A/N: This is just a little one-shot I threw together because I thought it was so hilarious how Alice beaned people with her Bible. As to the fusion, it is my belief that a physical transformation like that would logically tear the clothes off a person. Especially in a world like the SH one. Just like how Yuri's flashback shows ten-year old Yuri standing naked and covered with blood after his first fusion, I think in "real life" (haha) such complications would occur. Obviously, they would be left out of the gameplay because it would be awfully awkward and complicated, not to mention neccesitate nudity in the game. Possibly this is not the case, but I think it far more interesting. Sooo, since this isa story and not a game, I am following my owntheory. Hopefully no one is too miffed by it. Anyway, I love SH and I'm glad to find there's other people who do, too.
DISCLAIMER: All of the characters and events in this story are unoriginal and belong to the creators of Shadow Hearts. This is a non-profit story and I have no intention of stealing material or credit.
BIBLE
The wind blew cold and hard, scattering pebbles over the barren, uneven ground and not even the odd rock formations and crumbling walls which sheltered the sleeping travelers could keep it out. Alice Elliot shifted restlessly as a particularly cold blast of air brought her out of a light doze and back to consciousness. She turned her head and gazed uneasily at her companion, a young man in his early twenties with unkempt dark hair. He had wrapped a great brown trenchcoat about himself, and still, his body had curled itself up as he slept in an attempt to keep warm. He was constantly muttering to himself in his sleep and Alice wondered for a moment if he wasn't a bit mad. True, he had rescued her from the man on the train, and for that she supposed she owed him the benefit of the doubt.
And yet, she knew very little about him, and what she did know did not seem promising. He had exchanged few words with her since their escape other than to tell her his name and make a few, highly distasteful sexual advances. His dress suggested humble birth, low income, and even lower regard for outward appearance and decency. Alice did not mean to be snobbish, but he looked like something that a person might expect to wander in off the streets. And the fact that he had left her to shiver in the cold in nothing but a short skirt and jacket implied that he was not much of a gentleman. Of course, he couldn't be blamed for the fact that she had had to hastily abandon all of her personal effects in order to escape. She hadn't even been conscious at the time.
Crawling along the shadowy rock ridge, Alice pawed around for her Bible, her sole remaining possession. As her hand alighted upon its rough, leather binding, the small girl felt much comforted, despite the dark. She knew she ought to thank the young man, whatever he had said his name was, before she left, but she was too afraid of what he might ask for as a reward. She couldn't imagine why he'd rescued her in the first place as she'd never seen him before in her life, and he couldn't have believed there was much in it for him. And the danger involved seemed hardly worth the risk.
Trying to shake away the images that kept creeping into her mind – images of the soldiers who'd died trying to protect her and their blood as it splattered across the walls of the train car – Alice began to climb over to the old, rusted water gates. The young man had said the water would drain out once he had turned the valve wheels, revealing a path between the rocky islands and out into relative safety. As soon as the water was low enough, Alice planned to cross, leaving her would-be escort sleeping by the embers of his dying fire.
Alice was cautiously testing the thick gray mud with one foot when a howling sound carried across the plains. It was not the howling of the wind. And it sounded very close.
Alice clutched her precious Bible closer and tried to make herself invisible in the shadow of the gate. Now she could hear the scratching of claws against the cold rock, and the scattering of pebbles under a padded foot. Attempting to remain calm, she backed slowly towards the muddy trail and began to cross, but the water was deeper than it had first appeared, and her foot stuck in the murky riverbed. Panicked, Alice tried to yank her foot out of the water, but her weight was thrown too far to the side and she found herself falling towards the bank.
Mud splattered onto her white jacket front as she caught herself, barely in time to prevent receiving a faceful of dirt and rock. As she lifted her head warily, she found herself looking right into the glowing yellow eyes of a decidedly demonic wolf. Its foaming jaws parted to reveal glistening fangs and its unnatural, bluish fur hung long and tangled from its powerful body.
Alice tried to will it away, remaining utterly still and silent, but she couldn't bring herself to look away, to close her eyes. The bright yellow orbs seemed to hold her hypnotized with fear. It began to pad closer to her, slowly, menacingly, a low growl emitting from its throat. In desperation the young girl, knowing nothing but elementary light magic, searched for a weapon, but her hand came across nothing but small stones and pebbles, pebbles that didn't even make her predator blink when she threw them in his face. And then…the Bible. Alice's hand alighted on the Bible again, and as the wolf closed in, mouth open and legs taut, she swung it around with all the force she could muster, landing it squarely on the animal's jaw. A satisfying 'crack' was heard, and the wolf tumbled to the side, whimpering angrily.
Before it could retaliate, the girl dragged herself to her feet and looked up…into the eyes of a towering black and gray demon. Its taut muscles shimmered under leathery, inhuman skin and large wings sprouted from its back. With one swift move, the demon grabbed the wolf by the skull with a powerful fist and squeezed. With a sound of shattering bone, the wolf's head seemed to collapse and blood spurted out of the puncture wounds made by the demon's long claws. Its twitching body sagged and hung still. It was then that Alice noticed four or five more wolf corpses scattered about by the camp fire and the trail of blood leading around the rocks.
Was the young man dead? Had he been killed by the demons? There was no sign of his corpse, but he was gone, and his knapsack lay discarded by the firepit along with his shirt, now torn and dirty, covered with small drops of dark blood. For a moment, Alice's fear was replaced by an intense and unexpected feeling of grief at the loss of her objectionable companion. He had saved her after all, and she certainly hadn't wished him any ill will. He had been so young, and cocky, and vibrant, even in the few hours she's known him. It seemed a pity to waste such a life.
A huffing sound drew Alice's attention back to the problem at hand. She looked up once more at the black demon whose armored skin now seemed to be contracting, or paling. His body shimmered as tremors ran through it, first gently, then ever more frequently and violently. With one last, sudden movement, like a compulsive fit, the body bent over double then staggered back which such rapidity, Alice couldn't have said when it stopped being the body of a demon and became the body of the young man.
Shaking his spiky head and shivering with cold, he stood before her, naked as the day he was born. Alice blushed and turned away. The young man, seeming after a moment of recovery to become aware of the situation, gave a yelp and scuttled behind an outcropping of rock.
"Toss me my stuff, will ya," he called gruffly, in his strangely accented English. Still in shock, Alice managed to crawl over to the firepit and stare, unaccepting, at the pile of discarded clothes.
"How did you…"
"Fusion," he responded even more gruffly, as though used to the question, and the shock and dismay which usually accompanied it.
"Then you're a…"
"Let's discuss it later!" The man's head appeared from behind his haphazard shelter, followed by white, lean, but muscled shoulders. "It's damn freezing out here," he added, nodding to the parts of his body still hidden by rock. Alice blushed furiously again and, grabbing up the crumpled clothes in one quick snatch, tossed them towards her companion. A large, pale hand darted out to catch some of the articles as they flew through the air. The rest landed in a heap on the ground. Within seconds, the young man had reappeared by the fire, fully dressed. His crimson shirt had a large tear down the front where it had been slashed, but the revealed flesh showed no signs of the skin being broken.
"Thank you…" Alice gulped. She couldn't even remember his name. She felt like a fool.
"Yuri Hyuga," the man replied, as if reading her mind. "Eh, but call me Yuri."
"You're shirt's ripped, Yuri," Alice muttered dumbly, not knowing what else to say, and feeling responsible.
"It happens. I got more." The man shrugged and buttoned his trench coat to keep out the wind.
"Do you always have to…I mean, do you…when you…fuse…"
"Strip naked, ya mean?" The man flashed Alice a crooked grin. "Unless I'm in a hurry. Then it all gets torn off by the force of the transformation. Handy trick, eh? Makes buying clothes a bitch, though."
Alice paused as the man laughed. She wondered if perhaps his clothes were so ragged and cheap merely because it wasn't worth it to buy expensive things that would just get ruined. Maybe he wasn't quite as roguish as he appeared.
"Do you fuse often," she asked, gaining confidence from his laid-back demeanor. Considering what had just happened, he seemed unworried and sure of himself. He must be a skilled fighter, she thought.
"Just when I gotta. Like when I'm rescuin' you." He winked at her. "You seem to get in a lot of trouble for such a cute, little thing." He laughed again. He had a raucous, free laugh. "Then again, you gave that monster a real headache! Ha! You got a little spirit after all, eh, sweetheart? It's excitin', ain't it? Gets me all riled up!" He began poking her with one of the charred sticks from the now-dead fire, and he was none too cautious about where his irreverent pointer aimed.
Huffing, Alice pushed the stick away, causing it to crumble to ash in his hands, and pulled herself over to the sheltering rock furthest away from Yuri Hyuga and his infantile tricks. She ignored his affronted, "What?"s and, pointedly turning her back on him, curled up and closed her eyes. Some people, she thought, were apparently lost causes.