With the celebrations finished, the group had set their sights further downstream. Chu Chu was an island, and so the only way to continue the group's journey was to set themselves adrift on a boat down the stream and, well, basically hope they found something interesting.

Also, possibly more importantly, basically pray to whoever was listening that whatever interesting thing they found didn't kill them on-sight.

And so, the villagers and the explorers gathered for one final goodbye, on the shores next to Muto's resting spot.

"So…" Yuuki hesitated as he sorted some of the odd foodstuffs Simia had packed the group. "…you guys don't know anything about the Black Mage?"

"Never heard of him," Lyon said. "but, I mean, I don't know much."

"Yeah, you don't." Yuuki said absentmindedly before pausing.

"Wait, what?"

"I don't know much!" Lyon said, more proudly than he ought to.

"Uh…"

"None of us remember much about where we came from," Simia explained, "we can remember waking up on the island, but nothing beyond that."

"We lost our memories of our origin," Pidol chirped from his spot at the table, "but you aren't like us. It is as though you are under the guardianship of a great power…"

"A great power…" Yuuki flexed his fingers slightly, immediately feeling stupid for doing so.

Lots of people had "great power". If Yuuki had a meso for every person who had some ability foretold by some prophecy or another, he could buy out Ereve from the Empress herself. To say nothing of the dozens of "special artifacts" that seemed to pop up everywhere. Such was the nature of a magical world.

And, truth be told, Yuuki was never one to put much faith into destiny. Lots of people liked to blame things on the future having been foretold; sure, people like Spiruna or Rhinne could peek into the future, and Abraxus wasn't called the "Watchful God" for no reason, but people claim they can predict the weather too, and look how accurate those forecasts are.

No, the future was murkier than that; a fortune teller could predict likely events, but those only exist as likelihoods, not as fact. Sure, those prophecies can have their uses from time to time…but if the life one was to lead had already been set in stone long before they had ever existed, what joy would there be in doing anything? If destiny were real, what point would there be in overcoming it?

And yet, Yuuki felt a growing urge in the pit of his stomach. Something shouting at him internally to get his attention. Screaming out in every direction that some gear in some grand machine had finally started moving.

Was it the first gear to move, or the last? Did it matter?

Destiny might not be real, but that doesn't make hearing about fate any less scary.

"Yuuki?"

The voice snapped the warrior out of his thoughts.

"Hm? Ah, sorry, I zoned out for a second there."

Simia nodded.

"We wanted to give this to Tear, but since she's…" The pair cast a sideways glance to the dragon girl, who had promptly passed out after such a long day and was currently being piggy-backed by Aran (because, as it turns out, rock beats scissors). The girl in question let out an embarrassingly loud snore. "…well, anyway, here."

Simia handed Yuuki a small object; a sphere as smooth as glass, with a pink flower bulb on the inside that seemed to always face the person staring at it, no matter how you turned it.

Yuuki blinked.

"This is an Arcane Symbol." He said bluntly.

"Is that what it is?" Simia asked. "We didn't really know what it was, we just wanted you to have it."

"I…" Yuuki hesitated. "…thank you."

Simia smiled and stepped back.

The group of explorers settled down in the makeshift raft, shaped like a large, curled leaf.

"Bye guys!" Liuva cheered. "See you around!"

"Thanks for the party!" Aran mock-saluted.

Tear snored again.

The raft was set free, and the current began to separate the newly-found friends. Each side continued waving until the river rounded a small bend and the villagers disappeared from view entirely.

Yuuki frowned as he lowered his arm and he stared at the Arcane Symbol. Hayato examined the offending object from his side.

"What are you thinking?" The samurai asked.

"I'm thinking," Yuuki said, "that I don't know what to think.

He held up the symbol and it glinted in the sunlight.

"This object, this symbol…the Black Mage…the birth of Chu Chu Island…" Yuuki huffed. "…they're all connected. Us as well, we're connected to it somehow too. That island…it was as if a bunch of different Erdas were mixed together and…"

Yuuki trailed off.

"Do you ever feel like we're…what is the phrase…in over our heads?" Hayato asked.

"All the time," Yuuki said, "nothing bad ever comes from overachieving, except maybe you bite off more than you can chew and wind up needing help. The real problem is when you're facing a challenge exactly at your difficulty level."

"Why is that?"

The Arcane Symbol glowed slightly, and disappeared in a flash of light.

"Because when that happens, nobody expects you to fail."