"I believe you will," he replied with a slow nod, looking down at his hands for a moment, rubbing thumbs and forefingers together, the gloves creaking softly. He honestly did believe Aoba would return, and while he didn't have any particular time frame, he didn't believe it would be too long, either. Then again, "too long" was a nebulous estimate, at best, particularly for someone who could be as infuriatingly patient as the Titan.

"Maybe when you come back, the fight will already be over?" he remarked, smirking faintly. Even he wasn't naive enough to believe that for a second, but why not play optimistic?

"If everything were better here...would you do it the other way?" he asked, genuinely curious, glancing over at Aoba again. "Would you bring everything you care about here instead?"