The difference in the air is invisible, but he can hear it at once, as the ambient sounds of the air conditioning and fluorescent lights and children's section fade almost to silence. He catches Akito's glance and nods his appreciation. Good job.

At the table, Qubit gets right to looking over the equations, at first flipping through the papers for a quick overview, then going back to read them in detail. It actually looks promising, but he'll withhold judgment until he's checked the math.

"How long have you been working on this?" he asks, mentally running through one of the equations.