"Where would you like to go?"
At that moment, when Doraemon offered to take Heino traveling through time and space, Heino's mind couldn't help but wander. He imagined himself visiting the distant past, or stepping into the unknown future.
But after a brief moment of fantasy, Heino simply smiled and shook his head.
"Thank you for the offer, Doraemon, but for now, I don't have any particular place or time I want to visit."
The reason he declined was simple: he had only arrived in this world a few days ago and was still unfamiliar with it. Even if he could travel back in time, there wasn't much meaning to it yet.
"I see," Doraemon said with a nod. "Well, if you ever feel like it, just let me know anytime."
Heino's answer didn't bother Doraemon too much. After all, the suggestion had been rather sudden, and it was understandable that Heino wasn't ready.
"Oh, by the way, Heino," Doraemon said between bites of dorayaki, as if suddenly remembering something. "Nobita mentioned before that you're drawing your own manga?"
He turned eagerly to Heino, his curiosity clear.
"I was wondering... would you mind showing me?"
Truth be told, Doraemon had been wanting to ask ever since Heino first arrived. Nobita hadn't stopped whispering about how amazing Heino's drawings were, praising them as beautiful and exciting. That only made Doraemon more curious.
Still, since Heino was a guest, Doraemon had held himself back—until now.
"Of course, I don't mind," Heino said with a smile. "But most of what I have are just rough drafts. I haven't had time to polish them yet."
He reached into his backpack and handed over a thick stack of sketches.
"That's fine, no problem at all!" Doraemon said enthusiastically, taking the drawings with both hands.
The moment he glanced at the cover, Doraemon knew Nobita hadn't been exaggerating.
Though he wasn't a manga expert, Doraemon could easily tell the difference between ordinary work and something truly special. The cover alone carried a dangerous, almost electrifying atmosphere, and the subtle expressions on the characters' faces seemed almost alive.
As he flipped open the first page, the story immediately pulled him in.
In a snowy, desolate mountain forest, a panicked young man struggled to protect a dying girl, the scene radiating a tense urgency that left readers breathless.
Among the weekly manga magazines popular today, very few opened with such thrilling intensity. Most stories started off slow, grounded in the protagonist's everyday life. But Heino's work dared to take a different path from the very first page.
And that difference was gripping.
Before long, Doraemon was completely absorbed in the manga.
Seeing his reaction, Heino smiled quietly and left him alone. He walked over to the window, opened it, and gazed outside.
From here, he could see the street in front of the house, the backyard below, and the small shed where Nobita often found old treasures or hidden maps.
Even though it was Nobita's home, it felt strangely familiar to Heino—after all, in the original Doraemon stories, this house was practically a second main character.
After taking in the view for a while, Heino wandered over to the bookshelf.
It was immediately obvious that Nobita's love for manga wasn't just talk—nearly every book crammed onto the shelves was a comic.
Heino picked one up at random and flipped through it.
From his current perspective, the stories felt a little childish—the characters simple, the plots straightforward. Most of the comics seemed to center around space adventures or treasure hunts.
It was clear Nobita adored that kind of story.
Unfortunately, Nobita wasn't exactly the most capable adventurer. Without Doraemon's gadgets to bail him out, he'd probably get hopelessly lost on his first real treasure hunt.
Still, Heino thought with a chuckle, it was good to have an adventurous spirit. At least, the Nobita from the movie versions had shown himself to be pretty impressive.
"I'm back~!"
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Nobita's voice calling from downstairs. Apparently, he'd run his errands quickly.
After handing the groceries to his mother, Nobita bounded up the stairs two at a time, bursting into his room.
At that moment, Doraemon had just finished the last page of Heino's manga, still looking unsatisfied when Nobita rushed in.
"Well? Well? Doraemon! Isn't Heino's manga amazing?" Nobita asked eagerly, practically vibrating with excitement.
It almost felt like he had drawn the manga himself, the way he was beaming with pride.
It was hard to believe that just a few days ago, Nobita had been plotting to prank Heino and Shizuka out of jealousy.
Children's grudges really didn't last long.
"Yeah," Doraemon said, smiling warmly. "It's really impressive. Heino is amazing..."
Even Doraemon, who had seen countless strange and wonderful things over the years, was genuinely surprised. Who would have thought a fifth-grader could create something so captivating?