Web of Shadows [Mastery #1]

To begin, like many other's I've noticed I'm going with the concept that Mako has basically "Always had" Mastery- or at least, he has for quite a long time. However due to his subconscious barriers, he's been unable to properly control it, so even though he was technically a "Master" due to his inability to control himself to such a substantial degree, he was "stuck" as Expert until he was able to break through that psychological wall that was hindering him.

To begin, Mako has had an immense degree of skill in the usage of suppressing his energy and sensing it from an incredibly young age, this is revealed in a bit more detail in "A Vessel of Glass", in which he describes how the ability awakened through his fear on raw survival instinct alone in order to avoid an extensively harsh abuse from his father. From this he then began to rapidly utilize it in day to day activities, constantly suppressing his own spiritual energy to the point of being invisible to all but some of the most skilled of users.

Examples of this are littered throughout the threads, constantly suppressing his energy to the point of practical non-existence as an almost permanent effect on his form, this bordering on levels of very minor Grandmastery due to the concept of it simply "becoming part of him" as even while unconscious, his energy suppresses itself out of his terror found in "A Vessel of Glass". Similarly, his immense skill even backfired in it due to it being a purely instinctual skill, he was practically blinded by the sudden flux of reiatsu signatures around him in the same thread.

Further examples of less immense focus can be found in both the "Unlikely Bonds", and "The Delivery", in which Mako shows exceptional sensory and suppression capabilities in order to hide himself as much as possible from both Yuuta, and further investigation. Specifically "The Delivery" Mako specifically causes the Gangsters that have at least some degree of spiritual understanding, due to them being completely unable to keep up with him in any way whenever hey lost sight of him, Yuuta similarly briefly thinking that Mako left him or ran away due to being unable to keep track of him either.

This forced him to expand into an area that even with all his instinctual skill, he'd never managed- conscious control. In the post that Zabel helps him learn to better focus his senses on the fish- she unintentionally (due to not realizing his level of skill naturally) helps him to learn how to control his natural ability at sensing others and suppressing himself. This active control comes naturally to him, due to how much he already was using the ability, with a bit of instruction from someone who knew what they were talking about- and a bit of expanded thought, the connection was simple and came easily.

This is more however than simply representing Mako's step from instinct to conscious control, it also represents a much larger wall that was holding back his capabilities: his fear. Due to his sensory and suppression being completely limited by his absolute terror of the world, this causes his instincts to completely control everything about him- including his sensory. As such, by learning to focus his control he not only wretched control of his sensory, expanding his field of focus, but he also managed to gain a relatively strong grasp on his fear in the same instance. Was it still controlling him? Of course, but it shows that Mako is finally taking the first step to begin properly managing his fear.

Now, obviously, progress from his past isn't quite enough to prove his mastery even with multiple examples of such- due to this, I'm going to use them purely as heavy support while showing the usage of his reiatsu control actively in "modern times". For key examples, would be his interaction with Kasumi in "The Interview" in which he showcases tremendous control to suppress himself to the point that even Kasumi is unable to properly sense his level of power, being a practical ghost when it comes to spiritual energy as all he passes on the way also are completely unable to detect him, though obviously, Kasumi's inability to do so holds far more weight.

As another example of such would be instances such as when he interacted with Alain in "Unusual Knowledge", showcasing that the man had no idea anyone else was there at all until he was able to make visual contact with Mako. This is repeated in effectively each "Modern Thread", where Mako is consistently seen before he is sensed due to constantly suppressing his power, both out of habit as well as consciously in order to minimize his threat as much as possible. Similarly, this extends to his intense observational abilities, which we see constantly in his TBTP threads in order to protect himself or Yuuta.

Supporting these idea's he also utilizes these abilities constantly in order to sense the surface emotions, reactions, and movements of those around him- utilizing it in communication, as well as day to day activities. Examples of this found in the previously mentioned modern threads quite actively, specifically when it comes to his communication with Alain due to the man being of similar emotionless disposition, despite limited physical reactions, Mako reads him quite effectively. Understanding when a word causes the man to become less impressed, or disinterested in him despite limited to no facial recognition on Alain's part.

Support for the sensory can once more be traced back to "The Delivery" in which he utilizes his observational abilities even further, as it shows him in the past actively utilizing it not only to keep track of the movements of their stalkers but also in order to stand a chance to assist in outright combat when he returned to help Yuuta. The strongest piece being when he went beyond simply following "surface emotions" to instead read even deeper into it, dipping into sensing the surface thoughts, and reading the man's body language and spiritual energy well enough to predict and "see through" the man's shunpo on multiple occasions despite having no previous skill in it.

Building off this, in multiple threads he uses this ability to "read" others, and mimics their movements- learning how to fight, control his energy, and even specifically shows the ability to mimic the usage of Shunpo after only seeing it be used a few times, without any previous training of any sort- if a bit sloppily.

This is my first Mastery attempt, so if I've gone off the mark here just let me know and I'll revise as required, I believe I managed it correctly, however. Similarly, I obviously don't feel this is enough to warrant a Grandmastery, and I have some idea's on how to expand on it beyond into Mastery itself. However if m grader has any idea's on what points to really focus on, I'd greatly appreciate the assistance since it's the next Mastery that I'll be looking into for Mako.