Inuyashiki Ichiro slowly woke up, regaining his senses. He felt oddly lighter than usual, as if his body just seemed right. He groaned as he slowly rose.
"Ah! He woke up!" A young boy, wearing prescription eyeglasses, said, his eyes full of wondrous excitement. His name was Nobita Nobi, Doraemon's best friend. His shirt was a caramel-colored turtleneck, and his shorts were blue.
"Give him space, Nobita."
The small blue robot said as he gracefully shoved the excited young boy. Doraemon then helped Inuyashiki stand up. Inuyashiki felt a heavy weight from behind; he glanced at his backside and found that his flight system was exposed. He then quickly unwound his flight system and turned to the two smiling pieces of fiction.
Doraemon was a story, a comic in the early seventies. Inuyashiki would know since he grew up during that time period. Nobita Nobi was the young child that Doraemon was instructed to teach and handle for some future ancestor.
Inuyashiki slapped himself. He thought he was in a dream.
"Eh!? Are you okay, sir!?"
Inuyashiki slapped himself again hard enough to create a gust of wind, yet the impact caused him no pain or damage.
"Doraemon, did you do something?" Nobita asked, worried, biting his fingernails.
"I didn't! He's just stressed. I know a way to fix this!"
"CALMING TOUCH GLOVE!" Doraemon shouted, producing a comically large glove from his fourth-dimensional pouch. The glove made any entity, biological or mechanical, feel the soothing sensation of calmness. Doraemon then wore the glove and patted Inuyashiki's back.
Inuyashiki's stressed senses slowly eased as calmness flowed easily like water. It felt like his worries went away, as if he was just woken up from a bad dream. Inuyashiki turned to Doraemon and Nobita.
"You're all real, and I am not imagining this." Inuyashiki mumbled as he lowered both his arms.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Nobita questioned.
"If you're real, use that Everywhere Door right now! Don't you have that thing? I watched the cartoons from when I was young!" Inuyashiki grabbed Doraemon, shaking the small blue robot.
"EH!? How did you know about that door and what cartoon are you talking about!?"
Doraemon shouted as he tried to pry Inuyashiki away from him. The old man was significantly more robust than he looked. Inuyashiki then kept reaching inside Doraemon's pocket. Doraemon chuckled since it felt ticklish. He dropped to the floor.
"Ah! Wait!" Doraemon shouted as he pushed away Inuyashiki. "Ah, this is a problem," Doraemon muttered as he slowly rose and adjusted the dimensional pouch; it was slightly out of position.
Inuyashiki then groveled in front of the confused two characters. He cried again, this time even harder. Inuyashiki explained his current predicament. A young man, who was a robot like him, was killing random people in Japan. His daughter was also in danger. He needed to save them; he needed to be a hero.
Doraemon and Nobita listened as Inuyashiki mumbled, hiccuping between sentences. Inuyashiki then explained that Doraemon's pockets were the answer to his problems. With it, he could escape from this infinite prison.
Doraemon nodded as he listened to Inuyashiki, then patted him on the back again with the Calming Touch Glove. Inuyashiki calmed down and then slowly stood up, looking down at the two because of the height difference. Doraemon hummed for a long time, pondering and scratching his jaw.
"Alright, I will help you, but only if you help us out too. We're just as stuck as you."
Doraemon muttered, then scratched the back of his head. "About the Everywhere Door, we can't use it here. The door has some limits; it cannot travel between different dimensions."
"Different dimensions?" Inuyashiki asked.
"Yes, this entire office space is a different dimension or something. Even if I use the Everywhere Door, I cannot open a door to your world. That is, unless this dimension is still linked with your original dimension."
"Meaning?"
"You came here after an earthquake, then green lights started appearing all over your environment, right?" Nobita asked.
"Yes! Yes!"
"That was when both worlds collided, providing a gateway to both dimensions. It's like a momentary intersection, where instability occurs. When it occurs, things or anyone nearby may slip through the intersection. However, that kind of collision can cause a lot of damage. Fortunately, or intentionally by design, the collision merely lasts for a short time."
Inuyashiki nodded as Doraemon explained; the concept was simple and easy to grasp.
"Then how are we getting back?" Inuyashiki mumbled, adjusting his polo shirt.
"Technically, if a collision were to occur, that meant both dimensions are at least momentarily connected. If they're momentarily connected, then both dimensions exist at the same time. Since both dimensions exist, the Everywhere Door allows travel to the other side and back. That would mean we can go back to your world via the door."
Doraemon explained as Nobita nodded his head, emphasizing Doraemon's point.
"However, practically, that's difficult. Not every collision guarantees an opening. Also, even if there's an opening, the other side may not necessarily be your world. Whatever this place is, it's constantly colliding with other dimensions. Our original dimensions can collide, but it's like a machine picking a random number between one and one thousand."
Nobita sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, it's bound to pick your number eventually, but only after some time."
"Now, I didn't say that to keep your hopes down. I said it to keep your hopes up. Statistically, our dimensions are bound to collide with this dimension."
"So, we can do nothing but wait?" Inuyashiki finally asked.
"That's exactly it. You can join us, stalk the place around with us." Nobita answered as he extended a hand to the old man that was almost crumbling.
"You mean walk?"
"No, stalk." Doraemon corrected.
"There are walking skeletons around. We encountered one weeks ago, but we've escaped its scary pursuit by using the Everywhere Door and using it to take us somewhere far away." Doraemon smiled and opened his arms, welcoming Inuyashiki.
"In the meantime, you can hang out with us."
(The next chapter is about being stuck in this dimension.)