AN: Happy Halloween, everyone! In honor of this night of the mysterious and supernatural, I present you all with a rather long thematically appropriate one shot! I gave some consideration in posting this alongside my other DCMK oneshots in The Beika Periodicals, but in the end I decided to post it as it's own standalone thing, given how long it is. A Halloween AU featuring Heizuha! I've actually been planning to write this for some time now, so I'm glad that I finally managed to get around to it!

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to leave them reviews on your out either.

Kamikakushi

"Hey, do ya have a name?"

Narrowing her eyes underneath the security of her mask, the young girl could only stare at the young boy before her in a mixture of wonder and confusion. Usually, the children that she brought into the forest for that weren't this chatty. Most of them barely said a word, really, lulled into a strange trance-like state by the lullaby.

This one, however, was bright eyed and well aware of both himself and his surroundings- and seemed completely unperturbed by such developments entirely. Instead, he was focusing on trying to get to know the strange girl who had called out to him, one whom he had almost unthinkingly decided to follow into the forest. A bright smile lit up his face, white teeth standing out against dark skin, so different from her own pale skin.

"Come on, ya must have a name!" He repeated, his smile only growing wider as the strange girl continued to stare at him in silence. "I'm Hattori Heiji! I tagged along here with my old man. He's a police detective, ya know- he's here ta solve a case or somethin' like that! Well, it's more like I snuck into his car when he wasn't lookin', though. For some reason, he got super angry at me."

She had to take her earlier statement back- this one was really, really chatty. She hadn't asked him for even one iota of that information, and yet he'd so freely supplied it to her. If he minded that the young girl that he was speaking to was clad in strange clothes and a fox mask, he didn't seem to show it. He was either an idiot, or spiritually sensitive, possibly both, judging from the fact that he had still followed her into the forest in the first place. Chatty or otherwise, once he was here, it wasn't like there was anything that he could do to escape from it or that. He would only share the same fate as the other children.

"Kazuha." The girl said after a moment, considering his words. When she still had a real name, it was something like that, she thought. Nowadays she could barely remember- it had been so long ago that she had been lured into the forest. Had that not taken a shine to her, she would have probably also suffered the same fate as the other children that were drawn into the forest- as it was now, her duty was guiding new children to it. Even if she didn't like it, there was nothing that she could do about it- there was no escape. "It's Kazuha."

"Oh, so ya can talk!" Heiji seemed to take delight in this revelation. "So, ya wanted ta play with me, right? I was just startin' ta get a bit bored, actually. Do ya live out here somewhere?"

"I do." Kazuha said after a moment, her lips pursing in a frown. From deeper in the forest, she could hear the lull of the lullaby, but if this boy heard it himself, he showed no signs of it. Seriously, what was with this child? "The way you talk is strange."

"There's nothin' strange about it!" Heiji insisted, puffing out his cheeks slightly. "It's Osaka-ben, Osaka-ben! If ya ask me, the way that ya speak is what's strange!"

"Is that really the only thing about me you find strange?" Kazuha found herself asking, disbelief in her voice. Rather, between the two of them, this child was far stranger than herself- she honestly couldn't tell if he realized what kind of situation he was in or not. If he had some kind of resistance to the lullaby, one would think that he would have some kind of spiritual senses to go with it, enough to tell him the truth of her nature, the truth of this place- but maybe he really was just an idiot.

"What, cause of the mask?" Heiji asked, tilting his head. "Sure, it's a little weird, but it's just because yer shy, right? I'm amazed that ya can see with that on, though! Hey, let me try it on!"

"You can't. Don't touch it!" Kazuha insisted, growing slightly nervous, placing one hand up against the fox mask. The lullaby was growing more insistent- it was clearly becoming impatient. She was really doing the best she could here! What if she made that angry at her, and it decided that she was useless now? She didn't want to be eaten herself just because of some strange boy!

"Ehhh, that's no fun." As much as he seemed to pout, Heiji nevertheless seemed to accept her words. "But my dad said that this forest isn't safe fer children, so we really should play elsewhere, Kazuha!"

"If you knew it wasn't safe to come here, then why did you follow me here in the first place?" Kazuha asked, brows furrowing underneath her mask. "Are you an idiot?"

"I'm not an idiot!" Heiji huffed, folding his arms in front of his chest. "I followed ya in here because I was worried about ya! I can't just let a girl play around in a place like this alone, after all! My old man would never forgive me if somethin' happened ta ya on my watch!"

"How do you know I'm not the reason the forest is dangerous?" Kazuha asked him frankly, half regretting the word as they came out of her mouth. It had been awhile since she had been able to talk with someone who wasn't that, and although she thought she had forgotten such feelings, it seemed that she really was lonely after all.

She felt bad for him, really. Now that was in the forest with her, there was no way that he could go back to where he had come from. Perhaps she could plead with that and convince it to let him live- it would be a waste if it ate someone as interesting as this. Still, it was growing more and more impatient as they spoke, and Kazuha couldn't help but grow more and more nervous in turn.

"There's no way somethin' like that is true." Heiji told her, a broad grin crossing his face once more. "Cause ya don't feel like a bad guy ta me, Kazuha."

"You're really an idiot, aren't you?" Kazuha asked, taking a step forward towards him. "Children disappear into this forest because I help what's living in here lure them to it in the first place. But those most of those children are in a trance at this point, and yet you followed someone as suspicious as me under your own free will." Narrowing her eyes sharply, she placed her hands on her hips. "Seriously, you're an idiot!"

Even with those words, Heiji's smile didn't seam to falter, though it did take him a moment to process them. "But ya wouldn't be gettin' angry at me like this if this was somethin' that ya wanted ta do, right? I think yer really a good kid, Kazuha. Yer scared of this person yerself, right?"

"I'm not a good kid." Kazuha told him, turning her head away from him. "I'm no better than that is."

"I don't think that's true." Heiji insisted, and before she could so much as stop him, she found him lifting the fox mask away from her face. "Cause ya look like ya've been cryin' by yerself all this time."

"Give that back!" Reaching out with her hand to take it back from him, Heiji took a step back, holding it just out of her range. Irritatingly enough, he was taller than her. "Without that, without that...!"

"It's fine!" Heiji told her, reaching out his free hand to take her own. If he noticed how cold her hand was in comparison to his own warm hand, he didn't say anything. "Let's go back, Kazuha."

"We can't just go back-!" Her own protest was cut off, her words dying in her throat without being spoken, as she slowly came to the realization that from the moment he had taken her hand, the sound of the lullaby had ceased, as if the noise had been taken from her. The intense pressure that had seemed to all but twist through the forest suddenly vanished as if it had never been there, and before she knew it, she found herself taking a step forward, being pulled by their linked hands as the boy took a step forward of his own.

"Who exactly are you?" Kazuha found herself asking, her eyes narrowing, taking step after step behind him, watching the labyrinth of the forest give way behind her.

"I already told ya, didn't I?" Heiji asked, glancing back at her, bright grin seeming to light up the darkened forest. "I'm Hattori Heiji! Future detective!" Seeming pleased with himself, Heiji turned his gaze back towards the front, still holding on to her mask with his other hand, even as their linked pair slowly guided them out of the forest. "Let's be friends, Kazuha!"

"You're really strange." Kazuha mumbled. As the sea of autumn colored trees gave way to the deep orange color of the setting sun, she found a small smile gracing her face, as for the first time in what felt like ages, she felt that's presence fade away from her, having been lead outside of it's reach. As the sound of worried voices made their way to her ears as people spotted the child that she had attempted to lure away in the first place, she found herself slowly nodding her head, her smile growing somewhat.

He was a bit strange, but it wasn't bad.

"Yeah. I think I'd like that, Heiji."

"It seems like we're going to be in your neck of the woods in a week or so, Hattori." The voice on the other end of the line was that of someone that Heiji had come to know rather well over the past year. "That uncle got himself a case in Kyoto, so I thought I would call you and ask if you wanted to come work it together with me. It sounds like a pretty strange one, so I figured it would be just up your alley."

"Exactly what kind of impression do ya have of the cases I take, Kudo?" In the privacy of his own home, Heiji felt at ease letting the name he otherwise shouldn't use slip from his lips, leaning back in his chair. "I take normal cases sometimes too, ya know. Just because I've ended up with that weird reputation-"

"Yes, yes, that's enough of that line of complaint." Conan cut him off, knowing full well that if Heiji got started, he might never finish. If he didn't know any better, it sometimes seemed as if Heiji was desperately trying to cover up something in regards to that. "Anyways, the client who hired the uncle says that his daughter went missing in a forest in Kyoto while she was on vacation with them, and hired him in hopes that he could find her. It seems like the police have canvassed the area for her already, but haven't so much as come up with even a trace of her. What's more-"

"When ya looked into the matter, there were tons of other reports of missin' children involvin' that forest, right?" Heiji finished for him, narrowing his eyes. "Yer best off tellin' that uncle not ta get involved in this one. Ya should stay far away from it yerself, Kudo. That's a case not even my old man could crack."

"Eh? Your father looked into it before?" The surprise was rather clear in Conan's voice, both because of this fact, and the fact that Heiji already appeared to be familiar with the case. "But, that's all the more reason to look into it, isn't there? There's definitely something serious going on here if this many children have gone missing there over such a long span of time."

"Well, I'm not goin' with ya, Kudo." Heiji said shortly. "Sorry, but I'm goin' ta sit this case out."

"That's not like you, Hattori." Conan couldn't help but frown. Usually he would think that the temptation of solving a case that even his father hadn't managed to crack would be overwhelming for his rival, but it didn't sound that way at all. "Is there something about this case?'

"Well, ya could say that. Anyways, I don't think it's a good idea fer you ta look into, Kudo. Especially not with that shrimpy body of yers." Heiji said simply. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize." Conan told him. It really wasn't like Heiji to try and talk him out of a case, and he couldn't help but wonder if he knew something about it that he wasn't telling him. Somehow he got the strangest feeling him that pressing him about it wouldn't result in any answers. "Well, even if you tell me that, it's not like I have any say in it. That guy already accepted the money that was offered to him anyways, so I don't think he can back out now. Besides, I'm concerned about this missing girl. It's only been a week since she disappeared, so there's still a chance that she's still alive."

"Well, in that case, be careful." Heiji told him, rising to his feet. "Anyways, I have ta go, Kudo. Sorry." Repeating his earlier apology, he quickly hung up the phone before his friend could so much as protest, switching his phone off. Eyes falling on the charm that he used as a cellphone strap that dangled from his cellphone, his brows furrowed together, a long sigh escaping from him as he tucked both it and his phone away.

Kneeling down, he opened up the bottom drawer of his desk, quickly emptying it of it's contents. Carefully, he pried off the false bottom he knew was there with his nails, pulling it free and setting it aside, leaving exposed what was hidden underneath it. Eyes narrowing, he carefully picked up the old fox mask, carefully holding it in his hands, half worried that it might shatter if he so much as dropped it. In reality, he knew it wasn't that fragile, yet he found himself treating it gently regardless.

Ever since that day, he had kept it with him. It was proof of what had happened on that late autumn evening, not that he was the one who needed it.

He had always been afraid that one day, his friend might get involved in that case. That it's call would be too much for his friend to resist, or that the detective agency uncle he lived with would be hired to work a case relating to it. Given how close Kyoto was to here, he didn't doubt that he would call him when he finally did- but he couldn't go with him. Going with him would mean Kazuha would want to come with him. And whatever happened, he couldn't allow Kazuha to return to that forest. She had finally managed to completely forget her ties with it- if she went back, and heard that lullaby again, he knew that he might very well never see her again.

But if he let Kudo head there on his own, he knew full well that he might never see him again either, not given the current state of his body. A determined expression settling on his face, he placed the mask aside, carefully putting the false bottom back in place, and filling up the bottom drawer again. Shutting it firmly, Heiji scooped up the fox mask in one hand, rising to his feet again.

When he was a child, there had been nothing else he could do about the case other than to return home with a new friend in tow. From the very start, from the moment that he had laid eyes on her, he knew who and what she was, and had followed her anyways, solely because he felt like he couldn't leave her there. He didn't forget the way the adults had swarmed about him when he came back, an unknown girl hand in hand with him. They had spent the longest time trying to find where she had come from, and who she was. Of course, they never found any answers, and before long, she was living with the Toyama family as their daughter. As time passed, so too did her memories fade, as did the memories of those around her.

His didn't, though. Whatever strangeness that she had possessed from that time, he had seemed to have taken for himself on that day, and made it his own. He had always been a little bit strange even before then, a bit off kilter compared to the rest of the world, but after that day in the forest, everything changed for him, and he knew it would never go back to the way it was. But that was fine. If it meant that that girl could continue smiling, that was more than fine.

As for Kazuha herself- a human that had become a spirit could still return to being human, provided that they forget that they themselves were no longer as such. As the memories faded from her mind, and she began to live a happy, normal life, less and less was she tied to that world, and more and more did she start believing herself to be human again. Once she did, she was. It was simple. He wasn't going to let her go back to that. He refused.

She was free of that place now. It was alright for her to live as just Toyama Kazuha for the rest of her life.

But as for him on the other hand- it was time for him to go back. There was still something that he could do. Something that he had to do, especially now, before his friend, who assumed that there was only one side to the world, showed up.

Glancing down at the fox mask, he narrowed his eyes, gaze fixing on it's eyes, painted with slightly worn red paint. For a moment, hesitation worked it's way onto his features, his grip on the mask tightening. He knew full well that his own spiritual abilities weren't so strong that if he went up like something like that, he would be able to escape unscathed. The only method he could think of was one that he knew would have consequences- but if it meant protecting those important to him- the one who had escaped, and the one who was unwittingly heading there, then it was the only option that he had.

Besides, he couldn't let that thing continue on the way it was for much longer. Someone had to put a stop to it- it might as well be him.

Perhaps it might not be that bad. For someone who had spent so long pretending that there were things that he couldn't see, couldn't hear, finally being able to embrace that part of himself he always tried to seal away might be a great relief. He wouldn't have to pretend to be normal anymore. Sure, there were people that he would regret leaving behind, but in the end, once he became a part of that forest, he doubted that they would even remember him. The memories of him that those in this world possessed would vanish, taking all traces of his existence with them. He would be the only one left to miss them- and they would move on without him.

It would be fine like that, he thought. Better him than any of them. Ever since that day, whether it was by curse or fate, he felt like he belonged here less and less. Things from that world seemed to trail in his wake- it wouldn't be long before the power of his words wouldn't be enough to vanquish them, turning them into something normal, something that belonged in this world, rather than that world. How long would it be then, before someone got hurt because of him?

Tucking the mask away in his favorite bag, he put together a few other odds and ends, and slung it over his shoulder. Before he left, he should really stop and say his goodbyes to everyone that he could. If this was the last time that he was ever going to see them, he might as well make it count.

Maybe Kazuha was right. Maybe he really was an idiot. Maybe if he was a little bit smarter than this, he could think of some other solution.

Fingers tracing the charm the hung from his cellphone as he tucked his hands into his pockets, Heiji carefully reached into it, pulling his cellphone out. Carefully removing the charm from his phone, and setting the phone aside on his desk, he carefully held the charm in his hand, before holding it close to himself.

In the one in a million chance that someone remembered him well enough to come looking for him, maybe something would happen then. And within that one in a million chance, the only person he could imagine coming to find him each and every time, was always Kazuha.

For the longest time, Toyama Kazuha felt as if she was forgetting something. No, in truth, she felt as if she had been forgetting something most of her life- but this wasn't that- this was different. Whatever that was, it always felt as if it were something that she was better off not remembering. But this, on the other hand, always felt as if it were incredibly important. Sometimes when she thought on it, she could feel her heart aching, as if she were yearning for someone to be by her side, even though she didn't know who they were.

Once, she had voiced this feeling to her good friend Ran, who no matter how much she tried, she just couldn't remember how she had become friends with her in the first place. Her boyfriend, Shinichi, had been with her at the time, and she was surprised when they had exchanged a glance, slowly admitting to her that sometimes they felt this way as well. That there was something important that they had forgotten.

Or someone.

There were moments, sometimes, when she felt as if she were on the verge of remembering, though she never did. Once, she could have sworn that the Hattori couple that her father knew so well, due to working underneath the husband, had a child of their own, even though she knew that wasn't true. They had tried and tried, but they never had any children. They hadn't even adopted any in the end, although when she questioned them why, they admitted that they didn't quite have an answer to that.

Once, when she heard someone foolish enough to claim that Kudo Shinichi was obviously the most talented high school detective out there, she had felt downright offended. There was obviously somewhere better than that guy, however much she had come to enjoy the company of Ran's boyfriend. But when she thought on it, she wasn't sure who it was she was angry on behalf of. Hakuba? That Sera girl? No, she was particularly close to either of them, there was no reason for her to get angry on their behalf.

Once, she had been mystified when she heard that her school's kendo team was on a losing streak. For some reason, she had been convinced for the longest that they had a super strong captain- one like a demon. But there was no such person- certainly their captain was their strongest member, but he was hardly what anyone would call a demon.

Once, when she turned down an otherwise charming young man who had confessed to her, she had told him that she had someone else that she was in love with. When he pressed her to tell him who it was, for the life her, she couldn't remember who it was, even though the feelings were there, tight inside of her chest.

There was something- someone- missing from her life who should have been there, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember what- who- it was. It wasn't until the charm that she always wore as a cellphone strap tore, one that she didn't really have any memory of buying, that she found her answer.

She had never actually examined the contents of the charm before, but once she did, the answer came to her all at once. With shaking hands, she carefully picked up the small picture of a boy that she didn't know, slowly realizing that this was it. This was who was missing from her life, the person that she couldn't remember. As she slowly picked up the small link of chain that had slipped from the charm, she remembered this too- once, the two of them had been connected by this.

In the back of her mind, she could almost hear a voice, though whose it was, she didn't know. Rising to her feet, clutching the picture to her chest, she turned on her heel, looking to the west, feeling her heart pound on in her chest. There. In that direction. She wasn't certain why she felt that way, nor was she certain why she had hurried to gather together her things. Today was a school day, and she was on day duty, so she had to-

She got on the bus heading in the other direction from her school. From there, she boarded a train. From there, she boarded another, smaller train. From there, she boarded yet another bus. After awhile, people began to look strangely at her school uniform, but she ignored them, instead focusing on the overpowering feeling that there was someone waiting for her at the end of this.

The gentle memory of him taking her hand, long ago, stood out to her, even though she couldn't remember anything else about him. That's right... once, long ago, he had lead her out of somewhere- where, or why, she couldn't recall. But she knew she hadn't been able to leave that place on her own, and now, she got the feeling that his boy was the same. Wherever he was, he couldn't leave on his own, and the world had moved on without him, as if he had never existed in the first place.

She couldn't accept that. If there was something that she could do to change that, then she would do anything that she could.

When she arrived at the forest, she knew in her heart that she had been here before. She had heard of this place, of course. A year ago, there had been a rather strange event in which children had suddenly begun appearing from the forest. A few of them were linked together with their parents fairly quickly, but nobody knew where many of them had come from. When asked about how they had gotten there, about where they had been, they just shook their heads, muttering something about a deep darkness, as if they had been swallowed up by it. None of them remembered.

She had heard other rumors about this place as well. Ever since then, there had something living within this forest, something different than what was rumored to be there before. Nobody stayed lost for long in there, always finding their way out. The souls that wandered in to end their lives always wandered back out, having put aside such deep, dark feelings, though when asked, they couldn't quite remember why. Those seeking refuge could hide in the forest, and not be found until they were ready to leave, until it was safe. Those looking for them would never find them. Nobody disappeared into the forest anymore.

She had been here before. But such memories didn't matter- what mattered was the one who was surely waiting for her here. Taking in and letting out a deep breath, Kazuha clutched the ripped charm, in which she had reinserted the picture and the link of chain, close to her chest, and took her first step into the forest. Even now, in the spring, it seemed to be alive with the colors of autumn, reds, oranges, and yellows, dancing around her. Had it been like that before she had entered? For some reason, she couldn't remember.

For some reason, it felt different than she had expected. She wasn't certain why she had thought it would feel foreboding, a haunting lullaby echoing throughout the forest, but rather than feel that way, the forest almost felt warm and bright, even though the tops of the trees seemed to blot out the sun. The way the leaves crunched underneath her feet was a pleasant feeling, but not pleasant enough that she forgot what it was that she had come all this way for, following nothing more than a whim.

When she found him, sitting on a fallen tree as if he were resting, it felt as if he had been waiting all this time for her. Stopping in her tracks, she felt he breath catch in her throat. Although she couldn't see his face, covered it was it was with worn out looking fox mask, she knew without a doubt that he was the one. Aside from the mask, he was dressed as any other boy his age would be, though his clothes were worn, booted feet barely a making a sound against the leaf covered forest floor as he rose to his feet.

Around his neck, a faded purple charm, a matching one to that of her own.

"Do ya-" Kazuha spoke up, half unsure of herself, wondering if this were perhaps a dream, gripping the charm ever tighter. "Do ya have a name?"

"Heiji." When he spoke, she at once knew the voice- and the name that went with it as well. At once, she came to the understanding that this was no dream. "I'm Heiji."

"Heiji." Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, as she took a step forward, before she took two, three, four more- closing the gap between the two of him. "I know ya, don't I? Or at least, I should know ya."

"Maybe so." He replied, slowly pulling his hands from his pockets, seeming to watch her carefully underneath his mask. She couldn't help but wonder how he could see through that thing, but at the time, she didn't question it much. "What brings ya out all this way, Kazuha?"

Her name on his lips didn't sound unfamiliar at all. Taking one more step forward, the two of them as close as they could be now, Kazuha reached up shaking hands, placing them over his mask. "You. I came all this way out here because of ya. I just felt... I just felt like I know ya, like ya should be part of my life."

"That might have been true once. I had somethin' ta do here. Somethin' important." He told her, resting his hands over that of her own. Cold, they were so cold. The scar that traced one of them- she felt like she knew that one. Had made it herself, even. "I knew that it would mean that I wouldn't be able ta leave this place on my own power anymore, but it was that important. Ya weren't supposed ta remember me, Kazuha."

"I still don't really remember ya." Kazuha confessed after a moment, her brows knitting together, even as her fingers curled around the edges of his fox mask. "But I feel like I still might. Will ya let me take this off?"

Dropping his hands away from her own, she almost felt as if he were smiling underneath the mask. He had said that she wasn't supposed to remember him either, but at her core, she knew that he had been expecting her to one day show up here. "There's nothin' stoppin' ya."

Wordlessly nodding her head, Kazuha swallowed, feeling as if she were on the cusp of remembering everything that had slipped from her. As she carefully took the mask off, holding it gently in her hands so as to not drop it, blue eyes that she knew so well it almost made her cry revealed themselves, and a face that she knew, with lips that curled into a bright grin that she definitely knew, gazed down at her.

"Ya've grown a little since I saw ya last." Heiji told her, carefully placing a hand on her head, lightly rubbing it. "That's unfair, Kazuha."

Ah. Like she thought, she really did know this person. Feeling a pinprick of tears at the corner of her eyes, she wrapped her arms tight around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. She knew him. Of course she knew him- this was her precious, precious childhood friend. The person that she loved more than anyone else. The person who had brought her out of this forest, the person who had made her human again.

How could she have forgotten. How could the world have forgotten? Her precious childhood friend, the hotblooded high school detective of the west, the demon captain of her high school's kendo team, the biggest idiot in her life- Hattori Heiji.

"Let's go, Heiji." Kazuha told him, even though her face was still buried in his chest, arms wrapped tight around his waist. As she felt his own wrapping around her in response, she closed her eyes, breathing in his scent. Everything would be alright now. "Let's go home."

Closing his eyes and leaning his head into the top of her own, still tall enough compared to her to do that, he quietly listened to the forest. At the faint rustle of leaves that whispered through it, he came to understand that what he couldn't do on his own any longer, he could do with the one he had brought out here in the first place.

Everything would be alright.

"Yes." He said finally, pulling away from her after what felt like an eternity. "Let's go home, Kazuha."

The world didn't remember him all at once.

When Kazuha had walked hand in hand with him through the streets of Osaka, through those familiar pathways, nobody stopped them to talk to the famous high school detective as they sometimes would in the past. When she brought him home, it had taken his own parents a moment to recognize him- but once they did, she found herself finally letting go of his hand, allowing his mother to embrace him, openly weeping as feelings that she didn't know she had been repressing came out all at once.

His father barely changed expressions, but she knew. Heiji knew.

The room in their house that had simply been an empty room gained life again, things once vanished returning. The Hattori family once more had a child, a loud, impulsive son who would run off at the drop of a hat to chase a mystery, and would let nothing stop him- not his father, not his childhood friend, nor even common sense.

People slowly began to remember him, whether it was by seeing him in person, or simply word of mouth. The first time he returned to school, Kazuha had watched as a look of understanding slowly dawned across the faces of those who had been his classmates and teammates alike. Slowly, word began to spread, and more and more people began to remember his existence.

When Kudo Shinichi showed up on his doorstep, out of breath as if he had ran there from the nearest station, a look of pure bafflement crossed his face as his eyes fell on the reckless, hotblooded high school detective that he should have known all this time. That he couldn't understand how he had managed to forget for over a year- how everyone had managed to forget. He never did come to understand it, such a thing existing in a realm beyond that of which the grounded detective of the east could fully understand.

He never would come to understand, but even so, no distance was ever created between the pair. What had stayed the same was far more important than what had changed, outweighing the whispers and the rumors that began to swirl around almost as matter of course.

In turn, Heiji had seemed rather surprised to see him, asking in hushed tones if everything was alright, if it was alright for him to walk around looking like that- did he get a temporary antidote pill from that little Neechan? When Shinichi had told him in equally hushed tones that all of that was already over, a look of regret almost seemed to flash though Heiji's eyes. He was quick to reassure him that it wasn't his fault, and he didn't blame him for not being there.

Bit by bit, piece by piece, the world remembered Hattori Heiji existed. It was rather quiet, all things told, so unlike the oftentimes loud Osakan himself, something that hadn't changed about him in the least. There was no fanfare, no grand homecoming- only befuddled people who didn't understand how they could have forgotten him, yet still didn't thoroughly question it. Most people seemed to be under the impression that he had been spirited away- and perhaps in a sense, that was the truth, even if it was something he had done by his own choice. Just as easily as he slipped from their memories, he slipped back into them.

Every so often, when his connection was weaker than it should have been, he wavered from them- but he never disappeared again. As the world began to accept his existence back into it, the rhythm of the world itself seemed to slowly return back to normal.

Even if the one who had returned was a little bit stranger than people remembered him to be. For all that so many things had stayed the same, so too, did some things change. That too, most people pinned on him having been spirited away. In time, Kazuha came to understand the truth for herself- she didn't even need to ask. For a time, Heiji had been a resident of that world, and unlike her, he was unable to shed his memories of it. Somewhere between human and spirit- whatever he was didn't matter to her, as long as he was back home with her, by her side. In time, maybe the scale would slide in favor of human again, but even if it didn't, it didn't matter.

Sometimes, he told her about such things, told her about his time in the forest. Never in much detail. For all that she had spent so many years in that world herself, even though she couldn't clearly remember them anymore, she was still afraid of that sort of thing. Perhaps it was because of that, which sometimes still haunted her nightmares even long after she had otherwise forgotten it.

She knew that she was the only one he spoke to of such things. Nobody else knew. It was a strange secret, tied together between them, tied to a worn out fox mask, that never quite left his side anymore, usually resting on the side of his head.

"Hey, Heiji?" Holding his hand tight in her own, as if she were still afraid that he might once more disappear if she didn't keep him close. There were times when his existence would flicker like that- and it was all she could do to stay fast by his side during such times. "Why did ya take me out from the forest in the first place?"

"Why, ya ask?" Heiji blinked, glancing down at her, a look of confusion crossing his face. "Isn't that obvious?"

"No, not really." Kazuha admitted, shaking her head. She couldn't clearly remember such things herself anymore, as if they had forever been removed from her own memories- she only knew what she had been told. "In the end, it caused ya nothin' but trouble. Maybe ya were a little weird back then already, like ya said, but what ya took from me only created more problems fer ya in the end. Ya could have left just as easily on yer own, right? Ya could have even just ignored me an' never entered that forest in the first place. Why did ya follow me in anyways, even knowin' what ya knew then?"

"Of course it was necessary." Heiji told her, giving her a quick grin. "What kind of future detective would I be if I couldn't save the victim right before my eyes? Of course I took ya with me, Kazuha! Well," trailing of a little, he averted his eyes from her, cheeks tinting a faint shade of red as he scratched his cheek. Part of him almost seemed to want to reach for the fox mask, to conceal his flustered expression behind it- but he fought such an urge. "...I might have also possibly fallen fer ya at first sight."

The last part was half muttered underneath his breath, but it was enough. Enough for Kazuha to hear, her cheeks tinting a bright shade of red in turn. "I-is that still true now?"

"Yeah. Though it took me awhile to realize that what I was feelin' was that kind of love, if I gotta be honest." Slowly turning back to face her, Heiji gave her something of a sheepish grin. He had sort of expected this confession to come out differently- but that was before. "I love ya, Kazuha."

"What a coincidence." Kazuha told him, slowly turning to face him, feeling his grip on her own hand tighten ever so slightly. It wasn't quite as warm as she had remembered it being, but it was fine. It didn't matter. "I happen ta be in love with ya as well, Heiji."

"That's good then." The smile that broke out across his face was one that she found herself echoing. Reaching out to take her other hand in his own, he pulled her close, feeling her warmth seep into him. "I won't leave yer side again, Kazuha. At least, I'll try not ta. No promises, actually."

"Yer bad at keepin' 'em anyways." Kazuha remarked lightly, closing her eyes and burying her head in his chest. It was a nice place to be.

"Besides, even if ya disappear on me again, I'll definitely come find ya, Heiji. I promise."

"Yeah. I know."