"This is totally crazy! What on earth is going on?" Doraemon exclaimed, looking just as shocked as I felt.
I quickly made up a story on the spot—after all, explaining that I knew all this from the original plot would be way too complicated. "This is something I heard back in the Demon King's castle. The Demon King got all boastful and spilled it in front of Professor Mangetsu," I said. Anyway, there's no way they could go ask the Demon King to confirm, and Professor Mangetsu had already turned to ash by then.
I continued, "Miyoko's mother made a pact with a demon to save Miyoko's life, and in the process, her soul got captured by the Demon King."
"That's why he transformed her into this snake-haired monster form."
"So that's why I brought her statue back here."
"Oh, I see! In that case, Medusa's pretty pitiful," Doraemon said, understanding the whole backstory now, and I could tell he felt sorry for her.
"So, Nobita, you brought Medusa's statue back because you want to use the Time Cloth, like how Dorami saved me, to see if we can remove the magic the Demon King put on her and turn her back to normal, right?"
Doraemon thought for a moment and figured out my plan right away.
"You're spot on, Doraemon. That's exactly what I was thinking—to see if we can free Medusa from the Demon King's control."
I gave him a thumbs up for reading my mind so perfectly.
"Alright then, let's bring Miyoko's mom back!" Doraemon didn't waste any time and pulled the Time Cloth out of his pocket.
He wrapped the Time Cloth around Medusa's statue.
Once he had the whole statue bundled up and tied the knot, the clock on the Time Cloth started ticking, making that familiar gear-turning sound—tick-tock, tick-tock.
Inside the Time Cloth, Medusa started moving, like she was coming back from being a statue and trying to struggle free.
I was worried she might rip through the cloth, so I used my telekinesis to hold her in place from the outside.
She kept thrashing around inside, but she couldn't do a thing about it.
After a while, things went quiet in there, but I was still cautious. I figured she might be faking it to trick us into letting go, so I didn't release my telekinesis right away.
Sure enough, just like I suspected, she started struggling wildly again later on—it scared Doraemon so much he thought the Time Cloth was going to tear!
But luckily, after that big burst, it all went still again.
The only sound left was the steady tick-tock.
Finally, the clock on the Time Cloth slowed to a stop, and the ticking ended.
I released my telekinesis at last.
"I think it's done," I said, seeing no more movement.
I stepped forward and slowly untied the Time Cloth. The moment I pulled it open, it was like a light filled the room—underneath was Miyoko's mother.
She was a beautiful woman with a curvy figure.
She wore the same kind of necklace as Miyoko, and a loose white mage's robe, but even that baggy outfit couldn't hide her graceful shape.
Her face looked so much like Miyoko's—it was obvious they were related.
The main difference was that Miyoko has short hair, while she has long hair.
"Auntie! Are you okay? How do you feel?" I called out gently to the woman lying there with her eyes closed.
Maybe it was my voice, but her eyelids started fluttering, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Those watery eyes finally focused on me.
"You're Nobita?" Her first words totally caught me off guard.
How did she know my name?
"And you're Doraemon?"
Doraemon was just as surprised that she knew his name too.
But when it came to Dorami, she didn't seem to recognize her.
Just as Miyoko's mother tried to stand up from the floor, I'm not sure if it was because she wasn't used to her original body yet, but she wobbled and fell right into me.
I caught her, and instantly felt this familiar sweet scent, just like Miyoko's. They really are mother and daughter—even their smells are similar. But her mom's figure was way more developed than Miyoko's; even through the clothes, I could tell it was no comparison.
"Auntie! You alright?" I said, holding her soft body steady.
"I'm fine, just not used to it all of a sudden!" Miyoko's mom replied, grabbing onto my arm for support.
After she rested for a bit and seemed okay, Doraemon came over, puzzled, and asked, "Auntie, how do you know who we are?"
From his perspective, this was our first time meeting her, and we'd never introduced ourselves!
"Even when I was turned into a monster, I couldn't control my body, but I was still aware of the outside world," she explained, her tone full of apology and her face flushed with shame.
"I'm so sorry for all the trouble I caused you while I was like that."
"It's okay, you couldn't help it," Doraemon and I both waved it off, letting her know we didn't hold it against her.
"It's all that big bad Demon King's fault," Doraemon added, waving his little round hands angrily, making sure she knew to blame him, not herself.
"I'm so glad Miyoko has friends like you," Miyoko's mom said with a smile.
"And we're glad to have a friend like Miyoko," we both replied at the same time.
Suddenly, Doraemon looked apologetic and said, "Auntie, if you were aware of the outside world back then, you probably know what happened in the Demon World!"
"I'm sorry, we're really sorry!"
Miyoko's mom knew exactly what he meant.
Doraemon felt helpless about Professor Mangetsu's sacrifice—after all, we were all running for our lives from the Demon King, and there was no chance to save him.
And now that Professor Mangetsu was reduced to ashes, how could we possibly bring him back?
The room fell silent for a moment.
Miyoko's mom stayed quiet for a bit before saying calmly, "It's not your fault. You did the best you could!"
"He fell fighting against the Demon King, so he probably has no regrets."
She'd already grieved over that scene back when she was a monster, so now she seemed more at peace with it.
What she cared about most now was the present.
"Where's Miyoko? How is she?" Miyoko's mom asked, clearly most worried about her daughter—after all, that's why she'd made the pact with the demon in the first place.
"Miyoko's still in a cave on the Demon Planet. I told her to hide safely and wait for us to come back," I hurried to reassure her, seeing how anxious she looked.
"Let's go! We need to find Miyoko right now!" Miyoko's mom said, already eager to see her daughter.