[Some call it stubbornness; Ishimaru chooses to call it perseverance. (...unless it's in a direction he doesn't like, at which point it's just stubbornness, yes.)

As it stands, however, that response gets his expression to tighten a little, along with his stance. Ishimaru normally has no clue when it comes to how to navigate complex social situations, and now is no exception to that; this is just particularly difficult because there's an overlying sense that there's a specific way this should definitely not be handled, not that he can see what that is.]

Back home, we just received those motives - my brother and I, I mean! They were given to us a few hours ago.

[ . . . ]

You didn't...tell him about yours, did you?