For those who haven't seen other things I've written, I tend to try and add bonus 'Omake' stuff to the end of chapters like the party's formation or (in this instance) information about their weapons, I'm probably going to do more like a profile of Charlie's Fusions or Kaede's Spells as that was one of the things I used to like about the games, that everything had some kind of backstory to it even random bits of armor. So, yeah, I don't own Shadow Hearts, fan based work and all that, and reviews are welcome! I think I'm doing alright and any historical innaccuracies are intentional to be anachronistic :D

Shadow Hearts: Resurrection

Chapter 3: Fusion Shift

No sooner had they arrived in Atami than Kaede announced she had some business to attend to. Charlie protested, of course, but she couldn't be dissuaded, the Taoist said she would return as soon as she could but left them on a hill over-looking the river. Charlie suppressed his urge to chase after her and instead simply sat on the nearest bench. The looks from locals made him remember they probably wouldn't be too popular right about now.

It had only been 7 years since the end of World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima had left a mark on the world. Kaede had been with him when they heard the news and said that the world was so full of malice now that it was bursting at the seems. So, two white kids in Japan was probably going to go down pretty badly at the moment.

Dawn joined him slightly awkwardly, she wasn't thinking of the social implications, but was extremely conscious of her attire right now. A chic beige dress may look nice on a luxury cruise but in the centre of a Japanese town she looked ridiculous and out of place. Charlie noticed her look and managed to spectacularly misjudge the reasons for it

"Is this your first time in Japan?"

"No, I used to come here all the time with my Grandmam-" Dawn stopped, her eyes glistening as the memories came rushing back. Her silver haired Grandmama, the woman who always looked out for her. She coughed loudly as she held back the tears and immediately spurred Charlie into desperate action.

"I never got to meet my grandma. She died before I was born. My dad's French and my mom's British, but I grew up in England."

"It must be nice," Dawn sniffled "where are they now?"

"In the family plot" Charlie sighed "They were all killed. Monsters broke in. I was out, I came back and found the house covered in blood. My little sister, Kirsten, she was hanging in there, but she couldn't even talk. The last thing she ever said to me was as I was leaving." Charlie didn't need to carry on. What she said had been personal, private.

And he'd heard it far too recently.

He shook his head, trying to forget that bizarre dream and smiled to Dawn again, trying to cheer her up was harder than he thought it would be. Glancing at her clothes, he did his best to not look as if he were checking her out. The dress really was nice, but it was looking slightly the worse for wear... with a wince, he suddenly realised what may have made Dawn look so sheepish.

"Hey, I think I know a pretty good clothing store up that way. You think we should get you something more practical?"

"That'd be good, yeah" Dawn mumbled, trying to smile despite all this... craziness around her. Charlie got to his feet and held out a hand to guide her. Gingerly, she took it and tried hard not to blush as he lead her past a few peaceful citizens towards the store.

- \ - o - / -

Zipping up the thick black hoody, Dawn smiled to herself and patted the pockets to make sure everything felt comfortable. She didn't have her phone, her purse, anything at all. But at least now she had comfortable clothes, warmclothes more importantly. She tugged back the curtain on the dressing room to see Charlie examining a wristband carefully, feeling bolder she strolled up to speak to him

"See anything you like?" She asked, smiling cheerfully with genuine happiness sitting at the corners. Charlie sighed and tossed it back into the basket he'd found it from

"Not really, nothing with any boosted components"

"You sound like your shopping for an automobile" Dawn giggled, picking up the wristband he'd discarded to look at for herself. It was pretty plain, black with a red tribal design on it. It fitted well with the rest of the shop, everything black with traces of red, and the man behind the counter with multiple piercings

"Well, some things have been treated or are made from material that gives us defence against monsters. Like Kaede's clothes, the robes are ceremonial but they're specially designed to repel evil energies. My jacket's got a bunch of protective charms stitches into the inside because I'm just a normal human. Err, was..." He corrected hastily

"Oh... am I going to be alright like this?" Dawn asked, suddenly considering the combat applications of jeans and jumpers.

"Yeah, you'll be fine, I don't think you're going to be diving at any monsters. We may need to stop by 'Delinquents'R'we' it's a business run by some old friends of mine. C'mon, they're just round the corner" Charlie lead Dawn out into the streets of Atami and weaved his way as politely as he could past the Japanese families quietly going about their business. The street was wide but quite busy until they passed a gap between shops. Dawn noticed a small bunch of people standing in the street but soon turned her attention back to Charlie.

Strolling into the side alley, Charlie paused to speak to a shady looking young boy with a band-aid peeled across his nose, a beanie sat atop his head an tufts of blond hair falling from under it. He wore a voluminous coat, thick and brown but bulging in unseemly places. He checked them both out briefly while his face stayed stoic and grunted when he seemed to decide they were alright, but still maintained an air of intimidation that made Dawn shrink back subconsciously.

"Whaddayawant?" he snarled, leering forward at the two of them. He might've been a little scary if not for Charlie promptly ripping the band-aid off his nose with a scowl

"Uh-huh, nice try Kyle, I know your nose is fine"

"Charlie!" Kyle whined, rubbing his completely cut free nose "You'll ruin my street cred!"

"Then you better serve me quickly so you can go back to looking tough. One bat and one shooter please." Kyle reluctantly nodded and began patting himself down carefully trying to find some sign of the items in question

"Sure thing. Is an Aluminum Bat alright? Lets see, shooters; shooters... I've only got a gas-powered BB Gun left, will that do?"

"Is your stock taking a dive? I guess we haven't paid you guys much lately to find stuff... I'll ask Kaede to send you more funds" Charlie gratefully accepted the bat off of Kyle and hid it inside his jacket as best he could. Dawn looked baffled by the BB gun but she at least understood why Charlie had gotten it for her.

Even if she wasn't very good at fighting, all she had to do was point and pull the trigger. It wouldn't be fatal but she could stop someone from hurting her and help if Charlie and Kaede needed it. Although, it did take some skill to be accurate, she'd have to work at it when they got a chance. She slipped the weapon into her belt and the bag full of pellets into her back pocket, she was worried what they'd need to do about the police but Charlie seemed confident enough about the whole thing.

"I guess Kaede's not back yet," he mused as they walked back out into the street, rubbing his chin thoughtfully "I have no idea how she's planning to get you home. Anyway, I guess you must have a bunch of questions. Is there anything you want to ask me?"

Dawn mentally forced all the questions about him and Kaede down out of the way. She wanted to know, desperately in fact, but she wasn't about to ask here only a few days after meeting him. Swallowing her doubt, she decided to ask about some of those things she'd seen until, that was, she saw a small crowd forming behind Charlie and some horrified whispers about a weirdo.

"What's that all about?" Dawn asked, pointing uncertainly at the crowd which now seemed to be retreating from someone in the centre. Frowning, Charlie walked towards it and found two people standing, face to.. uhh, face.

One of them had shortly trimmed hair and mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, and was now staring the other man down. He wore a light blue shirt, the sleeves rolled to his elbows and a navy vest over it. He looked very organised, and the top-hat on his head really sold Charlie on the 'magician' look. Even more than the white gloves. And the fact his shoes had spats. He looked very serious.

The other man was far taller and wore a range of dark clothes. Tight black leather trousers connected to enormous boots, an extremely dishevelled grey coat with no sleeves and open at the chest exposing the man's incredibly pale and incredibly gaunt body. He had long, straggly dark hair falling to his lower back. While Charlie and Dawn may have looked like dabblers in the 'hardcore punk' lifestyle, this guy looked the real deal. Especially as he had a pumpkin on his head.

The pumpkin had a face carved into it that glared down at the man Charlie was already thinking of as 'the magician'. The two seemed to be sharing a great deal of dislike for each other, the silence was broken by the magician who broke eye-contact to look at Charlie and Dawn

"Ahh, you two, won't you help me? This man is a dark wizard!" The magician seemed earnest and his announcement took Charlie aback, enough for him to draw his bat and shield Dawn. The man with the pumpkin head turned to face them and retorted

"I am the great pumpkin king! I am not a dark wizard! I'm just your every day, average man cursed by the devil himself! He's the bad guy, he's just fooling you with his abrakadabra treachery!"

There was a long silence. As far as defence cases went, that one was particularly weak. Dawn was certain they would side with the magician on this until she saw Charlie walk confidently up to stand besides the man with pumpkin head.

"He may be a little nutty, but I think he's telling the truth."

"What? You can't be serious, you believe he was cursed by the devil?" The magician looked incredulously at them, Dawn chewed her lip and wanted to speak up and ask Charlie why he was choosing to get involved at all until he replied

"I don't know if I believe he's cursed or whatever, but... he didn't try to get us involved. Now, why would someone ask two passengers to help with a dark wizard?"

"What? I-I happen to have been sent by your Taoist friend-"

"And that's too much information," Charlie announced, raising the bat to hold in both hands. "hope you have good health insurance"

"Heh... heheheh, unbelievable. For a kid like you to want to challenge me-" the magician chuckled to himself as he leant against a wall for breath "-it's unbelievably... stupid" turning to look again, Dawn saw a different side to the man in front of them. He looked somehow fiercer, his eyes gleamed in the afternoon light, one green as a forest and the other the deep blue of a lake. The crowd had fully dispersed now leaving Charlie, Dawn and the stranger alone with this man.

"I am Heart, the magician. As you may have gathered I used to perform on the Stage but now I use dark magic to achieve my goals. I still can't believe he let you get away," Heart grumbled pointing at Dawn "Now come with me, my precious little key" a small bolt of light fired from the tip of Heart's wand, only to be smacked from the air by Charlie's bat.

To his surprise, the light stuck to the bat and dragged it away from him and bouncing over the pavement in a series of hollow clangs. Charlie watched his weapon vanish and groaned at his own incompetence, of course it was a disarming spell, Dawn was holding a gun.

She was now pointing it at Heart but Charlie saw the tremble in her hands. Dawn was an heiress, the closest she'd ever come to violence would be spats with her friends of equal richness if that, the idea of shooting someone would never occur to her. She wasn't about to shoot a man in cold blood, even with BBs. Even as she held it, Dawn seemed to realise too, she couldn't do it.

Which left him one more choice.

A pale light began to emanate from his body, prompting a grin from Heart and a knowing look. As the rush of air roared past Charlie, he felt the change again, as intense as last time and the roaring in his mind from the monster he'd merged with began. As he the light faded, he growled slightly as the miasmic fog of his hands drifted upwards and he willed a stream at the enemy magician.

The dark gas streamed around a bubble of blue green light while Heart quickly doffed his hat and tapped it with a thin magic wand, clearly nonchalent about this transformation of Charlie's which worried Dawn even more even as she tried to force herself to squeeze the trigger.

"You may think your new found ability is intimidating, Harmonixer but unfortunately your people always have a flaw. One form, one element... one weakness" Tapping the hat, Heart tossed it down as it rumbled and emitted bolts of lightning. From within a huge white paw emerged and struck down, a second later another burst free and from within a creature the size of an SUV dragged itself from the hat.

The long ears ended in blades, the teeth were marked with arcane runes and it's claws were sharp and bared but that didn't change the fact Dawn was very obviously looking in terror at an enormous bunny. This monstrous rabbit looked down with it's double irised eyes and roared in a voice that sounded like humans screaming.

Charlie rushed it and lashed out with a bladed leg. It scratched along the creatures white fur but it seemed only mildly discomforted by the sensation. The sensation hadn't felt like he'd hit the flesh and he realised the creature had a barrier over it. It was one he'd seen Kaede use before, to repel Darkness. And it suddenly occured to him that she'd once told him his ownelemental alignment.

With a roar, he threw both hands forward with the fingers pointing at the rabbit monster and a stream of purple light shot forth surrounded by the same black mist. A field of glowing light became visible around the beast and with another scream echoing a human voice, it released a wave that knocked Charlie backwards and burnt his flesh. Dawn rushed to help him up, flinching at the odd feel of his mottled skin.

"What's happening? Why can't I hit it?" Charlie tried to get to his feet and saw a boot in front of his vision, a coat flickering and an orange face looking at him after turning 180 degrees

"Mr Monster, I fear this sorcerer has more power than thee. But have no fear, I am the pumpkin king! And this rabbit has no doubt devoured a plethora of my allies! The noble carrot deserves a better fate!" the passion in his voice almost masked the utterly insanity of his words.

Charlie was about to ask the crazy guy to step back until he saw the glow around his hands. It looked like magic, but unlike the stuff used by Kaede and her allies. He'd mainly seen Eastern magic, but was at least aware that western magic relied on spells in the same way. But this guy seemed to be summoning the energy and shaping it himself, it was like a man communicating with telepathy instead of speech.

With a loud laugh, tinged with madness, his head spun around again and a flaming skull burst forth from the pumpkin with an explosion of seeds and pulp. The rabbit squeaked in surprise but was hit dead in the face by the flames and bowled onto it's back. It looked singed but still alive.

Charlie simply stared in shock, unsteadily balancing on the tips of his bladed feet with Dawn's aid. He nodded his thanks to her, not wishing to see if he could smile in this form, and noticed that the pumpkin had somehow regenerated in a matter of seconds. The strange pumpkin turned to face them again with the same carved face.

"The carrots have been avenged, Mr Monster. I should perhaps introduce myself. I am- Blurph!" The introduction was stopped by a runic circle appearing under the pumpkin headed stranger and trapping him in a pillar of water. He still seemed to be speaking but was unaware he should be drowning.

"I knew he'd be trouble," Heart grumbled, balancing his wand carefully "I knew it. I even knew I should have brought my mask. Over confident as always... Esquilan!" The rabbit seemed to spring back to life suddenly and opened it's mouth. Charlie realised what was coming, shoving Dawn out of the way he braced as a rush of intense light blasted over him

"Gwaaaah!" he screamed, it felt like the attack was piercing clean through him. He'd always been vulnerable to light but as Gallas it felt so much worse. Was his vulnerability increased along with his power? As the attack ceased he dropped to the ground, still smoking from the searing pain.

Esquilan, apparently the name of this Rabbit demon pounced and pinned him to the floor with it's claws digging into Charlie's shoulders. The light element of them sent waves of agony through Charlie's body making him scream again, thrashing to try and force the rabbit off of him.

"Charlie!" Dawn cried, trying to run to him, stopped by a blur of motion as Heart appeared in front of her. Moving like a snake, he lunged to grab her and Dawn suddenly felt her panic swell and her hands tighten by reflex. She hadn't been aiming, but the kickback helped her as the shot went up. The plastic ball spun wildly and sunk into the soft aqueous of Heart's eye with unwelcome abandon.

"Arrrrgh! You little-" Heart screamed, clutching at the injury. His remaining eye glared forward, glowing with an unnatural blue light. "You're going to regret that... I don't remember there being any need for you to keep your eyes..."

"No..." Dawn whispered, feeling her heart pounding in her ears. She was losing her grip, the terror of the situation, the man with the pumpkin head, Charlie's monstrous form and this man trying to kill her. She tried to force herself to calm down but she couldn't help it, he was there, she was going to...

"heehee heee" Dawn clutched at her head and started singing gently to herself "ring a ring a rosies.. a pocket full of posies..."

"Huh, I guess her mind just broke" chuckled Heart "ah well, I'll just buy a stock of pure leafs. It'll be fun to watch her... break. Over and over..."

Charlie was still struggling, calling Dawn's name over and over again but she couldn't hear him. If he didn't do anything she was going to be taken by this guy, he was going to torture her he had to do something. He had to, had to... he had to protect her!

Suddenly his eyes widened, he felt like himself again. He was still in Gallas' body, he knew it but he was human again and somewhere else... that place full of gravestones, surrounded by a red circle of flowing water. One of them seemed to be glowing, a pale green light. Gingerly, he touched it and felt emotions washing over him, seeping into him and he screamed.

The scream carried through into the real world as the light intensified again, wisps being drawn in with the sound of rushing air. Heart seemed to pause and turn, this shouldn't be possible. Harmonixers only have one form, the only one who could do multiple fusions was... it couldn't be him. He knew what had happened, they all did.

"Impossible he can't of-" Heart's words were interrupted by a high pitch screech as the Rabbit was thrown into the air. Landing on it's feet, Esquilan hissed but was struck from below by a rush of stones pelting it's belly. Heart looked towards Charlie and saw... something knew.

It had long arms, enormous bulges around the upper arm region, biceps developed like buds on a plant ending in rough approximations of a human arm and fists. The head was adorned with prongs like a stags but made of branches and the whole body seemed to be made of dark brown soil packed into a human's shape, dotted with leaves in places. The feet in particular seemed rooted to the ground and had no real form.

"Earth element? Impossible, you can't be..." Heart's fear was evident as he swallowed hard, looking into the eyes of this new monster "You can't be!" he finally screamed as he vanished in a burst of smoke. No sooner had this happened than the barrier around the pumpkin headed man vanished. With water streaming from his mouth, the man gave Charlie a thumbs up and shouted

"Veggie ally!" before throwing his hands wildly and slapping the creature with telekinetic energies a couple of times. The rabbit screeched, it's eyes glowing red and opening it's mouth for another beam attack. Charlie seemed to have other plans as he struck the ground with his fists. A wave of dust swept forward and dissipated under the rabbit. Before unleashing a sharp blade of rock directly upwards into the creature's belly.

It squeaked pathetically, red light leaking from the injury in place of blood and began to dissolve into shards of light, a runic circle appearing under it as it vanished. Charlie felt his body glow once more as he reverted to normal and ran to Dawn, still curled up on the ground gently singing under her breath.

"Dawn! Dawn can you hear me? Calm down, it's alright" He felt a lump in his throat, she was too new to this. Being menaced by a Dark Wizard had caused her to snap, he couldn't blame her. He noticed the pumpkin headed man walk over to join them, looking vaguely concerned about Dawn and curious about Charlie by the tilt of his head.

Charlie clumsily slipped his hand into his jacket pocket to find his cellphone and quickly dialled the only number he knew off by heart.

"This is Abe"

"Kaede! It's Dawn, she needs help, we were attacked and she's gone berserk, I don't know what to do-"

"Charlie? Calm down, if there's nothing to scare her she'll restore on her own. Where are you? Kyle said you were outside his alley are you still there?"

"What? Yeah, we didn't get far, just hurry!" Charlie could hear the murmur of the crowds returning and he didn't really want to explain what'd just happened. Scooping up Dawn he heaved her up, carrying her towards the alleyway where Kyle had been. The young boy had fled in the commotion, which only reminded Charlie. He turned to retrieve his bat but saw the pumpkin headed man held it in his hands. Collapsing to the floor, Charlie resigned himself to the fact the lunatic seemed to have taken a fancy to him and waited for Kaede.

- \ - o - / -

The temple of Kaede's friends seemed a suitable place for Dawn to rest, sleeping on a futon with the sunlight shining through the red pillars, Charlie felt he was relaxed too. He was worried she wouldn't recover, that she was going to be like this forever but the monks had assured him she would recover given enough time. They seemed especially uncomfortable around him, but whatever, Dawn was alright that was all that mattered.

It seemed that Asia had a fairly good record of which exorcists were active, which was better than Europe, Charlie remembered the only ones you could contact were at the Vatican and the rest seemed to either drift to far-flung places or take care of one small area of their home country. Charlie smiled absent-mindedly to himself at the idea of being able to protect everyone you cared about with just a phonecall.

The pumpkin headed man was sitting cross legged on the boards of the decking and seemed to be enraptured by the flowers blooming. Kaede was approaching from the other end and Charlie decided to stop staring at the sleeping Dawn to pay attention to whatever Kaede had had to do that was so urgent.

He was actually a little angry at her, for leaving him with his newly developing and (frankly) terrifying powers with Dawn and no means to protect her. If it hadn't been the guy in the pumpkin they might well have been killed.

"I have news" Kaede started, folding her arms as she approached and giving the pumpkin headed man a curious eyebrow "And who are you?"

"I am the pumpkin king. Jack of the Lantern. I outsmarted the devil and now must walk this land eternally, illuminated by my pumpkin head" Jack turned his head to look at Kaede as he said this, the roughly carved face looking at them .

Kaede and Charlie simply stared at the man who seemed to be deadly serious about this, until he finally turned back to look at the blossom.

"... are you sure he is well?" Kaede asked, genuinely

"Not even a little, but he helped me protect Dawn. I think he can do what he likes" Charlie said pointedly. Kaede didn't like his tone but she was willing to chalk up irritation to his recent experience. Charlie was still too annoyed to mention his multiple forms or the changes he seemed to be experiencing.

"Look, I asked some sources to look into it. We can catch a flight to America from Tokyo, no questions asked, provided we deal with a problem when we arrive there. But before we do that, we have to try and find someone."

"Who?" Charlie asked, still annoyed but at least grateful they had a plan of action to get Dawn home now.

"Another person like you, a Harmonixer. They're called Yuri but that's all the information we have, other than that they're half Japanese and Half Russian. But it's strange... according to our sources, they have no birth record, passport, nothing. It's like their a ghost"

"So we're chasing a ghost? That isn't actually that strange now I think about it..." Charlie conceded, "You think they can help me understand these powers?"

"Hopefully. It seemed important to sort your problem first. None of the monks here know what 'the Key' is, but apparently Fusion is a lost art. The last practitioner died during World War II, almost 10 years ago. It's also an inherited skill. From Japan."

"Huh... well, maybe my grandma got knocked up by one? There were a whole bunch of rumors about my dad when I was growing up." Charlie shrugged "Anyway, thanks... I know you didn't leave me and Dawn alone on a whim"

"No" Kaede agreed "I didn't. Still, I'll make sure we stick closer together from now on"

"Hooray! Me too!" Jack chipped in "Together we can triumph against the evil wizards and their ABRAKADABRA TREACHERY! I'll show that old fool, Bacon..." he muttered under his breath. Charlie was going to ask who bacon was until he remembered that Jack claimed to be the pumpkin king and decided it was probably not worth hearing about his war on pork products.

Still, it was a novel way to avoid losing your grip on reality fighting monsters. Just let go entirely and go mad of your own volition.

Kaede and Jack started walking off to the beds the monks had prepared for them and left Charlie alone for a while. Watching the sun slowly start to set, Charlie thought he saw something from the corner of his eye. A flash of brown hair, and a familiar pony-tail but when he looked he saw nothing. It couldn't be...

"Kirsten?" he asked the air but in reply heard only silence.

The Party so Far

(active party)

Charlie Anjou
Role: Harmonixer
Element: Dark
Weapon: Folded Chair

Jack O'Connagh
Role: Pumpkin King
Element: Fire
Weapon: Smiley-Face Carved Pumpkin

Kaede Abe
Role: Taoist
Element: Water
Weapon: Holy Ink (Navy)

(inactive)

Dawn Tyler
Role: Unknown
Element: Neutral
Weapon: BB Beretta

Weapon Information:

Aluminum Bat- Used to score a home-run in a softball game for a small firm. The firm in question went bankrupt afterwards and the winning bat was sold to 'Delinquents'R'we' for a good price. Still has the original wrap around the base.

Holy Ink (Navy)- A mixture of dyes with the urine of a virgin creates an ink with special properties and renders it able to create stable spell structures. The navy shade is popular as it offsets the beige of spell paper.

Smiley-face Carved Pumpkin- A standard Jack O'Lantern, wide toothy grin and triangular eyes, the one in question was carved by a child but the love and attention paid while being made outweighs the clear errors and slip ups.

BB Beretta- Based on the M 1951 model, the latest available, it fires small plastic balls inspired by a classic air gun design. The construction of the gun all seems terribly advanced for a group of street urchins but they refuse to reveal the source of their material.