[romance, princesses...he has a lot to learn to even begin to fill the words with meaningful substance. but Sayaka sounds confident enough, and he's already begun to trust her know-how, so he'll not think to hard on it, he thinks.

and he moves right along, looking down at the ribbon she's talking about. he mulls over her remarks with a thoughtful look, mouth twisting a little before an older thought comes to mind.

looking at her again:] It reminded me of something my family had to do. Except, it's not ribbons. It's medals on chains. And, not other people... [he squints a little with his smile.] But you make a promise to something, and you can't ever take the chain off, ever. And...well, mine never worked right, the way the others did. I thought I'd messed up, done something wrong...

But this is like it, in a...really good way. She said she'll be able to find me wherever I am with this. It's like one of those promises. So, [a little laugh.] so it's kind of like I didn't fail...it was just late, in that sense.