Chapter 2: What Has Changed?

Disclaimer: I don't own any Detective Conan/Case Closed characters.

So what do you think so far? Please read and review!

And some spoiler: Kudo Shinichi will join the story in the next chapter.

"Dad! Why didn't you tell me Toyama Ji-chan is back to Osaka?" Although it sounded like blaming, Heiji's mood was too good to actually blame anyone.

"Yesterday at dinner I told you that the Toyamas are coming back." Heizo was not entertained by the way his son questioned his authority, "Obviously, Heiji, from time to time you don't listen to your father."

Ok, anyway, it doesn't matter.

Heiji was still savoring the happiness of the day, the day when his childhood friend finally came back to his life. He was not prepared, but it felt good.

After his nose bleeding incident, he accompanied Kazuha to get a fitting high school uniform that finally, to his satisfaction, properly clothed the part of her smooth porcelain skin that should not be revealed in the first place. Honestly speaking, when Kazuha suddenly showed up in the classroom, in the beginning he really enjoyed looking at her long legs and etc. But soon he realized that other guys were also admiring her body in the same way, and that made him really angry. Now, although it was a relief to see her tempting body parts were appropriately protected from the eyes of other men, he was secretly thinking maybe she could still wear her way-too-small and way-too-revealing elementary school uniform just for his eyes, either at her home or his.

And the highlight of the happy day was definitely when Heiji finally had the chance to give Kazuha a motorbike ride to her home.

While Kazuha was away, Heiji's bicycle was replaced by a cool motorbike that his parents gifted him a year ago on his 16thbirthday. Heiji couldn't count how many times he had fantasized Kazuha sitting on the back seat and holding on to his waist tight, just like how she used to sit on the back seat of his old bicycle.

And now, the fantasy was about to become true.

"Come on." Heiji winked at Kazuha, and put his helmet on her head.

Kazuha liked Heiji's cool motorbike: "Maybe sometime you can also teach me how to ride it?" While she lifted one leg to ride on the back seat, Heiji gained a fleeting view of what she was wearing under her skirt.

It was white …

Heiji cleared his throat, and quickly turned his head so Kazuha wouldn't notice his blushing face and see through his pervert thought.

Now, with Kazuha really sitting on his back seat, Heiji felt ecstatic. Of course, he intentionally speeded, gaining screams from Kazuha that he found really sexy and seductive. Well, he had fantasized Kazuha screaming his name like that, but in different scenarios …

And of course, Kazuha held on to him really tightly because she was afraid to fall. With the distance closing between them, Heiji's back felt the sweet pressure from Kazuha's soft breasts, which were apparently much bigger than what his back could remember from three years ago. He blushed terribly while savoring the wonderful feeling on his back. But he almost fell when he felt Kazuha's nervous hands unknowingly got close to his already big junior member below.

They shared another happy ride the next morning when Heiji picked up Kazuha from her house. Except for the fact that they were now on a motorbike instead of his old bicycle, Heiji felt nothing had changed between them. They would still go to school and go home together. They would still go to their favorite okonomiyaki restaurant. They would still hang out on weekends. She would still cheer for him at the Kendo tournaments and he at her Aikido tournaments.

Right, Kendo. Heiji grinned. He wanted to show off to Kazuha how manly he had become in the past three years.

"Do you want to come and watch my kendo practice today?"

Since Kazuha had to go to the principal's office for some transfer paperwork, she told Heiji that she would come to the Kendo Club a bit later. But when she arrived at the Kendo Club, Heiji was nowhere to be seen.

Guys in the Kendo team had their eyes wide open when they saw this new girl with a fresh, pretty face. Then, a little bit of commotion followed.

"Who is she? A freshman?"

"Probably, never seen her at Kaihou before. Looks like a freshman."

"So pretty …I wonder if Sakurako-chan could defend the Miss Kaihou title this year …"

Not aware that the guys were gossiping about her, Kazuha walked up to them and asked, "Excuse me, have you seen …"

Before Kazuha could finish her question, the guys already surrounded her and bombed her with a series of questions:

Q: "Nice meeting you! What's your name?"

Kazuha: "I am Toyama Kazuha …"

Q: "Kazuha-chan, are you a freshman?"

Kazuha: "No, I am actually a junior. I just transferred to Kaihou."

Q: "Kazuha-chan, which school did you go before?"

Kazuha: "Dalton School."

Q: "Dalton? Never heard of it before. In Osaka?"

Kazuha: "It is in New York."

Q: "New York? You are an American?"

Kazuha: "No, I am a native Osakan."

Q: "Since Kazuha-chan is new to Kaihou, I bet you still don't have a boyfriend?"

Kazuha: "No…"

Kazuha's last answer earned grunts of disappointment from the Kendo boys:

"Oh … So Kazuha-chan already have a boyfriend?"

"What?" Kazuha was more than confused by their reaction.

She did say "No." Why did they interpret the opposite?

"All of you! Keep your distance from her and call her Toyama-san!"

Heiji, who just came out of the locker room, felt furious when he saw Kazuha being surrounded by his eager teammates. Without second thought, he used his katana to strike all of his silly teammates on their heads.

What are they doing! Dare to pick up my girl while I am changing in the locker room?

And who do they think they are? Calling Kazuha by her first name?

"Ouch!" The poor Kendo boys, all stunned by Heiji's sudden attacks, grumbled while rubbing the new bumps on their heads, "Hattori! What are you doing!"

"Didn't you hear me? I said keep your damn distance!" Heiji, still jealous and angry, held his katana and ready to give his teammates another strike.

Seeing Heiji's reaction and thinking about Kazuha's answer, one guy seemed to get it:

"So Kazu… I mean Toyama-san …" He cleared his throat when he met Heiji's furious eyes, quickly correcting the way he addressed Kazuha, "Your said boyfriend is Hattori?"

"No!" Kazuha got a bit annoyed, "I just said 'No' to your question! I don't have a boyfriend! What's wrong with you guys!"

"But you said 'No' …" The Kendo boys felt something was lost in their communication.

"You idiots!" Heiji knew exactly where the misunderstanding came from, "Didn't you hear that she just came back from America? In English you say 'no' to negate the fact instead of the question. It is different from Japanese!"

But knowing exactly what Kazuha meant, Heiji felt really frustrated.

"Oh …" Kazuha realized it was indeed her mistake. She was too used to the English-speaking convention that she didn't realize that her "no" had totally opposite interpretations in Japanese and in English.

As for the question: "So you don't have a boyfriend?"

If the answer is no, in English it means "No, I don't have a boyfriend."

But in Japanese, it means: "It is not correct to say that I don't have a boyfriend, which means I do have a boyfriend."

"It looks like I need to pick up my native language after all …" Kazuha shrugged with some embarrassment.

Most Kendo boys still didn't get it due to their poor English. They shifted their gazes between Heiji and Kazuha, still confused.

"Ah …" Seeing their inquiring eyes, Kazuha pointed to Heiji and then to herself, "Anyway, don't misunderstand. Heiji and I are just childhood friend."

Ok … Heiji grumbled … just childhood friend …

He felt really dejected by this innocent answer.

But Heiji's mood was soon lifted. He trained extremely hard today since he wanted to show off his best to impress Kazuha. He really enjoyed seeing Kazuha jumping, laughing, and cheering for him. During the first break, while handing Heiji towel and water, Kazuha gave him her brightest smile and most wholehearted compliment.

"Heiji, you are amazing! I am so proud of you!"

Feeling his ego inflating, Heiji grinned and patted Kazuha on her head. Seeing her blushing, he suddenly wanted to tease her a little bit so he muffled her head with his sweaty towel.

Taken by surprise, Kazuha struggle to pull the towel off her head, "Ahou! How dare you! Now you made me all stinky with your sweat and you messed up my hair!"

Heiji was very satisfied with himself for making Kazuha angry. He secretly admired her cute, angry face.

"Sorry …" Heiji apologized, still grinning.

Kazuha was a bit shocked. Heiji's apology came a bit too fast to be in character, as far as she could recall in their many years of shared childhood. She was expecting at least five rounds of "ahou" calling before he would apologize with reluctance.

But what shocked her even more was that Heiji took off her hair ribbon and then swiftly and skillfully fixed her ponytail.

Heiji himself was also a bit surprised that he was still quite good at fixing Kazuha's ponytail, as if he had been doing that every day.

"Hey look …" Heiji felt proud of himself, "When it comes to fixing your ponytail, I am still the best."

Heiji really adored Kazuha's signature ponytail. Many years later, when they were already in their forties and both their sons had gone to college, he still insisted his wife wearing her hair in ponytail with ribbons, which Hattori Kazuha complied. That was part of the reason that the forty something Hattori Kazuha was still mistaken as a college student by most people.

"Thank you…" Kazuha was frozen for a few seconds when Heiji did all these so swiftly and so naturally. Warm memories of him doing that for her came to mind.

All these small, familiar moments. As if they were not separated at all in the past three years.

Hattori Heiji felt so good. Nothing had changed between he and his childhood friend.

But … but, he had a hunch this time something different would happen between them.

Hopefully, something … deeper than childhood friends.

But something had definitely changed in the past three years.

"What? You are not doing Aikido anymore?"

"Well, I didn't want to give up in the beginning." Kazuha shrugged, "But my school in America doesn't have an Aikido club. And I didn't want to train at a dojo outside of the school."

"So, I started to play baseball …" Kazuha beamed at Heiji, naughtily taking off his SAX cap and put it on herself.

"What do you mean baseball? Ahou!" Heiji's eyes widened.

"You are the ahou! I thought you would like me playing baseball." Kazuha pouted, "You like to watch baseball games, right?"

"Yes, I do! But that's not the point!" Heiji snatched his SAX cap back from her, "There is a problem! Baseball is for boys and aren't you supposed to play softball with the girls?"

"Well, initially I did join the girls' softball team. But it turned out that I was too good and my batting was too much for the girls – obviously my past Aikido training made my arms really strong." Kazuha winked at Heiji. She couldn't help to be proud of herself. "So, the coach asked me to join the boys' baseball team instead. And it turned out that I played just as good as the boys!"

"But …" Heiji still wanted to protest, "I don't think you can do it in Japan!"

"Don't worry, ahou." Kazuha shrugged, "I already asked the baseball team captain Naoki Senpai. He is very kind. He says it is fine with him to have a girl in the team."

"Don't underestimate me. You will see that I am pretty good." She kept beaming at Heiji, as if seeking his approval, "If I train hard, maybe I can even make it to Kōshien this summer!"

Looking at the beaming Kazuha, Heiji was momentarily out of reason to stop her from doing whatever she wanted to do. But he could see Kazuha in grave danger in a sports team of boys only. That was like putting a lamb in a pack of wolves! What was this stupid woman thinking!

"Heiji, could you believe it?" Kazuha snatched Heiji's cap once again, "I was very popular in my American school because I was the only girl in the baseball team."

Heiji felt helpless.

Ahou! That's exactly the problem!

Heiji had a really bad Kendo training today. One the one hand, he really missed having Kazuha cheering for him and handing him towel during the breaks. He kept looking for the girl in ponytail in case her baseball finished early and came to watch him again. On the other hand, he couldn't help from worrying about Kazuha playing baseball with a full team of boys. As a result, he was too distracted and received several warnings from the perplexed Kendo coach, who had never seen the good samurai Heiji train so absentmindedly.

When Kendo training was finally over, Heiji ran as fast as he could to the baseball field to pick up Kazuha.

The baseball practice was still going on. Still half an inning to go, and soon it was Kazuha's turn to bat.

Hey … that's … Kazuha?

Heiji felt his breath was taken away by his childhood friend. She looked really … handsome … yes, handsome, in the Kaihou baseball jersey. Well, you can still tell she was girl from her curve and from her ponytail dangling behind.

She was really focused, as focused as when she was in the Aikido tournament, and just like she bragged to him earlier, she was a power hitter.

The entire team cheered for her.

"Run! Kazuha-chan! Run"

"Safe! … Continue! To the second!"

"Great! Go, go, go! Faster! Run to the third! … Stay there!"

"Yeah! Triple!"

"Kazuha-chan you are amazing! We never thought a girl can play so well!"

Kazuha was obviously quite proud of the triple she just hit. She waved happily at her cheering teammates on the bench, who were gossiping about her.

"I thought Naoki Senpai just wanted to have a pretty face to boost the morale, but she was actually pretty good …"

"Yeah, no matter how she plays, it is indeed nice to have such a cute girl in the team …"

"Look at Naoki Senpai. It seems like he is really interested in her …"

"I wonder who will be the first person to have the gut to ask her out …"

"Shut up all of you! NOBODY is allowed to ask her out!"

Heiji's eyes were on fire. The way the baseball team gossiped about Kazuha made him felt really wanting to beat up them all.

Silence fell upon everyone, after Heiji just blurted out what he said.

"Hattori-san?"

The baseball team wondered why the Great Detective of the West and the Kendo team captain suddenly joined their conversation.

"I mean …" Heiji, realizing his bluntness, tried to rescue himself from embarrassment, "I mean … Kazuha is not as cute as she appears! … I mean … She was actually a violent woman! You won't be able to put up with that ahou for more than a day …"

Heiji suddenly felt the back of his right knee was struck by something like a katana. Well, as a Kendo master, an attack like that should have been nothing to him, but the problem was that he was entirely off guard.

So with the stunned look of the entire baseball team, Heiji lost his balance and fell really hard on the ground.

"Who …"

Before the surprised and furious Heiji could say anything further, he looked up and his eyes met the angry fire in the Kazuha's eyes." She was carrying her baseball bat, which was obviously the weapon that just struck Heiji.

"So, I am a violent woman, ha?" Kazuha tried to keep her temper down, but her body was apparently trembling with anger.

"Kazu …" Heiji forgot about the pain in his leg and jumped up, trying to grab Kazuha's arm, but the girl already threw away the bat and stormed away.

"Kazuha!" Despite the injury of his leg, it was not hard for Heiji to catch up with Kazuha. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop, "Stop, ahou! Why do you run away after hitting me!"

"You are the ahou!" Kazuha turned back, her eyes still burning with fury, "Why did you bad mouth me like that! Ahou!" She was almost about to cry, "I am just back and finally I got to make new friends at the baseball team! And now you are telling everyone I am a violent woman and … what did you say? No one can put up with me for even one day?"

"But you are violent! See how hard you just hit me! Ahou!" Heiji yelled back at her, but soon he regretted deeply.

Kazuha couldn't take it anymore. The tears she was trying hard to hold back rolled down her face. Instead of countering Heiji, she gave him a sad look and turned back.

Hattori Heiji was not afraid of anything. Except for Toyama Kazuha's tears.

He flustered while seeing Kazuha's sad look and her tears.

"Kazuha …" He ran to catch up with Kazuha again, trying to come up with some good excuses, "I just … I just wanted to protect you from those flirtatious guys … You know … you know … you are just back and you don't know any of them. What if you date some bad guys and get hurt?"

Kazuha stopped, but still didn't turn back.

"And that is none of your business …" Her voice was trembling with her shivering body, "I am old enough to take care of myself and I am able to make my own judgement about who I want to make friends with!"

Heiji was stunned by her declaration of independence from him. What does she mean that it is not his business? It is everything his business!

"Kazuha! You are too naïve and you always get easily tricked by others! Like last time …"

Kazuha finally turned back and looked at him right into the eyes:

"I don't know which last time you are referring to but I am sure it was a long, long time ago …"

She let out a sigh, and said something that petrified Heiji instantly.

"Heiji, you don't know me now."

Heiji froze. He watched her walking further and further away, but he couldn't move as if he was spell-bound. Yes, she had changed a lot in the past three years and he had missed all that. He missed how she grew from a naïve fourteen-year-old girl into a beautiful seventeen-year-old woman. He didn't know a lot of things, such as that she quitted Aikido and took up baseball. What about other things? Such as … had she dated any guys in America?

That thought alone made Heiji really jealous and sad.

He thought he could still enjoy their closeness as before. He thought even if other people wanted date her, he still had the natural advantage as her childhood friend. But she just stripped him of his privilege to keep other guys away from her. He was no longer entitled to protect her.

But as much he wanted to deny, he knew Kazuha was right.

They had both changed a lot in the past three years. And so far, neither of them knew how to close this tremendous gap.

Heiji finally found Kazuha, hiding under a slide in the playground of Kaihou elementary school.

She was sitting there, hugging her knees, and … crying …

His gaze softened at the sight of Kazuha being so vulnerable. Bending down to join her under the slide, he asked her in the most gentle voice he could manage:

"Do you mind … making some space for me?"

Kazuha froze for a few seconds when she heard Heiji's voice. She pouted, but still made space for Heiji and Heiji quickly nudged next to her.

"Kazuha … I am sorry …" Heiji looked at Kazuha nervously, "I … didn't mean what I said about you …"

Kazuha turned her head slightly at Heiji's direction. Her heart also softened when she heard Heiji apologizing. Her body felt his warmth.

"I … I am sorry as well … I was violent to you … but just a little bit …" She hid her face between her knees, still sobbing. Heiji, not sure what to say to comfort her, rubbed her back gently. He hesitated a little bit, but finally mustered some courage to move the hand on her back to her shoulder, drawing her closer to him and having her leaning on him. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to do that and was afraid Kazuha would push him away. But after a while of silence, he was finally relieved as Kazuha seemed to be ok with this posture.

Kazuha finally stopped sobbing. She raised her head, her face a little bit flustered:

"How …How do you know I am here?"

"Ahou …" Heiji smiled, drawing her even closer, "Of course I know. This is our secret hideout, right?"

Kazuha smiled, her gaze fixed on a small line of graffiti carved on the back of the slide.

Heiji will protect Kazuha forever.

Heiji's gaze stayed on the same place, too.

When Kazuha first used her Aikido to beat up the boys bullying Heiji at this playground, she dragged Heiji under the slide, picked up a sharp stone and carved:

Kazuha will protect Heiji forever

"It is my promise, Heiji." She patted on little Heiji's head, proud to be the big sis.

But soon, Heiji crossed out their names, and switched their positions:

Heiji will protect Kazuha forever.

This is his promise to her.

"Kazuha, I think I still know you …" He whispered in her ears, "At least, I still know where to find you…"

To be continued ...

So my readers, are you happy with the progress now? I am planning to add some twists in the following chapters. As promised, Shinichi and Ran will join, and later Momiji as well.

Thank you for reading and please don't forget to review! What's coming next really depends on your feedbacks!