When I got to the end of the anime, I had been particularly surprised about how things had turned out. And then when I started with the scanlations for volumes beyond what's been released in bookstores here, and finally got to the point where the real divergence begins, I was left wondering why such a difference was even present.

To be honest, when I was watching that final anime arc, I was surprised to find out that Ryoma did want to go overseas.