Quincy Revisions Hurt My Soul [Liltotto History 2.0]

Her earliest memory was the vague sensation of falling, crashing, sinking, and then finally, the darkness of slumber.

However long that slumber held that old her, it was interrupted by the sensation of being moved, and pulled along. The tiny flickers of her primitive consciousness would lead to more senses developing - the sound of talking, the feeling of being atop a cold, hard surface, rumbling and bumping about, and then finally seeing a man and woman before her, happily chatting as their carriage was pulled by a horse.

Humans, she recognized them as, and with that recognition came an unconscious yearning.

To be human.

Suddenly, the world was dark all over again, and oddly... She felt smaller. Dark, cold, hungry, aching - it was an uncomfortable barrage of sensation, so she did as any newborn would: She cried. Suddenly the rumbling beneath her would stop as she uncontrollably fussed in the darkness she resided in, before cracks of light formed in the cocoon of stone; the humans from prior had discovered a strange sight - a tiny wailing child enclosed in the strange formation of stone they were instructed to uncover. The two took to the poor tiny thing, wrapping her in extra cloth and taking her back to their home, deciding to keep their strange discovery of her a secret.

They strangely adored her, something the barely sapient infant didn't quite understand, but accepted. Though, her sudden appearance was not unnoticed; there was a noticeable uptick in spiritual pressure and slight increase of hollow activity not long after, but others in the area weren't certain of what caused it.

Her parents were two Vandenreich Soldats who were tasked with recovering an artifact discovered by the sea, but the report they had given was rather suspect and obviously fabricated. Eventually, their mysterious child was seen by a fellow Soldat who had gone over under the guise of visiting, but really was there to further investigate them. Later on in the week, they had gotten a notice that His Majesty was passing through to see their child, which only gotten the two rather anxious. The day came, Yhwach and his men meeting them not far from their home, the two parents full of anxiety and reverence for the man.

After a brief exchange, he told the couple to give him the child, intending for her to serve him. The two of them refused, not wishing to give up their new child, even for their lord. He bid them farewell, relieving them of their duties until the child was older, leaving rather easily over what was clearly a demand - a little too easily, but it wasn't a hard choice to make; fate held the true answer to that demand, whether the family was aware of it or not.

The strange child was but a toddler, her abilities beginning to manifest, before tragedy struck the otherwise happy household. Rather than one or two hollows straying too close, it was an entire mob of the beasts. Wanting to keep their child safe, despite how grossly ill prepared they were to deal with the thread, the two of them going out to fight the mob as their child watched, supposedly safe from her bedroom window, until the house was overwhelmed and crushed by the encroaching creatures. Strangely unhurt despite being buried in debris, she was dug out of the wreckage, but soon after her father was swiped away by one of the hollows, her mother's bloodied body being trampled on as more and more of the horde overwhelmed them.

Under all the stress and incoming threats, the child lashed out in the only way she knew how to: Eating. She would blindly eat everything in the immediate vicinity, until all was quiet, and she was alone. She didn't realize what she had done, all she understood was that she was alone. Crying out for her mother and father, the small child staggered about, until the sickness in her stomach she had felt after consuming the beasts caused her to stop and cry on the ground.

With uncanny timing, another had arrived. An unknown the child perceived as a threat, and thus lashed out to defend herself, taking out a massive chunk of her body, only to cease and retract her mouth when she tasted how revolting the stranger was, stopping long enough to hear the other out. This woman, later to be known as Giselle Gewelle, would become her partial caretaker, as she was brought to the Vandenreich proper.

The child was raised and grew up under their case, quickly becoming a proper and well known member in the ranks when she was of age, growing to actively dislike others as she served, particularly those who acted fake and babying towards her. Most compliments or recognition of her work were made with a patronizing tone, forming her great distaste for disrespect and ill-acknowledgement. She could only stand to be around a few, such as Giselle, forming a few meaningful relationships in her time.

And then the war happened.

To say Liltotto was in any way looking forward to it was the overstatement of the ages. It wasn't that she had a distaste for violence or disagreed with the mission, rather she personally thought many among their ranks were ill capable of handling the assault. Though, she was met with the realization, that her words really didn't mean much in the grander plan, nothing she could say could change the outcome, especially not from someone who appeared as she.

Her comrades were slaughtered all around her throughout the assault. Though her power to consume her enemies was effective, it wasn't enough to make much of a difference, the Shinigami just kept coming and coming, and their people just kept falling and falling, the grunts and notable members alike, even hearing their strongest failing to keep up. She remained regardless of her better judgement, until hearing that Giselle Gewelle had died; she had known it was a lost cause, but that news gave her no reason to remain, subtly slipping off into the darkness.

She went into hiding, rendering herself dormant until the amount of spiritual activity lowered enough, which ended in her waking once more around the time the 21rst century rolled around, in which she emerged and explored the new age - having felt bored and hungry in more ways than one. She posed herself as a normal citizen as she went about the world, occasionally finding places to settle and learn. Apart from some people being annoying to her, it was some fulfillment during a period in which she felt completely alone and painfully empty, hopping around doing various jobs to become familiar with that time period's advancements, and making a life for herself. Though she kept herself under cover, she did occasionally work to polish her skills, feeling that something may be coming, and she had to maintain her polish.

As expected, things had to gone awry in the world. Shinigami had their drama, then some otherworldly creatures came stomping in and causing violence, led by some figure by the name of Ender. While she did not actively fight on any particular side, she did end up encountering these strange creatures, and of course consuming them entirely. While she had to maintain a low profile, it didn't hurt to learn the enemy.

Eventually, things in her area were getting too restless and chaotic, those new creatures popping up all over the place in addition to the abnormal amount of hollows, forcing her to pack up and remain mobile. She couldn't stay and be discovered with one too many incidents of her using her abilities, doubting the Gotei or whoever else was apparent now would let her presence slide. She didn't have anyone in the world she could stand, anyway, at least until by some horrific miracle, Giselle turned out to be alive, running into her by chance. She was angry the woman was gone so long, but relieved in a way.

She kept in touch with her, but left her to her own devices, having settled into some large city she no longer could remember the name of, having decided to look into higher education and whatever job could relieve her boredom. The world was soon swarmed by a legion of what she later learned was called demons, who had swarmed and destroyed her loud but peaceful hiding spot. Once again, with minimal fighting for her own good, she departed, resorting to living on the road.

On her own in the increasingly ruined world, she decided to build her abilities, especially with the ample resources and knowledge she now had, compared to her more limited experience when she was younger. Applying herself, she would be able to survive in this new, cataclysmic world. While she never grew to learn of her origins or why she was such a peculiar being, she didn't care - she just needed to survive.

She continued her low profile, especially with the unnerving amount of Gotei activity around the world. She stayed mobile, deliberately planning her way through the world as to avoid getting wrapped up into anything as the years marched on and the world became hell, and came out the other end battered but attempting to heal. It wasn't until Giselle came to her with news about the Vandenreich apparently resurfacing once more, not long after the current war died down.

The previous Vandenreich she heard of sounded like a poor imitation, and thus she ignored it. However, this time it seemed to be a truer revival, though with a different purpose - rather, much of it was different. She ended up joining not terribly long after Giselle had, having given herself some time to think about it before joining. Really, her options were either stay on the run and keep losing things, or have somewhere relatively safe and reliable to stay, the only issue being the level of scrutiny her peers would give her and any restrictions given to her by her superiors.

The earliest memories were the vestiges of an old life long forgotten, swallowed by the cold sea and put to rest for years incalculable. Generations were born and perished countless times, thousands of sunrises and moonfalls until that resting place was finally disturbed, consciousness reforming with the spilling of blood and spiritual energy unto it’s stony form laid to rest, curved around a beach. It’s current form was little more than a legend at this point, rumored to hold the power to grant one’s wish, and thus was why a party of two Quincies were sent to investigate it to collect it’s power for their Majesty.

Between the two, a couple, the woman’s wishes betrayed that of their mission’s, though by some stroke of fortune her desires aligned with that of the slumbering figure’s - she wished for a child, and the being who had taken her offering had longed for humanity of it’s own, stone cracking and groaning until finally growing silent, having shrunken down into a new form crying and wailing within it’s shell to be broken out, the cold and painful feeling of birth welcoming the new form into the world.

Retrieved from the stone shell, thus was the beginning of Liltotto’s life, a tiny yet resilient infant brought back with the reporting that the rumor was but a falsehood, but this would not save the new parents from the watchful eye of the kingdom they served.

She proved to be an odd child with an incurable appetite, but she was loved and cared for either way, thankful to finally have a child of their own regardless of the odd circumstance. Though, it wouldn’t be long before the new family was paid a visit by their lord - a dark man atop a horse with his entourage at his side, a shocking visit to behold with their tiny child in her father’s arms. His Majesty looked upon her, and would demand the two give up the child, a demand in which they couldn’t agree to, even for a revered figure such as he. After a pause, just as shockingly, he would leave the two with the child, leaving with an ominous warning that they would soon come to wish they had surrendered.

Foolishly, they thought escaping from the lands of their lord would be enough to spare them any ill fate and their child’s safety, but tragedy unforeseen would strike: a small grouping of hollows were attracted to their dwelling, and would wreak havoc. Strangely unhurt but terrified, the toddler was in her injured father’s arms, her mother long been torn from her body and devoured as the two would then be cornered. They hadn’t the aid of a community to chase off the beasts, they were alone, they were going to die, her father giving into his wounds as the glowing sulfuric eyes burned from the dark woods.

Faced with ill fate, any normal child would have been killed alongside their parents, but that deepest instinct to survive, to devour, took the child. No recollection followed, but when consciousness returned to her, she was alone, and ill, her stomach filled with pain. With uncanny timing, another had approached her: Giselle Gewelle, the person she would look to as her parent for years, whom she had discerned as a threat and attempted to eat, though her shaken state and illness only left her with biting the woman’s arm off, only to spit it out from the additional bad taste in her mouth.

Taken back, she was set to train under and serve the Lichtreich, with Giselle as the least risky option for a caretaker, but it wouldn’t come without problems or strife. Even from a young age, Liltotto was treated more like a demon or curse to be shunned by various adults in her life, thoroughly treated like an outcast by most for both her strange habits and for her association with the already demonized blood witch, made only more troublesome with being mute.

Despite this, she did have peers and teachers who weren’t so keen on shunning her off of superstitions, being specks of light in an otherwise troublesome upbringing outside of her mother’s watch. Though lacking in Quincy abilities, she grew to be a skilled soldier, even if she had noticeably stopped aging and remained small, the young woman going through the motions of her life and duty.

And then, was the call to invade Soul Society, the only time she would have seen that plane for herself, only for it to be a host of traumatic failure. Friends and teachers alike, fighting for a cause they believed in, struck down for that cause, fire and blood all around her as the call to retreat was loosed; His Majesty had been slain in the attack.

Going home wasn’t the end of it. Home was destroyed, her life was destroyed, and all she could do was run. Run, and hide, unknowing to the greater despair of the situation until months later.

From her home, to her town, to her mother, to anything she held dear, it was crushed by the might of the Shinigami, a punishment. Lesser beings would have succumbed to the first or second shock, but the call to cease didn’t hit the little woman until she had made a grave for herself, any other attempts to alleviate or end her pain being despicably out of reach: intoxication wouldn’t come, blades couldn’t pierce her, and she hadn’t even a quarter a mind to surrender her life to hollow nor shinigami, and thus she decided to lie in a grave, close her eyes, and hope starvation took her.

But rather than starvation, she merely fell into a deep stasis, hundreds of years passing her by until an unlucky hollow picking around her supposed grave was snatched by her jaws. Liltotto was effectively revived, sickened by the hollow reiatsu temporarily, but alive. After such a long rest, she took this as an opportunity to form a new life.

Thus, she reintegrated into what was now 20th century society, a different world from the one she had ‘died’ in the past. Most of her activity was placed in learning about the world and fitting in, picking up whatever work she could and eventually going on to put most of her focus into schooling, effectively homeless but a dutiful student and worker. It was her only way of figuring out how to fit in.

But… She couldn’t. If anything, it was worse than being shunned. She hadn’t a clue what happened to the Quincy, and living amongst humans only set her apart all the more obviously. It would come to a head when the world was plunged into conflict wrought by the spiritual becoming abundant in the living realm, deciding her place wasn’t among humans, going off into the wastelands as a hermit, the dangers it posed pressuring her to develop her abilities a little further.

But even then, the isolation was no better.

She caught rumor that an organization called the Vandenreich had surfaced from the ashes of history, but she was reluctant to engage until she had come across the one whom she thought had died during her travels: Her mother. The array of emotions she felt couldn’t be described - she had changed, and Giselle had as well, for the better thankfully, her having presented interest in being a part of the organization.

The two parted for a while, Liltotto allowing herself time to think about it, but ultimately deciding to join, the safety and lack of interest in throwing their lives away on a fruitless genocide proving to be appealing, serving up until today as personnel of the Sternritter.