Tetsu no Sosuke turned a deaf ear.
Shinobu Kocho raised her voice. "Hey!"
Not only did Tetsu no Sosuke ignore her, he closed his eyes.
Shinobu Kocho was furious. After everything she was dealing with, was he really pretending he couldn't hear her?
She came around the workbench and walked right up to him. She was about to call out when she noticed his eyes were shut and his breathing was steady, but his eyeballs kept moving beneath his lids.
"...Is this..." Shinobu Kocho froze for a moment. Meditation!?
Tetsu no Sosuke had taught Meditation to her and to Kanao.
The two of them spent so much time together that each had often seen the other meditate.
They both knew what it looked like. Shinobu Kocho could tell at a glance that Tetsu no Sosuke had entered Meditation.
"...If I wait for you to wake up, I'll burst before I can say anything." Shinobu Kocho suddenly felt hopeless.
Tetsu no Sosuke really was meditating.
There was too much to learn, and it was too complicated. With his eyes open, too much information flooded into his mind.
It kept his brain from devoting itself fully to the task.
It also kept him from unraveling the secrets of the Mechanism Arts left behind by this master craftsman.
To be honest, it was an agonizing experience.
Especially now. Every minute of delay could have unforeseeable consequences, and he couldn't afford to waste time.
But as the saying went, desperation drove a dog to leap a wall and a rabbit to bite. Push a person hard enough, and he would find a way.
His thoughts were too scattered for him to clear his mind.
And what better way was there than Meditation?
Meditation did more than clear his thoughts. In its inner world, he