AN: Tinkering some more with the same AU as last chapter, but obviously set a considerably bit earlier than the previous oneshot, back in middle school! I'm definitely planning on turning this into a full story, but unlike Black Echo, I'll probably start from a different place than in the oneshots, so look forward to that! Anyways, hopefully I should be back to regularly updating my other multi-chapter Conan fics soon enough, (hopefully) starting with (Don't) Believe What You Know. I always get thrown out of sorts for awhile after I come back from vacation, ahahaa. I had a good time though, in case anyone is wondering.

Anyways, don't forget to review!

Bonds, Forgotten

AU

Characters: Hattori Heiji, Hattori Shizuka, Hattori Heizo, Toyama Kazuha

Summary: Just because a bond was forgotten, didn't mean it was broken.

"Heiji?"

It was the soft voice of his mother that greeted him as he woke to face the world. Vaguely, even though he felt as if he was waking from the deepest slumber possible, he could make out the faint sound of concern in her voice. As his eyes slowly fluttered open, Heiji could gradually begin to make out her face, looking down at him with the same worry traced within her eyes, deep set within them, as if it had been there for months now.

"Heiji, honey?" Shizuka spoke up again, almost seeming to swallow down some kind of apprehension. "How are you feeling?"

Slowly blinking, the vague feeling that something was wrong refusing to leave him, Heiji opened and closed his mouth. His mother almost seemed to flinch as he did so, a subtle thing, schooled quickly into obedience. Turning his head slightly, he noticed that his mother wasn't alone- his father was also there as well, all but looming over the- the bed, he guessed, though he couldn't actually remember getting into one in the first place. Even his usually hard to read father seemed as clear as an open book, concern evident in his features.

"...Mom? Old man?" Heiji finally spoke up, his voice cracking as if it were the first time he'd used it in months. He watched as his parents' shoulders slumped, abject relief washing over the pair of them- an emotion that was still tempered by something, some other kind of worry.

Something was wrong.

Heiji couldn't put his finger on it, couldn't determine what it was right away. But something was definitely wrong here. It wasn't just the concerned way his parents were hovering over him, silently exchanging gazes between the two of them, but it was something more than that, something else. His field of vision felt strangely warped- as if it had gotten wider than he remembered it being. Duller, too, as if some of the world's colors had been sucked out of it, leaving everything desaturated.

Even as his mouth moved and his eyes worked, Heiji couldn't shake the overwhelming sensation that there was something very wrong with his face. He had no real way of explaining it other than the fact that it felt strange to him, as if it were completely alien. With narrowed eyes, Heiji carefully reached up one hand-

And was stopped by his mother, and her gentle yet strained smile, who took it in her own, holding it tight. "Heiji." Shizuka began, almost seeming to struggle to lock eyes with her son. "Do you remember anything?"

"Remember?" Heiji blinked, the question, for a moment, striking him as odd. What was it that he was supposed to remember? He knew who he was, and who they were, if that was what they were asking- but somehow, he didn't think that was it. No, rather, if anything, what they probably meant was...

As his eyes went wide and he jolted straight up in bed, the memories coming back to him in a rush, he couldn't help but notice the way this action had startled his parents. Reaching up a hand and placing it over his chest, a shiver ran down Heiji's spine, in spite of the warm air. Clutching his chest, vivid memories played themselves out in Heiji's mind, the sight of something very red staining something very white- a vision of long, black hair dancing amongst the snowflakes, as a red color bloomed against the gathered snow.

That was right. He'd been attacked.

By a yukionna.

In other circumstances, he would have tried to deny that such a thing could possibly exist- indeed, he'd done just that much right before he had been attacked. But he knew what he remembered, and he knew that it was real, even though it had a surreal, dreamlike quality to it. He'd been attacked by that thing, that monstrous woman of the snow, and then... and then what?

Dimly, he thought he could recall Kazuha calling out his name, the warmth of her hand desperately trying to offset how cold his own had grown, pleading with him to stay with them for a little bit longer. There had been tears in her eyes, ones that trickled down onto his frozen cheeks, leaving behind a faint trail of warmth.

"Heiji." It was his father who had spoke this time, and Heiji found his gaze slowly trailing towards him, watching as the man's eyes narrowed every so slightly underneath it. "You've been in a coma for six months. Don't move around so quickly."

"Six..." The word escaped from him before he even realized it, that strange feeling surfacing within him as his lips worked. "Six months?! That long?"

"I'm afraid so, honey." Shizuka's voice was soft, as she carefully reached out, brushing a stray hair away from his face. Her fingers briefly brushed against his forehead, and he could feel her fingers flinch as she did so, her hand quickly darting away. "There's some important things we need to talk to you about sweetie, but only if you feel up to them. There's no need to rush."

"Important things?" Heiji asked, blinking slowly. Casting his gaze downwards, he found himself counting all of his limbs, finding everything in order. His fingers and toes all twitched at his command, and really, nothing felt all that out of place- except, of course, for his face, which quite frankly, didn't feel as if it belonged to him at all. "Did somethin' happen ta me?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Shizuka told him, a frown crossing her features as she once more reached out a hand towards his face, this time not hesitating as she cupped one of his cheeks within it. Her touch felt strange to him, even as she reached out her other hand, cupping his face carefully with both hands, an almost apologetic look crossing her face. "I just hope you can forgive us, Heiji. There was no other choice."

"Yer kinda scarin' me there, mom." Heiji said slowly, reaching up to pull her hands away from his face, giving her what he thought was one of his usual grins. The expression nearly caused her to turn away however, a look of guilt surfacing in her eyes, one that once again left him questioning what was wrong. "Is somethin' on my face?"

He'd meant it in jest- but judging from the reaction he'd gotten from his parents, the silent way they exchanged a glance, communicating with each other in that way that only they could, Heiji couldn't help but feel that his joking words were far more than just that. Glancing between the two of them, Heiji slowly reached up his hands again, moving them towards his own face- and although Shizuka reached out to stop him once more, she caught her husband's gaze, who simply shook his head.

When Heiji touched his own face, he realized at once why something felt so wrong about it. It was warm to the touch, yet strangely hard, the texture so much different than he remembered. It almost felt like... ceramic, he supposed, except for it's warmth. Tracing his hands over his face, it didn't take him long to realize that everything about it was out of place. Nothing soft bristled underneath his fingertips as they trailed over where his eyebrows were, and the shape- the shape definitely was not right.

He couldn't even imagine what kind of expression he was making- nor even how he was making it. "W-what is this?" Heiji managed to stammer out after a moment, unable to help but let his hands trail down towards his mouth as he spoke, wondering why he couldn't feel the softness normally associated with lips as he did. "Wait a second, mom, what's wrong with my face?"

"We're so sorry, Heiji." Shizuka repeated, not quite answering his question, but rather pulling him into a tight embrace. "We just didn't want you to disappear."

Letting out a low grumble of pain, Heiji pulled his hands away from face, slowly feeling the sharp pain that yanking on it had sent through him die back down as soon as the pressure on it was removed. His cheeks throbbing, Heiji heaved a long sigh, leaning close enough to the bathroom mirror so that he could rest his forehead against it, a light clink against the glass of the mirror as it struck the ceramic material of his mask.

"God damnit." The words were almost hissed out, and he could hear the vague sound of the bathroom lights flickering around him as he allowed some of his anger to escape from him. Taking in a deep breath, he gripped the bathroom sink, trying to calm himself down a little. He'd already blown the power out in the house five times, and it had barely even been three days since he'd woken up from his coma- and he could tell that it was starting to wear on his parents' last nerve, guilt ridden as they were about this whole... situation.

For lack of a better word for it. Heaving a long sigh, Heiji pulled his head away from the mirror, briefly sparing a glance up towards what it was that he looked like now- and found another long sigh escaping from him as he did so, his head dropping back down. No wonder the world had seemed so strange to him when he'd opened his eyes- he wasn't even looking at them through his own anymore.

Forcing himself to stand back up straight, Heiji faced his reflection head on once more- before letting out another long, disgruntled sound at the sight of it. He'd been desperately trying to get the damn thing off of him for the past three days, to utterly no avail- no matter what he did, it wouldn't so much as budge. The way it moved in response to his subconscious commands, playing out his expressions, mouth moving in accordance with him as he spoke or ate, it almost seemed to be mocking him, silently reminding him that this was how things were going to be from now on, and that there was nothing that he could do about it.

"You are still human, you know."

That had been so easy for that old woman to say- the one who was responsible for this thing on his face. She wasn't the one who had to live like this from now on- from now until the day that he died, from the sound of it. He certainly didn't feel like he was still human- humans had normal faces, not anything like this- like this damn fox mask that had fixed itself to his face, bonding itself to it, all but taking the place of his real one. The mask and his face had become one, the old woman had said, and that he should treat it as he would his own face.

And for goodness sake, she'd added, a slight tone of annoyance in her voice- stop trying to yank it off already. You're only going to get yourself hurt, she'd said.

Well excuse him for trying. His memories told him that he should logically still have his real face behind this mask- and even though he'd been told it wouldn't come off, and even though he'd come to understand that much through his own actions, he couldn't help but be stubborn about it. Who could blame him? He wasn't supposed to look like this- he was supposed to be- well, normal.

And he thought he'd stood out before.

Taking in and letting out a deep breath, Heiji finally met his own eyes in the mirror- large, pitch black eyes, nothing like the human blue ones that he remembered. Blinking several times, he let out another disgruntled noise as he forced himself to come to terms with the fact that this was reality- as bizarre, strange, and abnormal a reality it was. He really had no choice but to accept it.

"It's alright. I can get through this." Heiji whispered to himself, managing to make something of a grin in the mirror, watching as the mask worked effortlessly, creating an echo of an expression that he knew so well on his own human face, warped somewhat thanks to the mask's less than human features. "It's better than bein' erased from existence, I guess."

He'd been furious at first. Of course he had been. Everything had been decided without his consent, even though he was the one who had to live with the consequences. He'd lashed out, the mask face warping with his anger, the very room around them being to shake in response to the overwhelming emotion, the light bulb above them shattering into pieces. When he had finally calmed down, having exhausted out all of his fury, his room was a mess, as if a storm had blown through it.

He had half a foot in the world of the spirits, the old woman had told him, a large portion of his soul ripped right out of him, lost somewhere in distant lands. That was bound to have it's fair share of strange effects on him- like the poltergeist phenomena that losing his temper had produced. It was a miracle that he had clung to the world for as long as he had, and hadn't literally started to disappear until his six month in a coma- and that was probably the only reason that his parents believed what the old woman had to say, the absurd tale that she carried on her lips.

She didn't give them the only solution that she could think of lightly. Of course, what would be ideal would be to find the missing piece of his soul and restore it to him, but such a thing wasn't easy. It was entirely possible that it had already been eaten by something, and no longer existed in this world, nor the next. In lieu of that, something needed to be created, an item that he would keep with him always, that would become as if it were a part of him, to fill the void that the part of his soul had left behind.

Otherwise not only would he never wake up, he would just completely disappear, not even leaving so much of a trace of memory about him behind. And that, frankly, was a thought that outright terrified him more than anything else.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if the cost had actually been worth it. The mask he could live with- it was strange, and still felt alien to him, but he supposed that he would manage to adjust to it eventually. He had his entire life to do so, unless he managed to find that missing chunk of his soul.

"Heiji?" Shizuka's voice caught his attention, and he turned away from his mirror, peeking his head out of the bathroom.

"What's up?" Heiji asked, giving her what he knew full well was a strained smile. His parents had been walking around him almost on tiptoes for the past three days- even his father had. "Ya've got an awfully serious expression on yer face, mom."

"Kazuha's leaving today." Shizuka told him, trying to keep her voice as gentle as possible. "I thought you might want to know."

"O-oh." Heiji slowly blinked, swallowing a little. He already knew that Kazuha's mother was planning on moving out to the countryside with her, bringing her to live with her grandparents out there. It was to make things easier on her, and wouldn't be for forever- but long enough, really. "I see. So everything's settled then, huh?"

Tucking his hands into his pockets, Heiji glanced down at the floor, watching the way his toes curled as he shifted his feet. He was going to miss her, when it came down to it- even though they bickered and fought, she had always been a constant in his life, someone who was always there for him when he really needed her to be. She had been the one who found him in the first place, who had saved his life- and had done it twice over, in the end.

And as a result, she no longer had any memory of him. In order to save him the second time, Kazuha had willingly traded fourteen years worth of memories of him- for all the years that he'd lived- in order to create the very thing that he now wore on his face, taking the place of the missing half of his soul. She would never get them back, for as long as she lived, not even if he did find the missing piece of his soul, allowing the mask to return to simply being a mask.

"If you want to go see her, now might be your only chance, Heiji." Shizuka told him, carefully studying her son. Even through the mask, she could still recognize the expressions she had come to know over the past fourteen years of her life. Really, she had been the one who wanted to give up her own memories in order to create it- but Kazuha had been insistent, and she'd eventually been forced to relent. Heiji needed both of his parents to remember him, to help him get through what was to come, she'd said.

Perhaps one day, the two of them would become friends again anyways, Kazuha had told them with a smile on her face. But if he never woke up, they'd never have the chance to.

"I..." Heiji began, pulling one hand out of his pocket, rubbing the back of his neck, averting his eyes from his mother. Glancing back towards the mirror behind him, catching sight of his mask face, Heiji let out a sigh, turning back to properly face her, a sheepish grin worn on his face. "I can't. Not like this."

This wasn't like him, he knew that much full well.

"Is that really fine, Heiji?" Shizuka asked, folding her arms in front of her chest. The last thing that she wanted was for all of this to cause her bright and friendly son to withdraw into himself- not that she would be able to blame him, really. She couldn't even imagine how it was that he felt, and found herself every day wishing that there had been some other way. "Kazuha might not be coming back home for quite some time. This might really be your last chance to see her for who knows how long, honey."

"She doesn't know me anymore, mom." Heiji told her, shrugging his shoulders. "An' if I show up with a face like this, I'd just scare her. Ya know how she is about monsters an' stuff."

"Hattori Heiji, you are not a monster." Shizuka's tone was sharp, her eyes narrowing. "You're just a bit... different, now."

Unable to help himself, Heiji snorted. "Well, that's one way of puttin' it." He said, giving her something that felt more like a genuine grin. "Her folks are sendin' Kazuha away in the first place ta make everythin' easier on her, since we don't know what kind of effects losin' parts of her memory might have on her. If I showed up, it'd just mess with all of that."

"Heiji..." Shizuka began, before letting out a long sigh. "You could at least see her one last time, without meeting her, you know. I think you'd regret it if you didn't."

"An' what?" Folding his arms in front of his chest, Heiji felt one of the brows of his mask raise. "Go outside lookin' like this?"

"You can't hole yourself up in the house forever." Shizuka pointed out, crossing the room so that she stood in front of him. "Or are you saying that Hattori Heiji is about to be defeated by something like this?"

"I'm not sayin' that!" Heiji snapped, wincing a little as the power flickered in response to the lashing of his temper. "I don't want ta be cooped up in here forever either, but...!" Trailing off, Heiji placed a hand over his face, wondering how it was that he still managed to feel the sensation of his own touch on it. "I mean, look at me. It'd be bad enough if I just had ta wear the mask fer the rest of my life, but on top of that, the damn thing moves too. There's not gonna be a single person out there who is gonna treat me normal anymore."

"Heiji that's not true." Shizuka told him, carefully cupping his face in her hands, watching as he dropped his own hand away from the mask, eyes darting off to what she assumed was the side. "There will be people who will. Trust me."

"I find that hard ta believe." Heiji muttered, shoving his hands back into his pockets once more. After a long period of silence, he let out a long sigh, closing his eyes. "But maybe yer right. I do kinda want ta see Kazuha one last time before she leaves."

"That's the spirit, Heiji." Shizuka said, letting her hands slide from his face, giving his shoulders a soft squeeze. "I'll walk with you myself. Get dressed, honey."

"Aw mom, I don't need ya ta come with me." Heiji grumbled, shooting her something of a dirty look. "I'm fourteen ya know, walkin' around with my old lady at this age is nothin' short of embarrassing."

He wanted to see Kazuha off on his own, anyways. It might very well be the last time he ever saw her- because even if she came back, he doubted that they could just pick up where they had left off. In spite of his mother's kind words, he knew what it was that he looked like now- not like someone who was human. Kazuha hated this sort of thing, had ever since she was a little child. With no memories of who he was, there was no way that she would accept him like this.

And that hurt him more than he expected it to. Damnit- when exactly had he gotten so attached to that idiot anyways?

"Kazuha? Is something wrong?"

"Ah, no." Shaking her head and glancing back up towards her mother, giving her a bright smile, Kazuha shook her head. "I just thought I saw someone fer a second. It turned out to be nobody though. Anyways, I'm excited to see grandma and grandpa again. It feels like I haven't visited them since fifth grade!"

Granted, Kazuha still didn't quite fully understand why her mother had suddenly decided to go out to the countryside to live with them. Their health wasn't so bad that they needed someone to look after them. She understood even less why her mother had decided to bring her with her, giving her three days to get everything in order and to pack her bags. Everything had happened in something of a rush, and before she knew it, she was sitting in the back of her mother's car, driving through the streets of Osaka that she knew so well for what might be the last time for awhile.

She barely had time to dwell on why her head felt so fuzzy from time to time, as if there was something missing- but it was a feeling that was slowly starting to fade. Just for a moment though, as she thought she caught someone watching them from out of the corner of her eye, it came back to hit her in full force, the feeling that there was something that she was going to be leaving behind here.

Pausing to glance back behind her again, Kazuha frowned a little, unable to see anyone there anymore. Maybe she had just imagined it.

From within the shadow of his jacket's hood, Heiji watched the car carrying his childhood friend drive off. Hands tucked into his jacket pocket, he watched as the car turned a corner, fading from view, taking the familiar ponytailed girl that he had come to know so well with it.

"Ahh, there she goes." Heiji said, heaving a long sigh, closing his eyes. "In the end, I didn't even get ta say goodbye."

Well, not that he really could, anyways. He knew her as his childhood friend, but to her, he'd just be a stranger wearing a mask- someone that she didn't know. As the last trace of sound the car left behind faded away- he couldn't help but feel that his hearing had gotten a lot sharper lately, perhaps because he had two sets of ears now- Heiji turned on his heel, turning away from the Toyama family home.

Glancing up towards the sky, wondering how it was he could still manage to feel the rays of the warm summer sun on his face, Heiji's eyes narrowed. The whole world as seen through his new eyes was different now- there were things that he could see now that he couldn't see before, and he half wished he could go back to not seeing. Nothing would ever be the same for him- but he was going to be stubborn and try to forge his way through life anyways, to hell with what anyone had to say about him, or what anyone thought about him.

His mother was right- it wasn't like him to be defeated by something like this. He'd pull himself out of this, one way or another. Things might never be the same again- but he'd find some kind of new normal, of that much he was certain.

One that didn't involve Kazuha.

Or at least- that had been what he had thought at the time. Long after he would have given up hope of having anyone outside of his own family treat him with anything that resembled normalcy, there would be any number of people who would enter his life who would do just that- and chief among them would be none other than Toyama Kazuha herself.

Just because a bond was forgotten, didn't mean it was broken.