Chapter 3: The Deep Sleep Pillow

I somehow managed to get through classes, and school was finally over.

I made eye contact with Dekisugi several times, but fortunately, she was always surrounded by boys, and girls were constantly asking her to tutor them. She was so popular I didn't even have to get close. She treated this as her normal everyday life and didn't seem bothered by it at all.

(I feel bad for ignoring Dekisugi all day, but once I have Doraemon turn her back, everything will be resolved.)

As soon as homeroom ended, I brushed off Gian's invitation to play baseball and sprinted straight home. Whenever I got bullied or something bad happened, I'd always run straight home to Doraemon like this without making any detours. But today wasn't about me; it was about turning Dekisugi back to normal as quickly as possible.

(Doraemon should be in our room today, right?)

I threw open the front door, kicked off my shoes, and ran up to my room on the second floor. There was Doraemon, sitting and reading a book.

"Welcome home, Nobita-kun. What's the rush?"

"Thank goodness! I need you to turn Dekisugi back to normal right away!"

"Dekisugi-kun? What on earth are you talking about?"

I quickly explained the insane situation: how I went to school and found Dekisugi had turned from a boy into a girl, and how neither she nor anyone else seemed to notice. Doraemon looked puzzled, then chuckled and said to me,

"What are you talking about? Dekisugi-kun has always been a girl."

"That's what I'm saying! He's actually a boy, and I'm the only one who knows it now!"

No matter how many times I explained, Doraemon just tilted his head in confusion. He held his head, completely baffled as to why I was panicking so much. Realizing we were getting nowhere, Doraemon reached into his 4D Pocket and pulled out a photo album.

"Retroactive Album!"

"What's that?"

"I haven't used this in a long time. You just write the target person's name and a past date in here... and there!"

Pulling a pencil from the pen stand on my desk, Doraemon opened to a random page in the album and quickly scribbled something down.

"After you write the name and time, you close the album and wait three minutes."

"Then what happens?"

"It takes a picture of the person you wrote down at the exact time you specified. To make it easy to understand, I set it to our elementary school entrance ceremony."

After waiting three minutes, he opened the album. Inside was a picture of an adorable little girl wearing a red randoseru (school backpack). She was standing in front of the Tsukimidai Elementary School gate—the same place I had my picture taken—next to a sign that read "Congratulations on Your Enrollment." Looking a bit shy with her backpack, the name tag pinned to the girl's chest read: Hidetoshi Dekisugi.

"Th-This is Dekisugi?!"

"Hidetoshi sounds like a boy's name, but she's definitely a girl, right? Want me to take another one?"

Doraemon thought for a moment, checked the calendar in my room, and wrote a new name and date in the album. The resulting picture was from a swimming class, showing Dekisugi wearing a girl's swimsuit. Looking closely at the photo, I noticed something I hadn't realized at school: she had a distinctly feminine figure, with a slight curve to her chest.

"See? Dekisugi-kun has been a girl since the day she was born. Aren't you just having some weird misunderstanding, Nobita-kun?"

"No way... Dekisugi, a girl..."

I wanted to scream that it was impossible, but with Doraemon—my last hope—acting like this, and undeniable proof piling up, I was at a loss. I hung my head in despair, but then I decided to think hard about why this had happened.

(Dekisugi was definitely a boy. We used to hang out all the time. For his gender to suddenly change, a gadget from the future has to be involved...)

Doraemon put the pencil back on the desk. Looking at my empty study desk, a scene from yesterday flashed into my mind.

"That's it! The Magic Mallet!"

"Mallet?"

"Yeah! A free sample arrived from the Future Department Store yesterday, and I used it! Where did you put it?!"

I shoved my hands into Doraemon's pocket, trying to pull out the Magic Mallet. Out came nothing but junk and unused Secret Gadgets—eventually, I even pulled out a plain old tea kettle. What was that even for?

"Whoa, stop, stop! I don't know anything about a free sample... Oh, wait! After you left for school this morning, a delivery man from the Future Department Store came to collect something, saying it was a recalled item."

"That's it! Go get it back right now!"

"Get it back, you say... but I don't even know what it looks like or its model number. I wouldn't know how to find it."

True, searching for one specific Secret Gadget among millions with no clues would be impossible. As I held my head, wondering what to do, I suddenly remembered the instruction letter I had thrown in the trash yesterday!

"Here! This! This came with the sample!"

I dumped out the trash can and shoved the letter that had been enclosed with the Upgraded Magic Mallet into Doraemon's face.

"Let's see... 'Grants a wish without affecting your own personal causality'?! Nobita-kun, what on earth did you wish for?!"

"I just wished that I wouldn't be jealous of Dekisugi anymore."

"I see... So that's why Dekisugi-kun, who was a boy, turned into a girl, and no one but you realizes it."

Doraemon seemed to have grasped the situation by connecting my earlier explanation with the text on the paper, but my brain was still lagging behind.

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"Simply put, it alters everyone's causality except yours. It twisted history and every other person to grant your wish. That's why you're the only one who remembers Dekisugi-kun was a boy. No wonder such a dangerous gadget was recalled!"

Doraemon knew my wish had no malicious intent. In Doraemon's altered memories, Dekisugi was a girl perfectly described by the phrase "beauty and brains." Even as a boy, that brilliance wouldn't have changed. It made sense that someone who lacked those traits, like me, would feel jealous. Yet, I hadn't wished for anyone's misfortune or to drag anyone down. I had faced my own jealousy and simply wished to suppress it.

"To arbitrarily twist that and grant it in such an unwanted way is unforgivable!!! I'm going to the Future Department Store right now to file a complaint. Wait here. I'll get Dorami to help, so it might take a little time, but I will get that gadget back."

Doraemon's face was flushed red with righteous anger. Fired up, he shoved the Future Department Store's manual into his pocket, promised to retrieve the gadget, activated the Time Machine in my desk drawer, and quickly jumped in.

Left alone in the room after Doraemon vanished, I just stood there, stunned. Only now did I truly realize the gravity of what I had done.

(Because I was jealous of Dekisugi, it came to this...)

Even though I had sown the seeds myself, the guilt was crushing me. But if Doraemon got the gadget back, everything should return to normal.

(Right! For now, all I can do is believe in Doraemon and wait for his return.)

Telling myself that, I pulled my homework out of my backpack to distract myself and sat at my desk. Naturally, I didn't want to do homework. But sitting around doing nothing felt too uncomfortable, and if I accidentally went out to play and ran into someone, I knew I'd end up asking about Dekisugi. In that case, locking myself in the house and doing homework I hated was much better.

"Ugh... I don't understand this at all. My head is spinning..."

Despite not getting it, I stared at the textbook and scribbled math formulas in my notebook as they came to me. I figured it was better to muddle my brain right now and just let the time pass.

"Mmmgh... Uggghhh..."

I let out weird groans as I glued myself to the desk. Normally, I'd rely entirely on Doraemon or Shizuka-chan, but right now, I just wanted to be alone. The goal wasn't to finish the homework; making homework a mere process to kill time was a very "Nobita" thing to do.

(Come to think of it, wasn't there a day when a gadget of Doraemon's made it impossible for me to sleep, and I ended up doing homework because I had no choice?)

The Secret Gadget Deep Sleep Pillow was designed to make a person sleep for exactly the amount of time set on its dial. However, I once got hit by the wake-up waves from a broken version of it, sealing away my special talent of sleeping. To pass the lonely, boring hours of the night, I distracted myself by doing homework.

"That was awful. I got into bed but couldn't sleep a wink, and I was so hungry and miserable. Why did Doraemon even take out a gadget like that?"

As expected, forcing myself to do homework I hated made my thoughts wander. If I recall correctly, Doraemon originally brought it out to give my dad, Nobisuke, a good night's sleep because he had insomnia. So why did it end up breaking...?

"I remember now. I snuck it out to put Dekisugi to sleep."

That day, the teacher had praised Dekisugi to the high heavens and then dumped a massive load of homework on us. As the rest of us groaned in agony, Dekisugi nonchalantly brushed it off as "not a big deal." That got on my nerves, so I tried everything I could to sabotage his homework.

Gian invited him to play baseball, hoping to exhaust him so much that he wouldn't be able to do it, but Dekisugi ended up being the star player. Worse, he dropped the bombshell that the homework would only take him ten minutes. Having had enough, Gian dumped the "Sabotage Dekisugi Operation" onto me and went home. That's when I learned about the Deep Sleep Pillow and stole it, intending to make Dekisugi sleep soundly until morning.

"But in the end, Dekisugi didn't fall asleep. The gadget fell out the window and broke... Wait, no, no, no! I'm thinking about Dekisugi again!"

I shook my head violently, trying to wipe Dekisugi from my mind. I forced myself to plug numbers into the formulas in my notebook, counting on my fingers as I calculated.

In the end, Doraemon never came back that day. With my somehow-completed homework in hand, I headed off to school with plenty of time to spare. I had woken up well before I could be late and had already finished getting ready.

"Doraemon will probably be back by the time I get home from school."

There was nothing I could do at home anyway, so I headed to school quite early. Another reason I left early was that I wanted the reassurance of seeing Dekisugi. Even though Doraemon hadn't physically returned yet, he might have already fixed the timeline and turned Dekisugi back. Maybe all my panic was for nothing, and my normal, everyday life would resume as if yesterday had never happened.

(Please let Dekisugi be back to being a boy!)

It felt like a bizarre thing to wish for, but Dekisugi being a boy was the right reality. The only person in this world—no, in any timeline—who knew and remembered that truth was me, Nobita Nobi. I felt that if I ever forgot it, something would be lost forever.

Because I arrived so early, the school was mostly empty. I walked past the students who had come early for club activities and headed to my classroom. I wasn't running, but I wasn't walking slowly, either. I wanted to see Dekisugi immediately to put my mind at ease, but at the same time, I was terrified to look. The classroom was completely empty. I was the first one there.

"Phew, I guess I came a bit too early. No one's here yet."

I took off my backpack at my desk and started putting my textbooks and notebooks inside the cubby. I slowly opened my finished homework, and a small smile crept onto my face as I looked at the math equations.

(See? I can actually do it if I try.)

It had been a long time since I solved my homework all by myself, and it felt pretty good. I wouldn't get yelled at by the teacher, and on top of that, I wasn't going to be late today. Just those two things made the start of the school day feel bright, and I could feel the weight lifting off my heart.

The clumsy but earnestly written numbers in my notebook were proof of my hard work yesterday and a reward for myself today. As I gazed proudly at my notebook, the number '7' caught my eye.

"Huh? Did I write a 7 here yesterday?"

Something felt off. Just to check, I carefully solved the equation again. The answer was 9.

"Oh, I see. I just mistook my own 9 for a 7. Still, the teacher will definitely misunderstand this."

Not being able to read your own handwriting the next day is a classic problem for people with messy handwriting. At a quick glance, my sloppy 7 and 9 were easy to mix up. I carefully erased only the messy digit and rewrote it, a little more neatly this time.

"Alright, now it's perfect!"

"You’re amazing, Nobi-kun! Coming to school this early just to review your homework."

I turned my head toward the voice that had spoken right beside me. Standing there, smiling down at me, was a beauty who could rival any TV idol.

Author's Notes

“Doraemon Sitting and Reading a Book”
One of the things Doraemon most often does when he is at home is reading.
Even when Nobita comes back, Doraemon is very often still absorbed in a book.

The reason this is worth pointing out is that, while most of the books belong to Nobita or are ones Doraemon buys himself, he sometimes borrows books from Dekisugi as well.
Without going through Nobita, the two actually have an unexpected connection.

“The Retroactive Album” (Ato Kara Album)
This Secret Gadget appears in Doraemon Volume 31 of the Tentōmushi Comics and in Volume 12 of the Fujiko F. Fujio Complete Works.

It looks like an ordinary photo album, but if you write down the subject along with the desired year, date, and time, place it inside the album, and wait three minutes before opening it, a photograph from that exact moment will appear.

In the original manga, it is used in a rather risqué way—to mass-produce photos of Shizuka’s bath scenes.
Because of this, it was adapted in the anime during the Nobuyo Ōyama version, but it has never been animated in the Wasabi Mizuta version.

Thinking about it, while digital cameras and smartphones have made it easier to take photos, printing them has become rare. Film photography, on the other hand, ensured physical photos.
Digital data can be lost, and sometimes you may not have access to a photo when you actually need it.
Important memories are best preserved not just as data, but also in the form of physical photographs.

“Tsukimidai Elementary School”
This is the name of the school that Nobita and his friends attend, though it varies depending on the version.

In the Nippon TV version: “Shitamachi Elementary School”

In the Nobuyo Ōyama version: “○× Elementary School”

In the Wasabi Mizuta version: “Nerima Ward Third Elementary School”

However, in lunar exploration settings and in Stand By Me Doraemon, it is called Tsukimidai Elementary School.
Although there are various theories, due to the difficulty of gathering definitive materials, this work will consistently refer to it as Tsukimidai Elementary School.

“Dekisugi-kun’s Name”
This topic is quite complicated, but it needs explanation so readers know how to read his name.

His kanji is definitively written as 出木杉英才, but surprisingly, there are two official readings: “Eisai” and “Hidetoshi.”
To make matters more confusing, in the early setting, his surname wasn’t even Dekisugi—it was “Akechi.” Original artwork displayed at the Fujiko F. Fujio Museum shows this.

His first appearance was in Monthly CoroCoro Comic (September 1979, No. 17), where only the surname “Dekisugi” was given. However, early printings mistakenly mixed “Akechi” and “Dekisugi,” resulting in two versions of the same issue.

Later, in the story “Tax Bird,” his name appeared as “Dekisugi Tarō.”
Eventually, in another work, his full name 出木杉英才 was shown, though without furigana.

It wasn’t until Manga Doraemon Encyclopedia that the reading “Dekisugi Eisai” was clearly indicated. Subsequent printings adopted this, but later revisions introduced “Hidetoshi” as another interpretation.

Even today, official sources acknowledge both readings, with “Hidetoshi” considered more likely.
Since Fujiko F. Fujio had already passed away when this debate arose, no definitive answer exists.

Therefore, readers are free to choose whichever reading they prefer.

“Just a Kettle”
This is not a Secret Gadget—just an ordinary kettle.
While there are kettle-shaped gadgets, this one is completely mundane.

Although it feels like Doraemon often pulls it out when panicking, statistics from manga, the Ōyama films, and the Mizuta films show it doesn’t even rank in the top three appearances—though it still appears fairly often.

Its strong association likely comes from a commercial for Doraemon: Great Adventure in the Antarctic Kachi Kochi, where comedian RG joked that “when Doraemon panics, random things like a kettle come out of his pocket.”

“Time Machine”
This is the well-known device Doraemon rides.

There are actually multiple types:

Doraemon’s: flying carpet type

Dorami’s: tulip type

Time Patrol’s: submarine type

It is said to have been created in the year 2008 and is widely available in the future. Doraemon’s model is a second-hand unit with engine issues, costing only one-tenth of Dorami’s.

A staple Secret Gadget in the manga, anime, and movies, its performance varies. Initially it held three passengers, but later it could carry five or more after being upgraded (as mentioned in Nobita’s Momotaro).

Doraemon can modify it, such as adding a “spacetime navigator” in Nobita and the Robot Kingdom. However, he cannot fully repair it himself, suggesting its structure is extremely complex.

It has traveled as far back as before Earth existed (Winged Braves) and as far forward as over 5 billion years into the future.

Contrary to popular belief, it was not the first Secret Gadget to appear—the Take-copter holds that distinction.

“Gussuri Pillow” (Deep Sleep Pillow)
Appearing in Volume 22 (Dekisugi’s Deep Sleep Strategy), this gadget lets you set a time duration, during which you will sleep soundly no matter what happens.

It’s a very practical gadget that many people would want in real life.
With modern advancements in sleep research, many old beliefs about sleep have changed, and even sleep itself has become gamified in recent years.

Personally, I’d love to have one—I have a bad habit of starting to read or write novels late at night and not being able to stop.
Staying up all night has also become harder… unlike when I used to reluctantly pull all-nighters to study like Nobita.