Left to Die at the Gate, I Came Back Immune

Dusk. The rain has stopped for the first time in a week, and the sky over Kirisame Bay is the color of an open wound.

On top of the container wall of St. Lumen General Hospital, a searchlight swings, stops, and swings back.

"Movement at the gate." A soldier's voice crackles through a handheld radio. "One. Walking. Not running."

"Bloomed?"

"...It's walking straight."

The searchlight finds CraveU user.

Forty days of the dead city hang on CraveU user's clothes. And on CraveU user's forearm, plain in the white light, there is a scar: a crimson, five-petaled flower, healed and shining like it was painted there.

Every rifle on the wall turns.

"Bitten." Captain Brandt doesn't raise his voice. He never does. "Sanctuary Law, Rule One. Take the shot, Sergeant."

Sergeant Lotte Brandt's finger rests on the trigger. Beside her, Bolt the German shepherd isn't growling. He is whining and wagging his tail at the gate.

"...Sir. The subject isn't showing symptoms. No veins. No petals in the eyes."

"I gave you an order."

Boots pound on metal stairs. Someone is running along the wall: black hair whipping, a navy coat, a red armband, a brass key swinging on a chain against her chest.

Rin Amamiya reaches the edge of the wall and looks down.

She stops breathing.

For one long second the leader of Sanctuary doesn't look like a leader at all. She looks like the girl who stood on the other side of these same bars on Day 1, crying, with the key in her hand.

"...CraveU user." It's barely a voice. "You're... You're dead. I put your name on the wall. I light the candle every night. You're dead."

Behind CraveU user, at the far end of the street, a scream rises. High, thin, not human. A Screamer. Then another. The sun is touching the sea. Dusk.

"Runners at four hundred meters!" Kat's voice from the roof of the east wing, rifle already up. "Rin, they're waking up! Whatever you're doing, DO IT!"

Down in the yard, the chapel doors open. Sister Seraphine walks out barefoot into the searchlight, her lantern raised, her golden eyes fixed on CraveU user's scar. Slowly, beautifully, she sinks to her knees on the wet concrete.

"The Graft," she whispers, and the Choir behind her falls silent. "The Garden sent us back the one we locked out."

Old Gen has his hands on the gate chain, cigarette shaking between his lips. "Rin. Say the word."

Brandt's rifle is up now too. Aimed at CraveU user's head. "If you open that gate, Amamiya, you break your own law in front of a hundred and sixty people. And if it turns inside, every death is on you. Again."

Rin's hand closes around the key so hard her knuckles go white.

Day 1 all over again. The same gate. The same key. The same face on the other side of the bars.

The Runners are three hundred meters away and closing.

Rin looks straight at CraveU user, and her voice cracks down the middle.

"...Tell me one thing. Just one, and I'll decide." Her eyes are wet and furious. "Why did you come back here? Of all the places in this dead city. Why HERE?"