Kagura of the Moonlight: The Immortal Bride and the Reincarnated Programmer
Sora Kagura had everything—until a single virus erased every line of code he'd ever written and dragged him into a world where the moon hangs three times too large and nothing follows the rules he knows.
Now he's stranded in a parallel world with no stamina, no combat skills, and no way home. His only lead: a torn nameplate reading "Yuzaki." His only guide: Kougetsu Kaguya, a masked girl in a black kimono who claims he carries the "blood of the moon" and that she needs his power.
But what powe
Kagura of the Moonlight: The Immortal Bride and the Reincarnated Programmer - The Night the Moon Was Too Big: The Transferred Programmer's First Observation
The first thing I felt when I woke was something hard pressing against my back.
Kagura Sora slowly sat up. His head was foggy, like he'd been dragged back from a long dream against his will, and his thoughts refused to come together.
Where... am I?
He looked around.
An unfamiliar park. He'd been sitting on an old bench, and in front of him stood a faded slide and a set of rust-peeling monkey bars. Trees lined the perimeter, and streetlamps dropped scattered, unreliable pools of light.
Night. And from the look of it, deep into the night.
Sora shoved a hand into his pocket. His phone was there. He tapped the screen, and a bright glow rose up out of the dark.
The date read 202X. The time, 2:17 a.m.
...Something's wrong.
His last memory was the walk home from a programming contest. He'd won the national championship, clutched the certificate all the way home. He'd been happy. He'd felt like it had finally paid off.
And yet.
When he'd opened his computer, everything was gone.
Every program he'd ever written, his research data, the fragments of code he'd carefully raised like a garden—all of it. A virus had wiped it clean.
He had no idea who'd done it. But the reality was cruel.
What had he done then, again?
...He couldn't quite remember. He thought he'd collapsed onto his bed and fallen asleep.
And yet here he was.
What the hell is going on?
He checked his phone again. He had signal. Battery at seventy percent. He went to open the map app, and his finger stopped.
The name of this town wasn't anywhere.
No—more precisely, the map app displayed "Unable to determine current location." GPS wasn't working.
Sora narrowed his deep brown eyes. He had a habit of losing focus when he was thinking.
"Calm down. First, sort out the situation."
He said it to himself.
He raked his fingers through his short black hair and glanced at the old digital watch on his left wrist. 2:18 a.m. Almost the same as his phone. The watch wasn't off.
White shirt, black slacks. The same clothes he'd worn to the contest. A portable battery was in his pocket, too.
In other words, he hadn't been carried here by someone. He was here in exactly what he'd been wearing.
Sora lifted his head.
And stopped breathing.
The moon was too big.
An impossible moon hung dead center in the night sky. Twice the usual size—no, three times. Its outline was razor-sharp, and he could see the crater patterns with his naked eye.
"What the hell is that."
He stared up at it for a while.
When a thin cloud drifted across the moon, the shadows in the park wavered for just a moment. Wind was blowing. A lukewarm wind. The summer night air clung to his skin.
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
No insects. No cars. Back near his family's home in Tokyo, you'd hear signs of life from somewhere even in the middle of the night.
Sora rose from the bench.
The instant he did, dizziness hit him.
"...Ngh."
He braced a hand on the bench's backrest and somehow kept himself upright. His heart was pounding. Cold sweat ran down his back.
He had no stamina.
He looked down at his thin arms. Not what you'd call muscular. Ever since starting high school he'd done nothing but sit at a desk—no real exercise to speak of.
(This is bad.)
Wandering around in this state was dangerous. But staying put here felt even more dangerous.
Sora took a slow, deep breath and searched for the park's exit.
The park was small. Three benches, a slide, monkey bars, a sandbox. And a small notice board in the center.
He approached the board.
Several notices were pinned up—neighborhood announcements, a lost-cat flyer. Every one of them bore the name of a residents' association he'd never heard of.
Then a single sheet of paper in the corner caught his eye.
A scrap of paper, really.
It was half of a torn nameplate. The characters, brushed in ink on a wooden board, were just barely legible.
"...Yuzaki."
Sora traced the characters with his finger.
Yuzaki. A name he'd never heard. But a Yuzaki family existed in this world. At least, somewhere near this park.
(It might be a lead.)
He slipped the scrap into his pocket.
He stepped out of the park.
A residential district spread before him. Old single-family houses lined up in rows, utility poles standing at regular intervals. The kind of suburban scenery you'd find anywhere.
And yet, something was still off.
The smell of the air, the layout of the buildings, the color of the streetlights. In the small details, bit by bit, everything was out of sync with the world he knew.
(This isn't my world.)
He reached that conclusion calmly.
Parallel worlds. Isekai transport. He wasn't the type to believe in that kind of fantastical nonsense. But denying the reality in front of him was the greater irrationality.
If the data contradicts itself, you doubt the code.
If the world is wrong, you doubt the world.
That was all there was to it.
Sora started walking.
In less than five minutes, he was out of breath.
"Hah... ngh."
His legs were heavy. A dull throb pulsed behind his eyes. He cursed his lack of stamina.
(At least let me find somewhere to rest.)
The moment he thought it, his feet tangled.
He lost his balance and pitched toward the asphalt.
—That was when it happened.
You're not a human of this world, are you.
A voice.
Sora caught himself just before falling and looked toward the sound.
A girl stood beneath a streetlamp.
She wore a black kimono, a black mask covering the lower half of her face. Her long black hair caught the moonlight and shimmered silver now and then.
She looked about his age, maybe a little younger.
Barely over five feet—small.
And yet her presence was uncanny.
Obsidian eyes stared straight at him. Deep within them, a golden ring seemed to surface, reflecting the moonlight.
The blood of the moon stirs.
The girl repeated it, her face expressionless.
Sora steadied his breathing and studied her.
(Black kimono, black mask. In a residential district at night, she stands out completely.)
But strangely, he felt no fear.
If anything, some cool corner of his mind had already decided: this girl is not an enemy.
"...Who are you?"
"Kougetsu Kaguya."
She answered shortly.
"Kougetsu... Kaguya."
"Yes."
Kaguya drew closer.
No footsteps. Not even the rustle of her kimono's hem. She closed the distance as smoothly as a moving shadow.
Can you stand?"
"...Somehow."
"Lie. You're pale. You look ready to collapse."
Sora gave a weak smile.
"You read me well."
"Anyone would, if they looked."
Kaguya glanced at his left wrist.
"An old digital watch. Is it important?"
"...Well, I've had it forever."
"I see. Is it broken?"
"It's running. For now."
"Then it's fine."
With that, she spun on her heel.
Follow me."
"Where to?"
"The Yuzaki house. There's someone there who can help you."
Yuzaki.
The name from the notice board.
"...Why help me?"
Kaguya didn't turn around.
Because the blood of the moon stirs. And because I need your power."
"My power?"
"I'll explain while we walk."
She started off.
Sora hesitated.
An unknown world, an unknown girl, an unknown house.
By any rational measure, the risk was far too high.
But right now, he had no other choice.
His stamina was nearly gone. He had no sense of the terrain. Wandering this residential district alone at night was the more dangerous option.
Sora let out a small breath and followed her.
"...Wait. At least explain a little more."
"What do you want to know first?"
Kaguya slowed her pace, just slightly.
"First—where is this? Why am I here?"
"This is a different world from the one you came from. Call it a parallel world, or an isekai. You wandered into it while you were asleep."
"Wandered in."
"I don't know why. But the blood of the moon runs in your body. Thick blood, too. Perhaps the moon pulled you here."
"What's the blood of the moon?"
Kaguya looked up at the sky.
The impossibly large moon floated above the rooftops.
The blood of humans bound closely to the moon. It lets you sense the presence of the Moonfolk. I carry it too."
"The Moonfolk."
"Transcendent beings lurking on the underside of this world. They look almost human. But their physical abilities far surpass ours, and physical attacks barely touch them."
Sora furrowed his brow.
"...Fantasy, huh."
"Fact. Whether you believe it is up to you. But the moon should tell you."
He looked up.
Sure enough, the moon was too big.
"Is that moon this world's moon?"
"Yes. When the Moonfolk's power grows, the moon appears larger. Right now... it's in a rather dangerous state."
"Dangerous."
"The Moonfolk are on the move. To take back a certain girl."
Sora studied Kaguya's profile.
The black mask hid her expression. But her voice had dropped, just a little.
"Who?"
"Yuzaki Tsukasa. A girl who was forced to drink the elixir of immortality by the Moonfolk fourteen hundred years ago."
"Immortality."
"Hard to believe?"
"...Honestly, it's a lot to swallow."
"That's fine. But a fact is a fact."
Kaguya stopped.
"We turn here."
They entered a narrow alley.
Few streetlamps—it was dark. Sora walked carefully, watching his footing.
"...Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Why do you know so much about all this?"
Kaguya paused for a moment.
Because the Moonfolk took something from me, too."
"Took something."
"My mother. When I was ten, they carried her away."
Sora was at a loss for words.
Kaguya's voice stayed flat.
"My mother was strong. But she couldn't beat the Moonfolk. Human strength can't put a single scratch on them. All I could do was watch her back."
"..."
"Six years since then. I've been hunting the Moonfolk. To protect Yuzaki Tsukasa."
"Why Tsukasa?"
"The Moonfolk are after her. Protecting Tsukasa is how we stop their plan."
"Their plan."
"I'll explain once we reach the Yuzaki house. It's a long story."
Kaguya walked on.
Sora watched her back and sorted the information in his head.
A parallel world. The Moonfolk. An immortal girl.
(It's like a game's setting.)
But the moon really was huge, and Kaguya's story was oddly specific.
He pulled his phone from his pocket.
Checked the screen.
The date was still 202X. The same date as his original world.
(Can I get back?)
He gripped the phone.
A way home. Did one exist, or not?
...Probably not.
He had no basis for it. But from the moment he'd woken in that park, Sora had felt it faintly.
He could never return to that world.
"...Hey."
"What?"
"Can I go back to my world?"
Kaguya turned around.
Her black eyes caught the moonlight and shone gold.
I don't know. But even if you could, not now."
"Not now."
"The moon's power is too strong. The boundary between worlds has grown unstable. It may be why you wandered in here."
Sora looked up at the sky.
The giant moon stared down at him.
"...The moon's power, huh."
"If the moon shrinks, a path might open. But not yet."
"So I have no choice but to live in this world."
"That's right."
Sora let out a long breath.
(This is the worst.)
But strangely, he wasn't pessimistic.
It would be a lie to say he had no attachment to his old world. But what he'd lost there had been enormous.
He'd won the programming contest. And then it had all vanished.
Rather than taste that despair again—
Starting over in a new world didn't sound so bad.
(...No, what am I thinking.)
He shook his head.
The Yuzaki house is just ahead."
"Yeah."
They walked in silence for a while.
The residential district at night was quiet, as before.
Sora watched Kaguya's back and found himself thinking.
(She's been fighting alone all this time, hasn't she.)
Her mother taken at ten, and six years since.
Chasing the Moonfolk, protecting Tsukasa.
"...That must've been rough."
The moment it left his mouth, he regretted it.
Kaguya turned.
What was?"
"No... I just meant, six years fighting alone."
Kaguya stared at him, expressionless.
...I'm not alone. Now, I have you."
Sora's eyes went wide.
"I didn't say I'd fight."
"You didn't. Bu
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