[ ryouma can imagine why that silence gets drawn out and he takes the opportunity to drink more. it's the conversation that sits with him more uncomfortably than anything because it's strange looking izō in the face and talking about it; he'd made peace with the idea of his own death a long time before it happened. ]

We did it. All of us. Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa leadin' the way in the end with a lotta good people left to carry on into the future.

[ it's never been his accomplishment but the sum total of all the blood spilled and lives lost that together had made their dreams come true in the end. ]

If ya don't believe me, ask Hizen. He's the one who told me for sure, 'cause for me it's hard t' tell what's what sometimes. Me, I had about two years give or take..? Exactly as long as I needed, anyway.