“Mizura! Hey Mizura! MIZURA!” Konata yelled at a sleeping Mizura. “How could you be sleeping at a time like this?” Konata asked menacingly at Mizura. Mizura woke with a start.
“Wha…?” He says, looking around at Konata. “What do you mean at a time like this?”
“You know, with the disappearance of that star yesterday,” Konata replied casually. Mizura looked at her with alarm.
“Konata! Shhh! No one can find out about that or the boy!” Mizura said secretly while looking out of their little hangout fort.
“Oh come on Mizura, you know no one is around,” Konata replied smiling at Mizura. He had to admit, Konata was cute, he did like her, and the meaning of her name, Palette of Light, fit her perfectly but talking about the boy like it was nothing, was not a small matter. The other day, Mizura and Konata had been hanging out at there Usual spot, as they called their fort, they were laying down looking at the stars, after a long day of fake sword practice, when they seen a star go out. They wondered why it had just suddenly gone out. Then when Mizura was walking home, he found a boy lying in the alley, unconscious. He took the boy home but did not tell any one but Konata. He did not want anyone to find out about the boy either for fear of what the people of Twilight Town might do to him…
Mizura snuck the boy into his house so his parents would not know. Once Mizura had the boy in his room the boy woke up. The boy was scared out of his mind. It took all of Mizura’s strength to calm the boy down. Once Mizura had the boy calm he told him to explain why he was in the alley and who he was for Mizura had never seen him before.
“My name is Neku. I live… No lived in a place called Destiny Islands,” Neku said with wide eyes searching the room they were in.
“Neku huh? I’m Mizura. What do you mean ‘lived’? Mizura was suddenly more curious in this strange boy.
Neku looked Mizura in the eyes and whispered “Well you see, there is this Evil Emperor. He’s going from world to world searching for the Elements of Eternal Life. He wants to live forever and conquer all worlds. He controls darkness. He is like the most hideous thing you have ever seen multiplied by ten. To see him would strike fear directly into your heart. My world, Destiny Islands held one of the Elements. He already has Tsuchi or earth and Sora or sky. Luckily I got to my worlds Element before he did.” And with this, Neku reached up to his chest and said “Mizu,” Suddenly an orb of water appeared in his hand. “This is the Element Mizu or water. Because I control it, I can control water.”
Mizura just listened the entire time, awed by the sense of something bigger then himself and his town, or as Neku called it his World. “Ok but you still did not answer my question. What do you mean Lived?”
Neku looked at Mizura with a look of pain in his eyes. “The emperor made the darkness swallow up my world along with everyone else in it. I am surprised I survived. As it is, I stole one of the emperor’s ships. “…
Yesterday seemed like a dream to Mizura. Like he would wake up at any minute and see that everything was just fine. But here he was standing in front of Konata, thinking about what he was going to do.
“Well, what should we do?” Konata ask Mizura questioningly.
“I really don’t know,” Mizura replied right as Neku walk into the usual spot.
“Hey Mizura! I’ve been looking for you!” Neku shouted out then looked at Konata, “Why hello Konata! Mind if I steal Mizura for a minute?” Neku asked quickly as if he had something very important to tell Mizura and he did not want anyone else around.
Konata looked from Mizura to Neku twice then slowly said, “Sure.”
Mizura just plainly walked out of the Usual spot and Neku almost seemed to be dancing his way down the street.
“What do you want Neku?” Mizura said with more bitterness then he had intended.
Neku stopped his little dance-walk deal, looked at Mizura with a solemn face and said, “We need to leave this world at once. The Emperor is coming and we need to be out of here before he gets here. If we don’t get out of he…”
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa! ‘We’? The last I knew it was YOU running from this Emperor. Not both of us. When did I get involved in this? And what about Konata?” Mizura replied quickly.
Neku just looked at Mizura. After thirty seconds of both of them just starring at each other Neku finally said, “Are you that stupid? You got involved when you dragged me to your house and asked all those questions. You can’t throw all this away Mizura. This is your chance to prove to Konata that you would fight for her!”
“WHAAAA…? How did you know I liked her?” A startled Mizura asked. He had not been expecting that one. He had expected Neku to say something like “It is your duty” and then go into this huge destiny speech and say something mystic about his ancestors.
Neku chuckles while saying “It’s kinda obvious Mizura. You like her and she likes you. It’s plain as day. I mean she looks at you whenever she can!”
Mizura could not believe what he had just heard. Konata liked him. Happiness welled up inside him and then it was shot down. Neku was not done talking.
“Don’t get too attached to her though. We have to go save all these worlds remember? Don’t you want to save Konata from certain doom?” Neku asked with an almost mocking tone. Mizura wanted nothing more then to just run to Konata and tell her that he liked her but Neku seemed to have sensed this and violently tugged on Mizura’s shirt collar, “We. Need. To. Leave. NOW!” Neku hissed angrily at Mizura, “So go in there and tell her you will be gone for a couple days, and then we will leave,” Neku starred Mizura down as he said this. The only thing Mizura could do was nod. So slowly, oh so slowly, Mizura walked back into the usual spot with Neku trailing him. Konata looked up from a picture she was drawing…
She could sense something was wrong. The way Mizura walked was not normal. He had this natural pep in his step but for some reason it was gone. She looked back at Neku who was walking in behind Mizura. No, he was not walking but at the same time he was not exactly strutting either. It was a kinda cross between the two. He was hiding something. What it was she did not know but she did not like the way he was smiling…
Mizura felt miserable. He knew that Konata knew that he was. “Konata, we, I mean Neku and I, are leaving for a bit. I will be back as soon as I can be. I… I’m sorry.” Mizura could not hold back the waterfall from his eyes. He stood up and walked out of the Usual Spot with Neku right on his heels.
“How you feel Mizura?” Neku asked. Mizura just looked ahead and did not say a thing. He was to upset and angry with Neku. “That bad huh? Hey cheer up buddy! She’ll be here when you get back from saving all the worlds out there!” Neku said all this while putting his arm around Mizura trying to reassure him.
“GET OFF ME!” Mizura screamed at Neku and pushed his arm off him, “I need to be alone for a bit,” Mizura softly spoke these words not wanting to break Neku’s and his friendship already. After all they had to be together to save all these worlds. Mizura ran, at times sprinted, to his house. “This could be the last time I see this place,” he thought silently, “I might as well get one last look to remember everything, Wait what? Why am I saying this? Of course I’ll be back! I have to if I want to see Konata again!”…
Neku watched Mizura run away and started laughing. “MUAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s right Mizura! Run! Run away from me! You’ll be back. I just know it. You want Konata to know how strong you are so you’ll come running back to me to go save the worlds. Then when you get back you’ll brag about how you “saved” the worlds. To bad this dream of yours will never be a reality. For I, Neku the Destroyer of Worlds, the Master of Darkness, will destroy you after you find for me the last element. MUAHAHAHAHA!”…
Konata watched in horror as she heard Neku saying this. She had to tell Mizura right away…
Mizura gathered just one thing from his house. It was a small trinket that Konata had made for him. It was in the shape of a star. She had made it for him saying it was a promise to always be friends no matter what. He tucked it away into his back pocket and stood still, still in the bliss of the memory. Then out of no where he heard a tapping on his window. He jumped out of his skin and quickly turned around. Right outside his window was Neku smiling and waving him over. Mizura walked to the window, opened it up and saw how Neku was there. Underneath Neku was a small spacecraft. He could tell it was only going to fit 2 people. Neku offered Mizura his hand and helped him in. Neku got in and started the engine. They started to pull away from the World when Mizura seen Konata below them. He saw her lips moving but he could not hear her, “Konata, I love you, I promise I’ll be back!” but somehow he had a feeling this is not what she was saying back to him, for he had read her lips and the only word he read scared him… Evil…
“Neku, how many worlds are we going to search? We have looked at dozens and still nothing,” Mizura asked without looking at Neku but kept looking out at the last star, “I mean after we search a world the darkness just swallows it up after we leave. Even Twilight Town…”
“Are you STILL upset about that? It happened 2 weeks ago Mizura! Face it Konata and your world are gone. There is nothing you can do to bring them back except help me find the elements then you can bring back everything by defeating the emperor. That is the only way to bring them back,” Neku replied matter-of-factly.
“How do you know this?” Mizura asked as he looked away from the glass, “I mean you know that by defeating the emperor everything and everyone will come back? And how do you know so much about everything that is going on? And where did you get the weapons?”
Neku chuckles and says “Curious aren’t we? If you must know I learned all about this emperor from my world. The elders of my world told me about him and that I must defeat him. The weapons also came from the warriors of my world. They are the ones that figured out how to make these swords so they will cut through the darkness. There happy?”
“For now,” Replied Mizura but secretly he thought “No I’m not, that was not a straight answer but whatever,” Mizura turned from Neku to stare at the last star. As he did so he pulled out the star trinket and held it tightly, thinking about Konata and his world…
The arrived at the world and instantly Mizura felt some thing different about this world. The world had no vegetation and as far as they could see no people. “So this must be the world with the fire element huh?” Mizura asked even though he knew the answer.
“Yeah, too bad you won’t see it!” Neku said menacingly. Mizura looked back at him and gasped. He had grew a foot and seemed to have an air of evil around him. No. There was darkness around him. The darkness slowly thickened as Mizura stood still shocked. Somehow he knew but did not want to believe it. He drew out his sword that Neku had given him. The sword was a double sided long sword that was perfect for him. The hilt and the blade of the sword were separated by a star shaped emblem.
“Who are you?” Mizura asked even though he knew the answer.
“It is I, Neku the Emperor, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Controller of Darkness. I will destroy you. I now have all four elements. You will never defeat me.”
“What you only have 3 of the elements. You are still missing fire” Neku could hear that Mizura knew he was defeated.
“I only have to visit the world for a second and the element of that world, if they hold one, automatically comes to me,” As he said this, a red orb flew out from behind Mizura and flew into Neku’s chest, “Now I have ultimate power! I will never be defeated”
“That’s what you think,” Mizura replied but there was a confidence in his voice. He was glowing like a god. There was this golden aura around him that seemed to give him this confidence. He raised his sword higher and prepared to charge. Neku beat him to the chase. Mizura just simply smiled. He had been practicing sword play all his life with Konata. He could see the simple tactics the emperor was about to use just by how he had stood and how he charged him. Mizura adjusted his stance and prepared to deflect the blow. “Easy, to easy,” Mizura thought out loud. He could see the color drain from Neku’s face and seem his confidence shatter. Mizura struck, finding his target easily.
Neku laid on the ground defeated, ”How? How did you do it?”
“The final element. The most secretive and powerful of them all. Love. I had love backing me up. This,” He held up the star trinket Konata had given him, “Held the final element, Love can help you find your light even in the blackest darkness. Now I have defeated you so…”
Mizura looked up and seen all the stars suddenly reappear. He knew where to look for Twilight Town. As he looked in the spot the darkness of where it should be a light shined. The most beautiful light he had ever seen. And he knew that some one there was looking back at him…