Shelke Rui



Shelke the Transparent, real name Shelke Rui, is the third member of the Tsviets from Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-. Born in 1991, she is nineteen years old in Dirge of Cerberus, though permanently stuck in the body of a young girl. Shelke is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in Japanese and by in English.

Appearance and Personality


Shelke has pale skin, light blue "mako eyes", and short red hair with bangs that frame her face. She wears a blue turtleneck Deepground uniform with gloves and a breastplate bearing the Deepground insignia. Her uniform has containers on the back of her legs to hold her sabers. Shelke is 19, but has the physical appearance of a nine-year-old. She fights with two EM sabers, linked with a cord similar to nunchaku. Her main skill within the Tsviets is retrieving information from the Worldwide Network by means of a Synaptic Net Dive (SND), but her skills are not limited to computers.

Shelke was an innocent young girl, but due to spending ten years in Deepground she became a hollow shell void of emotion. Suffering from isolation and mental scars, she talks in a robotic manner and thinks like a computer, making decisions based on logic rather than emotions. As she interacts with Vincent and his friends, Shelke encounters an unforeseen side effect from her work within the Tsviets.

She experiences Lucrecia Crescent's memories and feels what she would have felt. The feelings compel her to help Vincent, although she never admits to this. They allow Shelke to regain her emotions and develop an attachment to Vincent, supposedly as a result of absorbing part of Lucrecia's consciousness.

Early life
In 2000, the Shinra Electric Power Company discovered the nine-year-old Shelke possessed the rare SND ability and President Shinra ordered Shelke to be inducted into SOLDIER with the intention of using her ability to develop a new type of warfare. As the Turks and Shinra troops were taking Shelke to Midgar, Deepground SOLDIERs attacked and she was taken to Deepground.

Shelke was subjected to numerous experiments and rigorous training while Deepground analyzed her SND abilities. The procedures left her stunted, permanently appearing as a nine-year-old girl, and requiring daily treatments of mako to survive. Shelke was made a member of the Tsviets, after Rosso the Crimson, Nero the Sable, and Weiss the Immaculate.

Multiplayer
After Genesis Rhapsodos rejected Weiss's request to join the resistance against the Restrictors and left Deepground, Shelke and Argento uploaded the HJ Virus into Deepground's supercomputer and freed everyone under the Restrictors' control by disabling their restriction chips. With the Tsviets in need of another worthy candidate, Shelke was ordered to use her SND abilities to manipulate the candidate's thoughts and memories giving the person a deep-seated hatred towards the Restrictors.

Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-
After using an SND to locate the carrier of the Protomateria, Vincent Valentine, Shelke finds him during Deepground's attack on Kalm with Azul the Cerulean. They demand Vincent to hand over the Protomateria but Shelke loses power and faints, forcing Azul to retreat with her.

When infiltrating the World Regenesis Organization (WRO) headquarters with Azul, Shelke uses her cloaking ability to follow Vincent until Shalua spots her. Upon reuniting with her long-lost sister, Shelke recalls the torture she went through in Deepground for the past ten years, how she held onto the sliver of hope of being rescued, and the ensuing bitterness. She fights Vincent before being sedated.

After coming to a few days later, Shelke tells Shalua she made a mistake in letting her enemy live, and threatens to attack again until Azul escapes his holding cell within the WRO headquarters. Stopping Azul's rampage with a shield materia, Shelke learns from him she is targeted for termination as she has outlived her usefulness to the Tsviets. She survives thanks to Shalua, who holds Azul at bay long enough for Shelke and Vincent to escape. Shalua's sacrifice leaves her in a perpetual coma. Unable to understand the point behind Shalua's actions, Shelke requests Vincent to explain to her why someone would give their life for others and Vincent's response causes Shelke to stumble as one of Lucrecia's memories defragments.

Shelke reveals she had previously absorbed some of Lucrecia's data into her mind to study it to find the Protomateria. Shelke offers to combine the data with the rest Vincent found in Nibelheim to give them a clearer picture of what they will be up against and regain control of her mind.

On board the Shera, Shelke creates a terminal for her use and performs SND to provide everyone with a better understand of Omega. Cid Highwind, Vincent Valentine, Reeve Tuesti, Cait Sith, Yuffie Kisaragi, and surrounding WRO members learn Deepground's goal: amassing a pure Lifestream to prematurely summon Omega and destroy the world. Preparing to assault Midgar, Chaos momentarily overtakes Vincent; he dismays, not comprehending the loss of consciousness. Having had possession of Vincent's cellphone since the events at Kalm, Shelke returns it to him before he departs after modifying it so he can call her directly for guidance although insisting she is only helping the WRO for her own benefit. When Vincent tells Shelke he is counting on her, she is taken aback since no one has ever counted on her before. She uses the information she gathers from the network to aid in the infiltration of Midgar, and monitor the Shera's damage along with Vincent's movements through the ruined metropolis.

When Vincent reaches the remains of Shinra Headquarters, he loses control of Chaos again. In Lucrecia's voice, Shelke tells him Chaos's nature and how the Protomateria enabled him to control it until Rosso took it from him. She implores Vincent to fight Chaos's influence and that she does not want him to die, but her SND visor short-circuits. Shelke offers to help Cid check on a situation in the engine room where she finds the crew missing and her former comrade, Nero. Not wanting to let down everyone who's counting on her, Shelke attempts to fight Nero but is captured by his dark powers. She survives by using her shield materia.

As Shelke is about to give up, she experiences more of Lucrecia's memories and one from her own past where Shalua comforted her about their mother's death. She has a vision of Shalua asking if she can return to the Planet. Shelke tells her she cannot, but Shalua reassures her they will see each other again. After rubbing it off as "data interference", tears roll down Shelke's face, surprising her, as she believed she did not have any tears left. She is rescued by Vincent before her materia's power runs out and he places her in a regeneration tube so she can regain her strength.

While Vincent is confronting Weiss/Hojo, Shelke projects a holographic image of Lucrecia to Vincent, encouraging him to take control of Chaos rather than overpower it. After Omega awakens and Chaos takes over Vincent, Shelke emerges from her regeneration tube. Theorizing the souls within Omega to act like a network, she performs a SND to dive into Omega and retrieve the Protomateria.

While she is restrained by darkness an obscured figure resembling Lucrecia gives Shelke the Protomateria. Emerging from Omega, Shelke momentarily takes on Lucrecia's appearance and returns it to Vincent, enabling him to regain control of Chaos. Vincent saves her and she joins Reeve, Yuffie, Cid and the others as they witness Omega's defeat.

About a week after the Battle of Midgar, Shelke is living with Cloud and Tifa at 7th Heaven in Edge. Realizing she is not alone, she is starting to fill the ten year void in her life. When the others want Vincent to come out of Lucrecia's Cave, they send Shelke, now wearing ordinary clothes, to get him. She tells Vincent the others are waiting, and although she doesn't mind, she does not understand why they sent her and smiles. Seeing Lucrecia in Shelke, Vincent smiles as they watch at what appears to be Omega's remains in the sky.

Battle
Shelke is fought as a boss in Chapter 4 at the WRO Headquarters.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Shelke is depicted on two trading cards in the Final Fantasy Trading Card Game. She is part of "Ice" card set.

Etymology
The word shelke is Urdu for "orange".

In the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania, Shelke's name and epithet are rendered as 「無式(=無色)のシェルク」, referring to her title being a pun, meaning both "Expressionless" and "Colorless".

Shelke's title may also be a reference to her ability of becoming transparent, as used before her fight in Chapter 4.

Trivia

 * Shelke shares her English voice actress with Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca from Final Fantasy XII.
 * When Shelke points her sabers at Reeve, the lighted section is the same length as the metal rod that makes up its body. However, when she attempts to slice Shalua's skull with them, the light dissipates in water (more specifically, the water released when Reeve shot the sprinkler system), showing that the lighted section is at least four inches longer than the rod.

Shelke, die Farblose