After completion of the five heroine routes, the two-part true route is unlocked: Moon and Terra. Moon route takes place on the moon but at the same time, it is more than that. On the moon exists Moon Kagari, who is tirelessly working on “something.” Koutarou cannot even begin to comprehend it; in fact, when he merely looks at it, it causes his head to undergo intense pain. This is not due to things such as brightness or a similar phenomenon; it is the result of the information being laid out simply being beyond human capacity for comprehension. By simply glancing at it, the human brain is overloaded with information. What we learn is that Kagari is working with what can be described as all the timelines in existence, akin to the akashic records. As a result, the moon where they reside is not the moon as we know it but rather a plane of existence that exists outside of time itself. The so called theorem which Moon Kagari works on has the ability to contain all timelines in existence. The map branches endlessly like a tree, with each line representing a different possibility. However, each line also meets its doom, the end of humanity. In fact, the five heroine routes were also a part of this tree of possibilities, all failures leading to humanity’s destruction, and this Moon Kotarou is the accumulation of all past Kotarous into a single being. What Kagari is looking for is the one timeline in which earth and humanity can survive. She makes adjustments to each “experiment,” and watches the earth proceed from its origin, only to eventually meet another end. She can also choose when to make branches, at any point in time. With the simplest tweak, she watches the butterfly effect unfold yielding yet another failure.
This existence outside of time parallels God’s existence outside of time. He too watches not just us but all points in time at once. Furthermore, the idea of heaven existing “above” us is only symbolically. The Moon is not a place which exists in the same spatial plane; it transcends the idea of time and space. Heaven is also a place that does not exist in any defined place as we know it. It exists, together with God, in a place that is not affected by the flow of time. Moon route speaks of time, but only vaguely, because Kotarou has no ability to keep track of time. This is perhaps a perfect representation of the common arguments and theories about what actually happened during creation. Did God literally create the world in 6 days or is that a metaphor for evolution or something else entirely? The answer is, if we used Rewrite as a basis, perhaps everything. Kagari controls the creation of life, but for the most part, watches it unfold. God, too, possibly set up the necessary components for the creation of life, but otherwise watched without involving Himself too much. A day in Moon route means nothing because the concept of time does not apply to it. However, the Bible uses words like “day” because it is the best way to communicate with us, who cannot grasp the concept of God. However, by reading Moon route and how Kagari works toward the creation of life, one can come far closer to imagining how God may have worked when He created us.
Of course, all of this may seem far-fetched or incomprehensible. In regards to the supernatural nature of the Moon route, in Rewrite, what allows such phenomena to occur is the existence previously described as Aurora. Aurora is a supernatural existence since the beginning of time. Although not conscious, it instinctively initiates “evolution” of life. All supernatural phenomena – from superhumans to the summoning of familiars and everything else is a result of using the power of Aurora. However, the power of Aurora is limitless, as it can constantly evolve things beyond that of “life” and create higher dimensions – even that of dimensions outside of time. The Moon was created by this power of Aurora. Finally, Aurora is invisible and undetectable except in large concentrations. Therefore, it can be imagined that a similar kind of Aurora might exist in our world as well. A power which births the supernatural yet is not detectable, a power which people can use to bring about “miracles,” yet deemed as nothing more than fairy tales by the common man. The existence of God outside time, His omnipotence and omnipresence, and all the supernatural things which the Bible mentions from miracles to angels and demons – imaging all of this in terms of Rewrite’s Aurora makes things far more relatable. Aurora is perhaps the single most important thing in Rewrite, as understanding how it works allows the reader to understand the more complex workings of the plot. As a result, Christians too can use the portrayal of Aurora to help us reason through the supernatural events of the Bible.
Backtracking, Kotarou is unable to comprehend the branching tree of possibilities. Let alone comprehension, he can barely stand to look at it due the density of information. In order to understand it, Kotarou uses the power of Aurora to rewrite his mind. However, it’s not enough. He rewrites his mind again and again and slowly begins to grasp the basics, but it’s still not enough. He continues to rewrite his mind over and over, far surpassing the mental capacity of anything that can be called human and beings to understand it. However, he approaches a line which he should never cross and is finally pulled back to the realm of humanity just before. Kotarou’s need to rewrite himself to such a point in order to comprehend the tree is simply because of the limits of a human. Similarly, we humans can never hope to truly understand God or how he works. As an existence outside of time, God is far beyond our comprehension as humans. Yet, people always try to bring God down to the level of human understanding or logic, which is impossible. The idea that we can understand even a fraction of how God works and thinks is ludicrous. This is not a statement which is to be used to “disprove” non-believers; rather, it is to emphasize how hopelessly complex any theoretical discussions involving God must be in order to be realistic. Both believers and non-believers must keep in mind just how incomprehensible God’s nature is; both sides need to admit that in the grand scheme of things, no one really knows anything. Maintaining the level of a hypothesis: if God exists, then by His very nature, human reason and logic are useless in a discussion. Furthermore, even the very words ascribed to God cannot be tested because language is, by nature, arbitrary. If languages are so difficult to translate between each other, how much more difficult would it be to translate the words and nature of God? Asking “if God is x, then why…” is bringing God down to the level where he can be described by human terms, definitions, and ideas. The Bible tries to describe God in a way humans can understand, but in reality, it is imperfect because of the limitations of humans. To mentally comprehend God is to no longer be human. Not even Kotarou, who had rewritten himself far beyond the limitations of a human, could truly grasp the nature of what he was seeing. The Bible often describes God as a blinding light, but perhaps this is because God’s mere existence is so beyond our comprehension that the mere sight of Him would cause the same mental exhaustion the tree caused Kotarou.
Up to this point, Kotarou and Moon Kagari were the only two people on the Moon. However, one day a familiar appears, followed by another, followed by even more. Kotarou realizes that this is an intentional attack by none other than Kashima Sakura, the leader of Gaia. She has defied all odds and somehow managed to find the Moon, a place which exists outside of the very time she is confined to. While she cannot travel there directly, she is able to send her familiars there to attack. Her goal is to stop Kagari from completing her theorem which would otherwise lead to humanity’s survival. Kashima’s hatred for humanity is revealed to be even greater than previously thought, as she is adamant about destroying the single potential timeline which would lead to survival. To help defend Moon Kagari, Kotarou summons the previous heroines and Yoshino to the Moon; he can do so because of the deep bonds he has formed with them over the previous timelines. Together, they fight against Kashima’s periodic but growing attacks.
If the Moon is a plane of existence outside of time paralleling the spiritual plane of the supernatural, then the battle against Kashima is quite literally spiritual warfare. Although Kotarou and friends are on the Moon, they are existences which are separate from their human counterparts because their physical bodies cannot travel to the Moon for the same reason Kashima must send familiars and cannot travel there herself. It is also because of this phenomenon that the characters retain their memories from all timelines, because they represent the spiritual bodies of their physical selves. Christians acknowledge the existence of spiritual warfare, but its mechanisms are often too complex to imagine. However, Rewrite manages to depict spiritual warfare by combining it with the idea of a place which exists outside of time. Our spirits are in constant battle against the supernatural, but our physical bodies may not notice this at all and see it as foolish delusions. However, the battles are very real; perhaps they simply exist in a place completely separate from us. At the same time, the outcome of spiritual warfare has very real consequences. If Kashima manages to win, she would destroy all hope for humanity’s survival. On an individual basis, survival is equivalent to salvation. In Rewrite, there is only one path which leads to survival; in Christianity, there is only one path which leads to salvation. As we live our lives, our spirits battle for the sake of reaching this single path for the sake of our future but even more so, for the sake of humanity’s future.
Meanwhile, Moon Kagari searches tirelessly for the answer which will lead to humanity’s survival. No matter how many failures occur, she continues to search. It can be said she is pouring out a great amount of love into her theorem. It is almost as if she feels the only purpose for her life is to save humanity. The failures are not her fault; they are a result of the choices of humanity and re-evolution being invoked. Even so, she continues to pour out all her love into finding the one path to survival. In the same way, God pours out His love to us. He does whatever He can, without taking away our free will, to guide us toward the right path. However, many of us still refuse to accept Him. Oftentimes, we only accept God’s existence when it becomes convenient and blame Him when things go wrong. But it isn’t God’s fault, much like it isn’t Kagari’s fault. Arguably, God is all powerful while Kagari is not; however, it does not change the fact that God is guiding us toward the path to salvation. We are the ones who stray from that path; the free will of humans leads to humanity’s own destruction. It is true that there is a lot of suffering in the world. But looking at Rewrite and how humanity was destroyed over and over again yet Kagari continues to do everything in her power to save it is very reminiscent of the love God pours into our lives only to have so many people reject him and continue down a path of self-destruction. Like Kagari, God never abandons us and continues to be with us and continues to love us.
Kashima’s army of familiars grows in size with each attack. Finally, she mounts a final, all out attack, pushing the protagonists to their limits. The heroes fall one by one until there are only a few left. Moon Kagari has yet to find a solution to save humanity. As Kashima’s familiars come closer and closer to achieving their goal of destruction, Kotarou, in a state of despair, writes a single sentence into the tree of possibilities
I hope to see you again someday.
In a flash of brilliance, Kagari is inspired by these words and applies them to her theorem. The result is humanity’s growth, survival, and escape from destruction. The Aurora of the Moon is gathered together with Kotarou and transferred from this world outside of time to an Earth of a new timeline. There are only enough resources for one final re-evolution. The Aurora has been exhausted from too many failures. This is the last hope of mankind.
The sending of something from the spiritual plane to the physical plane to save humanity is exactly what God did. He sent His son Jesus to our world to save us. Jesus is the last and the only hope to save us from our own sin. Jesus is the answer which God chose to use to save us yet it is not simply a cure all. While Jesus can lead to our salvation, it is still dependent on us as people to choose Jesus with our own free will. Otherwise, we will simply waste the chance God gave us. Furthermore, the mere sending of something to save humanity is only where the parallel begins. Moon route comes to a close here, and the true finale of Rewrite begins with Terra.
