'Course it did. You're my best friend, Izō. We grew up together...

[ he bites his tongue because there's a lot more to that but he's not sure he's ready to say it. what if he scares izō off? ]

I didn't care much about Tosa, but I never stopped carin' 'bout ya after I left.

[ when he'd found out that izō had been taken back to tosa, ryouma had almost followed. nothing else had made him even consider it, fed up as he'd been with the political situation in the domain at the time. it's a lot of regrets now. ]