Speaking: darkblue | Thinking: grey
Mako had been strolling close to the back of the group. He'd been humming the tune of a psp game. For those who played videogames regularly, they'd recognised the song Persona 4: Pursuing my true self. For those who didn't know the song but had the misfortune of hearing Mako mangling the song like a budgerigar with dementia and a sorethroat, it was somewhat jazzy, kind of catchy - at least when the lyrics and notes were correct.
Was he being a noise polluting asshole? Yup. Was it funny to do so? Also yes!
Still, by the time they had reached the house Mako had more or less gotten what he remembered of the tune down. The words, not so much. "Loving zombies in the woods -" he paused when he heard Mary call the others forward. "Oh hey, we're here?" Grinning, Mako hurried forwards, curious to see where the new client lived. "Seems a pretty good-"
He got interrupted by an arm to the face. Or, to be more specific, he was about to take a step forward when a yukata-cladded arm shifted directly in front of him a few inches away from his nose. Mako was a short man; Shuuji had nearly a head in height off of him. Mako looked up at him in surprise. "What's up?"
❝Don't just go charging off like that. I'm sensing... some strong Ability Presence here. Two really powerful abilities, but it's not one I've sensed before, so it can't be any of the Agency members...❞ Shuuji frowned.
Mako waited patiently as Shuuji searched for the source of the Ability, slipping his hands into his pockets. But although Mako was still grinning, looking relaxed as if he were a student on holiday, his eyes were sharp and anyone who knew him would have notice the tenseness to his shoulders.
Inside his pockets Mako's hands were curled around wires, ready to pull them out at a moments notice.
Fortunately there was no surprise attack. Unfortunately there were enemies. When Shuuji informed them that a member of the Port Mafia was there, Mako looked normal, although the grin slid off his face to be replaced with a serious, thoughtful look. But anyone who knew what to look for would have noticed that for a moment, Mako had stiffened, blue eyes widening almost imperceptibly at the information before narrowing with renewed focus, as if his mind were racing with multiple thoughts.
Mako did not have a good experience with the Port Mafia. And he still had a grudge for when they had decided to make him Dazai V.02 once they had figured out what he could do, which was yet another reason why he hated Dazai. He wasn't a replacement, for crud's sake! But even he knew that facing them without a plan was risky. Thoughtfully, he drummed his fingers against his hip from inside his pockets, uncaring if it made it look as if his pocket had something alive in it. Thank goodness I played all those mission games. What action should we take?
Alright. First, objective. They had two goals - first was distracting the Port Mafia, the second was getting the person they were here to meet out of the house and into safety. The Port Mafia members - especially the ones with Abilities like their's - were like cockroaches when it came to stomping them out, but stalling was doable. And they had numbers on their side, which Mako always thought was a plus.
Second, Plan. How do we get the person out while distracting the Port Mafia?
Shuuji's plan was reasonable, if a bit too cautious. While Victor, Erena and Mary could be considered the hard hitters of the group - at least while Mary had control over her dolls and Erena was on the right day and wait, wasn't Stephanie a hard hitter too? - the rest of them could more than take care of themselves. No, the problem would be...
"We're gonna need two teams." Mako muttered to the others after a few seconds consideration, keeping his voice low. Almost as an afterthought he forced a smile onto his face like a mask, faint but hiding any excessive emotion Mako felt about the Port Mafia. His pocket stopped jiggling like a live ferret was inside it and he withdrew his hand, which were holding thin silvery wires tightly within their fingers. "One for extraction and one for distraction - Group A distracts the enemy while Group B gets the target to safety." Mako explained, momentarily reverting back to gaming terms to explain the plan he had come up with.
"We've got 8 people so we can go in a group of 4, but we probably need to decide quickly before they noticed we're here. Hmm..." Mako looked around for inspiration. "left for Team Distraction, right for Team Extraction? Everyone ok with that? Speak up if you're not." Mako said, grin widening a smidgen as he made his decision. Then he cocked an eyebrow at Stephanie. "Steph, any ideas?"
He had no idea what would happen next, but one thing Mako could be sure about was this - Wilhelm and Mako were definitely going to be on different teams. They're skillsets were similar - Wil could direct other people's Abilities to himself like a lightning rod, while Mako could nullify them like an insulator. Different but useful in both ways. While they could work together pretty well - it was amazing how much easier it was to nullify a telekinetic when everything he had tried to throw at Mako ended up directed somewhere else - Mako was pretty sure that this time around it would benefit them more if they worked separately instead of together. Who knew if the target wouldn't be hostile and decide to attack them, after all?
The only problem was which team to choose...