[It comes as something of a surprise, Keith's answering smile. Though the larger surprise, perhaps, is in the fact that Giovanni feels it echo in him, opening something inside his chest that he can't properly name, along with the slim tendrils of good feeling that follow in the wake of a response that looks to him like approval. It shouldn't be this easy, perhaps, but when one has been starved one's whole life of anything approaching validation, even so small an act of it can feel like a deluge.

He keeps said feelings to himself, however, only steps up to stand beside the other Bruiser as he smacks his pommel into the fallen ronin's head. Quickly casts his gaze across the scene before them, mind already on the next target.]

We ought to round up the fallen when we're done, I suppose. Attempt some of that questioning you were talking about.