[ ryouma just sighs a little and smiles when izō swats his hand away. this is nothing out of the ordinary, of course, so he just goes along with it. ]

Sure, I wanted t' show it off a little...

[ ... but it's one thing leaving out details as he does, and another to lie outright, which is what ryouma would be doing if he failed to answer the question now.

emily would say they should do this sober and she's probably right, but he'll be lucky if izō doesn't storm away so he's not taking liquor off the table. what he expects is izō leaving angrily anyway, and ryouma feels a little guilty now that this looks like a trap. ]

I wanted t' talk to ya too. [ he doesn't have a good way to define what he really means, so he's going to assume his tone makes it clear what sort of talk he means. ] I've been doin' a lotta thinkin' for a while and this thing fallin' into my lap felt like a sign. Ain't stoppin' ya if ya wanna go though.

[ he's usually a lot more persistent about things, but he felt like he lost that privilege when he shot izō, whether or not there had been a curse involved; now he takes whatever he can get with gratitude. ]