[ 'return' is a tricky word and he doesn't want to promise anything he will regret, later on. giorno lays a hand on his arm and feels the way his body tenses in frustration and impotence under the weight of their circumstances; he knows, more than anyone else, because he's tasked himself to protecting the future, their future boss. and giorno, in turn, feels responsible for him in many ways that he also can't quite admit to. after all, his ascent was a series of accidents according to the general public, the idea that he has always been there, ready. a shadow, he had moved into the light when required and stayed there to guide them to the end and beyond.

he waits even as mista falls quiet in between sentences, giorno feeling the waves of the sea beneath them listlessly. what are they good at? a number of things, no doubt about it, but on a very basic level, surviving is all they knew, and what is being demanded of them is to do more than just survive. but he also has debts to pay. and a thousand promises to keep. ]

Of course. Everyone who has been brought here, and isn't seeking to run away, is painfully aware of that, too.

We're not the type of people to run away from home. We have one. That's more than what other people can say for themselves. We will get there, however long it takes; and whatever happens along the way, we'll take care of it. [ and giorno says it with a finality in his voice that brooks nothing else. he glances balefully at their surroundings. ] Everything else in this place ... interesting as it may be, it's useless to us beyond what our goal is.