Closed Starter for @manlysilence:
‘Practice makes perfect’ was a convenient lie of omission people used to excuse their own sloppiness. The real mantra was ‘Perfect practice makes perfect’. True ‘perfection’ was of course impossible, but what was practice anyway? The most basic form of drill was repeating the same action over and over again until it wasn’t just functionally flawless, but mastered. Every movement, every motion, pared down and optimized—streamlined. As for what that looked like... it could be anything from Beatrix Kiddo’s ‘Wiggle your big toe,’ to Mr. Miyagi’s ‘Wax on, wax off.’
Standing within 7th Division’s training grounds, ‘Kisaragi Yōko’ had an opportunity to engage in exactly that sort of training. There were no other distractions, no other concerns aside from maintaining her cover and performing her drills. Just execute with precise power control (to hide her true strength) and exacting form. Nothing but the motion, over and over, like a machine, until it was second nature—until she was the motion.
Yoruichi demolished yet another stack of ceramic tiles almost as tall as she was in a spray of chips and dust, splitting them like twigs. She’d actually become so absorbed in it, gotten so deep in the zone, that she moved onto the next without immediately sensing the new arrival among the others using the space. She blinked and stalled on the next windup, finally noticing and processing it. Her reaction was further delayed by fractions of a second as she got back into character.
She looked behind her in a kind of lazily quizzical fashion, then spun and snapped to attention with a kind of exaggerated frenzy, resulting in a British or French Army style of salute, palm out, which was maybe too sharp and tryhard. She held it for a second too long, but nonetheless, she beamed. Everything about her body language was over-eager.
“Iba-taichō, sir! My apologies! Thank you for taking notice of my efforts!” she squeaked out rapidly, using a teenager’s pitch.