Muru Muru

Muru Muru (also known as "Mur Mur" in the English Version) is a character in Future Diary. She is the assistant of Deus Ex Machina, helping him prepare and judge the Survival Game. For most of the story, her role is minor, conversing with Deus as the game progresses and being relegated to comic relief in the side stories.

In the later chapters, Muru Muru reveals herself as the main antagonist of the story, plotting behind Deus' back to manipulate the events of the game for her own personal amusement. She also appears as the main antagonist in Future Diary: Paradox.

Appearance

Muru Muru appears as a diminutive human girl with dark skin, purple eyes, and lavender hair almost as long as her entire body. She has faint red circles on her cheeks (similar to Kamado Ueshita) and a small dot on her forehead.

Her usual outfit includes a pink turtleneck vest, white briefs, a large white bow with purple spots used to tie back her braids, blue shoes. She also wears a pair of strange white leggings that flare out dramatically on the top, making her legs look much larger than they actually are. She accessorizes her look with a golden trumpet tied to her waist and a pair of simple silver bracelets on her wrists; the latter serve as limiters to prevent her from using her full power.

After Deus's demise, Muru Muru changes her vest's color to light blue and extends her leggings into full pants. She dons a tattered black cape, wears a smaller version of Deus's crown, and replaces the dot on her forehead with an X-shaped white bandage that covers a large number "1" (referring to the world she hails from).

Personality

Correlating with her appearance, Muru Muru is a childish individual who is primarily concerned with her own amusement, seeing the Survival Game as a, particularly entertaining diversion. Quite mischievous, she often disguises herself as other people (and is actually mistaken to be the real one, despite her complete lack of a true disguise) to sneak in places for seemingly no reason at all. She's also known to be an avid manga reader; it is suggested she reads mostly shoujo manga.

Despite these peculiar quirks, Muru Muru has shown herself to be a manipulative, cunning, and sneaky individual. She plots behind Deus's back and uses the other participants in the way she sees fit to make the game more fun for her, ultimately revealing that she has little to no loyalty towards Deus. She also seems to belittle humans, or at the very least non-participants, believing the likes of Aru Akise to be unfit to enter the Cathedral of Causality and expressing homophobic remarks towards him - however, this might be due to his role as Deus's Observer conflicting with her own goals.

Much of Muru Muru's behavior can be explained by the being seen through most of the series is from the first world, and thereby be bound to a different god; it is unclear if the other versions of Muru Muru would develop similar tendencies if the Survival Game was allowed to proceed as planned.

Relationships

Deus (and successors)

Although Muru Muru is loyal to the god she is currently serving, she has no qualms about manipulating other deities for her own god's benefit. One such example of this is when the first Muru Muru tricked the second Deus and altered the course of the Survival Game to favor Yuno. In the post-credits scene of Episode 19, however, she is seen at Mother's Orphanage with Orin Miyashiro, who asks her about her parents. Muru Muru is then shown to think of Deus at this and the two continue discussing Muru Muru's "parent", with very different images in mind.

Some of the other bonus segments imply a parent-child relationship between Muru Muru and Deus, with Muru Muru attempting to make snacks for Deus and Deus tucking Muru Muru into bed after she tires herself out. However, some of this can be attributed to Deus being unaware that "his" Muru Muru is actually an impostor from the first world.

Despite her loyalty, Muru Muru isn't above trying to influence her god for her own amusement. Her first-world self was responsible for giving Yuno Gasai the idea of traveling to another world and repeating the Survival Game. Her second-world self would repeatedly prodded Yukiteru to try out his god powers rather than mope in the void that used to be existence.

Aru Akise

Muru Muru has a mutually antagonistic relationship with Deus's Observer, best seen throughout Future Diary: Paradox. It is implied that this is due to Muru Muru being from the first world, with Akise actively working to counter her schemes; this is supported by how the third world's Muru Muru seemed to openly welcome Akise and told him to continue his hard work.

Abilities

Being Deus' servant, Muru Muru has several superhuman abilities of her own. She can teleport herself as she pleases, even going from the Cathedral of Causality to the real world with a simple thought; additionally, she can teleport with enough speed to evade an attack from Deus, as well as bring others along for the ride. She also has the ability to manipulate time, freely traveling to the past, showing events of another timeline in a cinematic fashion. She could even revive the dead (something beyond Deus's capabilities) by rewinding their personal timelines to the time before their demise.

Muru Muru is a capable fighter, being able to manipulate a large orb to easily smash debris or even trap people in an illusion world, as well as stop a bullet with her bare hands. In the anime, Muru Muru shows several extra powers, including summoning black-colored projectiles which can take the form of different objects, manipulating shadows, firing an energy blast from the trumpet she carries on her person, and forming explosives that are stronger than those of Minene Uryu. She appears to be able to manipulate the environment of the Archives, with her third-world self gathering shards of metal from the walls and floor to form a mecha in her own image. She is also capable of manipulating memories, either removing or implanting them at will; the latter is apparently a much longer process.

Despite all of this, Muru Muru's power is restrained by the bracelets on her wrists. If her god allows it, she can break her restraints and become a bigger, monstrous version of herself with much more destructive abilities. While it is only glimpsed in the manga, Muru Muru's true form in the anime turned her skin a murky grey and gives her red eyes and fangs. In this form, she can attack at near-supersonic speeds and fight with rabid, violent strikes that prove enough to beat down Minene when she has a portion of Deus' powers. However, it is implied that this transformation expends a significant portion of Muru Muru's energy, as her restrained second-world self easily defeated her unrestrained first-world self at the end of the final battle.

It is suggested that Muru Muru's powers may rival or are close to those of Deus himself, as Deus does not act directly against her even when he knows that she's plotting against him; instead, he resorts to mostly restraining her rather than attempting to destroy her. However, the true gap between Muru Muru and Deus is unclear due to the latter's failing health.

Plot Overview

The First World

Muru Muru assisted Deus in the first Survival Game, with a pair of sealing braces put on her wrists to prevent her from using the full extent of her powers. However, Muru Muru became enthralled with the fun she could get out of the Survival Game and eventually sided with Yuno Gasai when she became God after Deus' death. Seeing Yuno's distress after her failure to resurrect Yukiteru Amano, Muru Muru gave the former Second the idea to leap back in time to be with Yuki. However, upon doing this, Yuno and Muru Muru discovered they had ended up in a parallel world one year into the past, where a second Yuno existed and the Survival Game was soon to begin anew.

The first world was implied to have been obliterated once Yuno traveled back in time.

The Second World

Unwilling to let someone else be with Yukiteru, even her own other self, Yuno ventured into her second-world house and slaughtered her counterpart with an axe. While Yuno is clearly shaken by murdering her other self, Muru Muru enters with the second Yuno's phone, giving to the first in preparation for the second Survival Game. She tries to encourage Yuno to become God once again, but Yuno admits she does not care about winning the game, only wanting to be with Yukiteru. When Muru Muru asks what will she do when only she and Yukiteru are left alive, Yuno gave her a cryptic smile.

At some point, Muru Muru encounters her own second self and imprisons her within Yuno's illusion space to replace her unnoticed by Deus. Both Deus and Muru Muru pose as Yuki's imaginary friends until the start of the second Survival Game; Yukiteru's first hint to their true nature comes when he notices Yuno sculpting a small clay figure in Muru Muru's likeness.

When Yukiteru opened a certain door in Yuno's house, he changed the future drastically enough to shake the Cathedral of Causality. While Deus regarded this turn of events as a pleasant surprise, Muru Muru flew into a panic, worrying that the space-time continuum would collapse after such a dramatic shift to the timeline. Fortunately, Muru Muru's fears were unfounded, allowing the Survival Game to continue.

During Karyuudo's attempt to kill Yukiteru, Yuno, and Aru with the help of his Attack Dogs and Hinata, Muru Muru alerted Kurusu to his son's terminal illness. This drove the Fourth to take action and betray his allies well ahead of when Deus expected him to; the God of Time and Space quickly realized that Muru Muru had done that deliberately. Dodging her "master's" attempt to crush her, Muru Muru freely admitted to her actions, explaining that she wanted to speed up the game and find a successor before Deus's demise. She then challenged Deus to a wager on who would win the Survival Game, placing her bet on Yuno while Deus chose Yukiteru.

As the Survival Game went on, Deus began to suspect that Muru Muru was attempting to steer the Survival Game in Yuno's favor, eventually deducing her true nature as a refugee of the first world and a servant of the similarly-displaced Yuno. He accordingly took measures to prevent further interference, notably turning Minene into a sleeper agent for his will by granting her a portion of his power and awareness of the existence of alternate worlds.

When Deus's body finally collapses a few days before the end of the game, Muru Muru collects his core and proclaims herself the interim god of the dying second world. She intervenes when Yuno tries to kill Yukiteru following his discovery of her true origins, confirming the late Akise's deductions before taking him into the past to show him the events of the first world. She then attempts to finish Yukiteru off for Yuno, only to be defied by Minene, wielding Deus's power specifically to stop her meddling. While Muru Muru is able to overcome Minene when Yuno allows her to break her seal, she is unable to prevent Yukiteru from following Yuno back in time, where he enacts changes that effectively negate the Survival Game before it even begins.

Yuno eventually attempts to stop Yukiteru's interference by trapping him in the same illusion world that Muru Muru sealed her second-world self in; as a result, the second Muru Muru escapes her prison when Yukiteru rejects the illusion and breaks out. She quickly disables the first Muru Muru and retakes Deus's core before intercepting a bullet sent by Keigo at the first world's Yuno, allowing her to embrace Yukiteru. After Yuno stabs herself, Muru Muru grabs a distraught Yukiteru and abruptly takes him back to the second world, where she granted him Deus's core and officially named him the God of Time and Space.

Unfortunately for Muru Muru, Yukiteru was utterly broken by Yuno's suicide and refused to do anything but mourn. For ten thousand years, they floated in the void, with Muru Muru forced to read a rotting manga book over and over as she tried to get her new god to act. Her efforts were in vain, as Yukiteru simply continued staring at his diary's final entry...until one day, it changed from "Yuno stabbed herself" to "Yuno came to see me".

The Third World

Following her defeat by the second Muru Muru, the first world's Muru Muru was imprisoned by her third world self; however, she was able to preserve "her" Yuno's memories by consuming her body. Using a keychain in her own image, she establishes contact with the third world's Yuno, directing her to Deus's Archives in order to meet with her. The third world's Muru Muru attempts to stop Yuno's advance, but Minene occupies her long enough for the latter to break into the sphere holding the first Muru Muru's cage. By the time Yuno reunites with her old friend, Muru Muru has taken on several of Yuno's physical traits, including her signature pink hair.

Fearing the consequences of this meeting, the third Muru Muru pursues Yuno, but the third world's Deus orders her to stand down. Observing the first Muru Muru's tearful "reunion" with Yuno, Deus concludes that absorbing Yuno's memories forced Muru Muru to come to terms with Yuno's suffering and her own sins, driving her to seek redemption. After absorbing her first-world self's memories, Yuno frees Muru Muru, who helps her break into the empty second world to meet with the second Yukiteru and his own servant. With Yuno becoming a goddess with Deus's blessing, all three Muru Murus joined her and Yukiteru as the latter two began creating a new world; they were implied to have lived through four more timelines, gaining four more versions of Muru Muru in the process.

Future Diary: Paradox

In an alternate twist of events, before the second Survival Game is due to start, Muru Muru is absentmindedly making mochi in the Cathedral of Causality when she ends up smashing a hole in the causality itself. Investigating the damage, Muru Muru discovers that she has erased Yuno from existence; shortly afterward, Deus notices the Second's absence as he declares the start of the Survival Game. A panicking Muru Muru decides to take Yuno's place in the game until she can fix the damage to the timeline.

On the second day of the game, Yuki is thrilled to have his diary but is shocked when he sees Muru Muru dressed as Yuno, trying to copy Yuno's stalker-like actions. Muru Muru begins to make mochi in class and is promptly sent outside by the teacher. It turns out Muru Muru is trying to make a stick of mochi in order to capture Yukiteru so he is not murdered by Takao. Muru Muru approaches Yukiteru, imitating Yuno, and chases him with her mochi stick to capture him. As Muru Muru chases Yuki, Hiyama joins the chase with the goal of killing Yuki, the chase leads to the office building where Hiyama is meant to be eliminated. Muru Muru trips and ends up getting stuck in the mochi; by the time she frees herself and flies up to the fourteenth floor, Yukiteru has already been stabbed by Hiyama. As Hiyama goes to break Yuki's diary, Aru appears with Muru Muru, immediately falling in love with Yukiteru.

After Akise tricks Hiyama into killing himself, Muru Muru places Yukiteru in a special bed which will heal his injuries and fix the new hole in causality. Painfully aware that the timeline is at risk of being completely derailed, Muru Muru tells Akise that he'll need to play the part of Yukiteru until they can properly repair the damage she caused. To do so, she gives Yukiteru's phone to Akise, attaching a small Yukiteru doll to it by a keychain to allow Akise to use the Random Diary.

Attack of the Ninth

During Minene's attack on Sakurami Elementary School, Akise and Muru Muru must perform Yuki and Yuno's actions to defeat the terrorist. Muru Muru puts on a pair of rocket-accelerated rollerskates and pulls out a syringe designed to subdue Minene. Akise and Muru Muru navigate their way through the school building as it slowly explodes, but Akise keeps going in different directions and Muru Muru continues to be caught in explosions. It is revealed in a flashback that Akise told Muru Muru he wanted Yuki to become God, considering to stand in for him for the whole game until he wins by default. Muru Muru recovers from another explosion but discovers her syringe has shattered. Akise and Muru Muru step outside to confront Minene, Akise revealing he has placed one of Minene's timed bombs in Muru Muru's backpack and sends her flying through the minefield towards Minene. Muru Muru shouts at Minene to turn off the bombs, but Keigo Kurusu appears, shooting bullets at Minene.

Muru Muru flies towards Minene as the bomb's timer hits zero. Muru Muru braces herself for the detonation, but no explosion comes. Opening her eyes, Muru Muru spots Minene fleeing on a motorbike. Akise comes over and reveals he removed the bomb's gunpowder, and everything was a bluff. Muru Muru is astonished that she was tricked, and begins to ponder whether or not she can truly trust Akise or not.

The Cult of the Sixth

A few weeks later, Muru Muru, Akise, and Kurusu are summoned to Tsubaki Kasugano's Omekata temple to remove the captured Minene. Muru Muru warns Akise not to interfere with the predicted timeline. Muru Muru points out Funatsu and explains the true sins of the religion. Muru Muru skips off to get food, prompting Akise to change the future for Tsubaki, the Fifth diary owner Reisuke Houjou, Orin Miyashiro and Seventh diary owner Ai Mikami. Akise approaches Ai and Orin, convincing them to help him rescue Tsubaki from her predicted Dead End and her fate.

Approaching Tsubaki with the proposal of "elopement", Akise manages to spirit Tsubaki away from her followers and Funatsu. Akise tries to flee the temple with Tsubaki, but is spotted by Muru Muru who is having lunch with Kurusu. Funatsu confronts Akise, but Akise makes his escape thanks to an explosion caused by Orin and Ai. Muru Muru appears, warning Akise to stop altering the future. Akise ignores her and escapes with Tsubaki in the car of Reisuke's parents. Realising Akise has completely altered the future by rescuing Tsubaki, befriending Reisuke, etc., and concludes she must remove Akise's influence before it is too late.

Muru Muru takes Funatsu prisoner with help from Yomotsu Hirasaka in order to put an end to Akise and Tsubaki's alterations. Muru Muru gloats about her plan to have Tsubaki eliminated by her own hypnotized followers, plotting to kill Yomotsu afterward. She fails to notice Yomotsu receiving a new entry on his Justice Diary. Akise and Tsubaki are captured by the followers and brought before Muru Muru and Funatsu. Tsubaki goads Funatsu into confessing that he murdered her parents, just as Reisuke turns on the temple's sound system, so that all the followers can hear him, Yomotsu ending the hypnotism after finding Reisuke and learning of the situation. Muru Muru is so enraged by Akise's deception once again that she blasts a hole in the nearby roof and flies off, promising to get Akise back.

In another flashback, it is revealed that Muru Muru uses a giant robot named Mecha-Muru Muru to transplant her memories onto reality, which will fix the hole in the causality. In the present, with only an hour to go until Yuki is healed, Muru Muru is confident that her victory is assured. Akise suddenly charges through the Cathedral of Causality on an elephant, planning to find out Muru Muru's true goal by looking in the memory bank of Mecha-Muru Muru. Noting how Muru Muru knew how the survival game would develop, Akise makes his way towards Mecha-Muru Muru, only for Hiyama to appear, Muru Muru revealing she resurrected him to ensure that the survival game can start anew correctly. Akise lands on Mecha-Muru Muru's head, only to find a brainwashed Yuki waiting for him, armed with a knife. Yuki stabs Akise with the knife, designed by Muru Muru to erase Akise's memories. As Akise despairs, he is helped up by Tsubaki, discovering she, Reisuke, Orin, Ai, and Marco Ikusaba have come to help him.

Marco gets into a fight with Muru Muru, whilst Reisuke fights Yuki. Tsubaki accompanies Akise to the memory bank entrance, convincing him to go through the entrance door. In Muru Muru's memories, Akise finds himself in Yuno's house. Hearing Muru Muru speaking to Yuno, Akise peeks through a door to the room where Yuno's parents died, discovering Muru Muru giving Yuno her second Future Diary whilst the second Yuno lies dead on the floor. It is at this point that Muru Muru fixes the hole she made and the events of Paradox are erased from existence.

Trivia

• Muru Muru is named after the Goetic demon Murmur. The trumpet she carries is a further reference to the demon.
• Muru Muru's character theme song is "Ubiquitous" by NIRGILIS.
• The white number on Muru Muru's forehead refers to her world of origin.
• The end of the manga reveals that Yuki and Yuno stayed together through a further four timelines, revealing they gained seven Muru Murus for company.
• In one of the shorts, Muru Muru has a type of candy that allows her to change her age at will.
• Muru Muru's character does not exist in Future Diary: Another World, instead composited together with Deus Ex Machina to create the serial's version of Deus.

References