our marriage proposal and we agreed

with them and married each other.

“Quite a story,” I said.

“Indeed, it is.” She said. “Don’t feel sad for what happened, it was all destined to happen.”

“I’m not feeling sad. What you did was right in every possible way.”

“OK then, It's time for us to part ways ”

Before parting we shake each other's hands and went our ways.

#

At home, I gave the medicine to Mom and went straight to my room and opened up my

drawer. It was there inside the drawer, neatly folded, the last letter, I wrote to Shizuka.

I was thinking of posting it but, I held up that desire to post it, so, that I can see it again

whenever the things written on it come true. And today that thing has come to be true.

Dear Shizuka,

How are you? It has been a long since I wrote to you. 4 weeks! Maybe 6 weeks or so. For

2, 3 days I have struggling with some thoughts. And today with this letter I want to get all of

that out.

I always saw a dream of marrying you. You and me together, forever. But now when I

think about it, I don’t think it’s not possible in any way. As I’m not as talented as you. I don't

have anything special to offer you. If we ever married, I know that we will surely end up

hating each other and getting separated.

I might not be able to provide you with your wants, to your liking. The picture of me and

you

with tattered clothes arise whenever I think about you. That image is what scares me the

most about us. What if the image comes to be real?

I still remember Doraemon showing me our marriage in time television. But, I don’t think

that was real. It was Doraemon’s gadget so, he might have shown me the same fake footage. I

don’t think we can ever be together. So, the best we can do for a better future is to stay away

from each other. We will be together someday, but it’s not today, not even tomorrow, not even

for many year. But we will surely meet someday.

Currently I’m busy. Currently, life is preparing me for war. A war which can't be avoided.

It will be around 20 to 30 years long. In which I will lose everything I have. Strength, will,

fun, everything will be lost in that war. After a pen is bought, a person writes with it until it

empties. And when it is emptied it will be of no use. Just like that when this war ends I will

be of no use. I will be there just for the sake of being there.

When that time comes, I want you to meet me by fate. It might be a selfish request but, I

want you to meet me on a dark rainy day. Near a tree, where we can sit until the rain stops.

And talk about what we did in the past few years. As I will be there just for the sake of being

there and I won't have any duties to fulfill, I will tell you about my tales of war and I want

you to tell me about your tales of war. I will have my 20 - 30 years of tales to cover by then

and you will have yours 20 -30 years to cover. That way we will have a long-lasting

conversation.

Till then.

Best regards,

Nobita.