(A/N: Sorry this is late. I caught a cold and was out of commission for a while. I'm all better now, and the next chapter is here. A lot of you guessed that it would be the cat that Shō would end up meeting again. Lets see if you're right.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 10: Coming To A Crossroads

It was really coming down. When the first drops of rain began to fall, Shō hadn't thought it would be too much of a problem, until he was hit that is. The raindrop slammed into him like a giant fast-moving water balloon. He nearly toppled over, but managed to remain standing.

He'd quickly grabbed a leaf, using it to shield himself from the rain. It was no umbrella, but it protected him from getting completely soaked, and it did absorb some of the impact of the falling drops. It wasn't ideal to run around in the rain, and he doubted borrowers did it much, if ever, but he didn't have time to wait for the rain to stop. He was already behind schedule, and the rain would most likely slow him down even more. Besides, it could rain for hours, maybe even days. He had to keep moving.

Overall, he thought he covered a fair amount of ground after a few hours. He didn't need to worry about any people walking around since it was pouring so hard, although he did see one or two with umbrellas out and about. Even so, he'd been sure to remain hidden as he journeyed, staying out of sight or hardly visible, although there were a few occasions where he had to cross open areas without any cover, save for his leaf.

So far, he had been lucky to avoid any roads, never going beyond the sidewalk. But he soon came to a spot where he was left with no choice. In order to continue towards the park, he would have to cross the street. And to make matters worse, there were cars traveling up and down the road. Not many people were willing to walk around in the rain, but driving was a different story.

But there was a traffic light up the road some. This left him with gaps in the traffic for a time. He wondered if he'd be able to cross the street before the light changed again. He figured he could at least make it to the yellow line in the middle of the road, then wait for the next light.

It would still be cutting it close, and he needed as much time as he could get before the traffic began to flow again. So he waited by the edge of the sidewalk, waiting for the light to change so he could cross.

But Shō had made a big mistake doing this. The rain was coming down hard, and the water was all gathering by the curb, forming a type of river-like water flow. One particular car got a little too close to the side, splashing up water as it passed. Shō was thrown back as the car sprayed up a wave, completely knocking him off his feet. He landed a short distance away, his leaf getting blown away by the wind. But his spear was too heavy to be blown away, and came falling down.

Shō's eyes widened as the spear landed point first right next to his head. It was almost comical, like the kind of thing you would see on TV where a sword, arrow, or some other sharp object would nearly impale the wielder after they were knocked down, normally by the person's head, or between their legs if they were a boy. Having it actually happen in real life was not funny in the least. Once again, Shō wasn't sure if fortune favored him, or hated him.

He remained where he was for a short while. He may have laid there longer if he weren't getting the wind knocked out of him as he was pelted by water drops. He sat up and looked around, not seeing his leaf anywhere. That didn't matter too much; he could always get another one.

But without his leaf, he was completely exposed, and it didn't take long for something to spot him. It passed him overhead, casting a shadow over him. Shō looked up at whatever was casting a shadow, only to see a large black object coming down for him.

It was a crow. The bird had been flying around, hoping to find some worms that had crawled out of the ground as it began to rain, and instead it found him. The crow swooped down, opening its beak to grab him. Shō flattened himself on the ground at the last second, and the crow passed over him. But he wasn't out of danger yet.

The crow circled around, coming for him again. Rather than trying to snatch him while it was in the air, it landed right beside him. Shō scooted back as the crow lunged at him. He spread his legs and the crow's beak struck the ground right between them, once again in a very comical TV show-like joke. It pecked again, and Shō rolled to the side, narrowly missed being pecked, but he still felt the crow's beak against his backside.

The crow stared at him a moment, as if it were surprised that its prey had avoided being snatched up three times. It squawked in frustration, and that's when Shō saw it. Around the crow's neck, it seemed to be missing its feathers. He could see its skin in a ring around the neck, and it was all scarred, as if something had torn into its neck. It almost looked as if it were wearing a collar of scarred flesh.

Shō's memory flashed back to six years ago to when he and Arrietty met at his window. He'd been trying to convince her to come out of hiding when a crow suddenly attacked, targeting Arrietty as a meal. It ended up crashing into the window. Shō's window had been opened, with only a wire screen covering to keep out insects. The crow's head had broken right through this, getting its head stuck.

Shō had immediately gone to Arrietty's rescue, pulling her inside and away from the crow. But even though it was stuck, the crow had fought furiously to get free, trying to grab Arrietty from him. Haru had arrived at that moment and gotten rid of the crow.

Could this actually be the very same crow? It had to be. What else could that ring around its neck be from? It had been scarred after the screen dug into its neck when it had gotten stuck. And now the crow was trying to make a meal out of him.

Now that was ironic.

The crow hopped closer, and Shō backed up further. His hand landed on his spear, and he quickly grabbed it, just as the crow lunged. He pointed his spear at the crow and it backed off, unprepared for its prey's sudden attempt to defend itself. Not that it was giving up.

It lunged again. Shō swung the spear, feeling it connect with the bird's beak. Not that this did any damage, but it made the crow back off again. It tried again, and Shō swung the spear again, once more receiving the same result.

But the thorn at the end of his spear was only held on by a piece of gum wrapped around it. Smacking it against the crow's beak had, not knocked it off, but made it point to the right. It wouldn't be of much use now. Shō quickly attempted to straighten out the thorn, and the crow took the opportunity to strike.

Shō tried to avoid the beak, and he did for the most part, but the beak clamped down on his pants. He was lifted up in the air, suddenly finding himself hanging upside-down. He desperately whacked at the crow's beak with his spear, but the crow didn't even react to the blows.

Then his pants ripped and he fell. The crow was left with nothing more than a torn leg of his pants. Shō quickly scrambled to his feet, pointing his spear at the crow again. It seemed to realize that whatever it had in its mouth wasn't edible, and turned its attention back to him. It seemed to be frustrated now and began stalking towards him, merely retracting its head a bit when Shō stabbed forward.

Suddenly Shō nearly fell backwards. He regained his balance and glanced behind him. The crow had backed him up to the edge of the curb. The drop wasn't far, only about twice his height, but the water gathered there was flowing rapidly, like a river. He'd never be able to swim in that current. He was trapped.

The crow realized it had cornered its prey and just seemed to be waiting for the right time to strike. Shō tried creeping to the right, but the crow hopped in that direction, cutting him off. The process was repeated when he tried to go to the left.

Maybe he could jump over the speeding water. Then he could make a run for it. Once he got to the middle of the road, he was sure that the crow wouldn't go after him if the traffic started again. But could he make the jump? He glanced over his shoulder to see how far it was.

Noticing that his attention was diverted, the crow struck, beak open. Shō looked up in time to see it lunging. He did the only thing he could think of. He threw the spear.

It struck, point first, right in the crow's left eye. It squawked loudly, its lunge going off to the side, missing Shō. It shook its head rapidly, trying to dislodge the spear from its eye, tripping over its own feet in the process. Crying out in pain, it flapped its wings and clumsily took to the air. It flew about wildly, not paying attention, and flying right out into the street. It narrowly missed hitting a passing car.

But the sudden appearance of the crow flying right in front of it, brushing against the windshield, startled the driving. They stepped on their breaks, the wet road causing the car to skid and spin out of control. It swerved to the side, riding up onto the sidewalk, just missing crushing Shō, and coming to a stop without anyone getting hurt.

But as the car sped past him, no more than a couple of inches away, Shō fell back, tumbling off the curb. He splashed into the water, and was immediately swept away by the current. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, and he immediately tried to swim. It proved to be impossible. The current was too strong and moving too fast for him to swim; all he could do was tumble along as he was carried away.

He clawed at the curb, but was unable to get a grip anywhere. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to hold on for long before the current would sweep him away again. Besides, it was too high for him to climb back up. Instead, he focused on trying to keep his head above the water, but he mostly ended up swallowing several mouthfuls rather than getting gulps of air.

It felt like an eternity, but was only for a few seconds. And that was when he saw it. Up ahead, the water was flowing into a storm drain. If he went down there, even if he survived the drop, he'd surely drown. He renewed his struggles, but had no more success than he did before. He flowed closer and closer until the ground disappeared beneath him.

He grabbed onto the metal grate, wrapping his arms around it and holding on for dear life. The water flowed over him, making it very difficult to keep a grip. He was already slipping, but if he fell, he would be dead.

With the water cascading over him, he couldn't breathe. He tried stretching his neck out, but could barely get above the surface. He realized that if he didn't get out of this, and soon, that he would drown before he even fell. Already water was forcing its way up his nose and mouth. He couldn't last much longer.

That's when all hope of escape left him as he spotted something flying overhead. It wasn't the crow, but it was another bird of some kind. He couldn't tell what since the water obscured his vision. And it was circling over him like a bird of prey would before it swooped down to catch its meal. It must have come to get the meal that the crow had abandoned. Even if by some miracle he did make it out of the water, the bird would get him.

Not that it mattered. He was beyond feeling lightheaded. His lungs were burning, starved of oxygen. Things were getting dark as he started to faint. Just as he lost his grip on the grate, he completely blacked out.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

Arrietty suddenly gasped, her hand flying towards her chest. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt a phantom pain in her chest, and a feeling of dread washed over her. What was that? It felt like something terrible happened somewhere; as if something bad had happened to someone she cared about.

But that was ridiculous. Her parents and Spiller were still in the tree. Besides, how could she know that something bad happened to someone? Intuition? But no, that still didn't make sense. But still, this horrible pain in her heart left her feeling very uneasy.

"Arrietty? Are you ok?"

She looked up at her mother. "Oh, yeah, fine, I think. I don't know, my heart just started hurting all of a sudden."

Homily's eyebrows rose. "Heartburn?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing like that. It's a really bad feeling. Remember how you told me how you felt when I was a little girl and I left the house alone."

Homily's hand covered her own heart. "Oh, don't bring that up. You scared your father and me to death when you disappeared like that."

Arrietty ignored that. "Well, it feels sort of like that. Like you know something really bad has happened."

Homily just waved it off. "Oh, that's silly. Nothing bad has happened. Everything is fine. Maybe you're just nervous about your wedding. That must be it."

But Arrietty knew better. This wasn't nervousness, and there wasn't anything physically wrong with her either. Something had happened; she knew it did. She could feel it.

'Shō!' her mind screamed. She didn't know how she knew, but this awful feeling was about him. 'Oh, Shō, what's happened to you?'

(A/N: Big cliffhanger there. Shō's in way over his head, literally, and Arrietty sensed it. I bet none of you guessed the crow would be the one Shō had a reunion with. If you did, congrats. I wanted an 'enemy' from the past to stand as an obstacle in Shō's path, and aside from the crow, the only other option was Haru, and it's not likely that she'll show up… Hmm, or is it?)