"brimstone chains have mercy"
[this features Akon, specifically the version I rp on tumblr under akon-just-akon…so not everything might align perfectly with canon material…also I don't own any canon material so don't sue me friends.]
ch. 2: escape interlude
[a/n: the powers belonging to my version of Akon are based on a concept that's not really canon. "essence chains" …anything alive has a soul chain. the soul chain includes an invisible essence chain. anything inanimate or "dead" (hollow, arrancar) still has an essence chain. this is how there can be objects in all the places that are not the real world…the chains are made out of links which constitute different elements/substances, b/c reincarnation doesn't happen to inanimate objects— but their essence is broken down/changed to be used elsewhere. ex: reishi— quincies absorb this, make it into weapons, etc— that's breaking down an essence chain into reishi links, then re-combining them to create new essence chains (new objects.) ex: reiryoku form links in chains— chains broken, reformed — reiatsu…this parallels the idea of reiryoku:stored energy (potential)::reiatsu: free to use energy (kinetic)...reiatsu is also kind of like thermonuclear energy, though, since it is also released on its' own (like heat)...either way it being theorized as a chain/links still kinda works…?]
He is now old enough to move without the clumsy jerks of a toddler, but still too young to look old enough to go to school. Akon has been a very good boy, but his mother has done nothing but beat him. He is happy, though, because the woman does not leave him anymore. And most days they do not starve.
When they are desperate for food, she makes him use his power. Hunting was easy. It was using his ability to kill that was difficult. It hurts. It makes him tired. He does not like the sound. He hears voices. They hurt him. That does not matter, if mother asks, he must obey. Their chains sound wrong, when he rips them out. And their food does not speak to him, when he is given the order to kill. He likes it when the food speaks to him. Mother will not look him in the eye, but dinner sometimes does.
It took quite some time for the woman to enact phase one of her plan. This was something she had tried, early on, when she was still new to hell, heavy with child. She found a shinigami and tricked it into loving her. The deception was so deep she even convinced the poor man that Akon was his baby- there was some kind of mistake, they were all happy together when they were alive, a terrible mistake, their love allowed them to meet again, to fix the great mistake. They had almost made it. The man acquired counterfeit passes and hell butterflies to cross-over. But then he opened his stupid mouth. Said something suspicious to one of his friends. They got caught before the senkaimon was even summoned. He was sent to execution back in the soul society; she was banished back into the lower depths.
That was where Akon was born, much to her surprise. She had seen other pregnant women in hell. It was often incorporated into eternal punishments. Some women carried ever-wailing sickly infants. She knew of several cases where women stayed pregnant forever- only the sick, fat, uncomfortable kind of pregnant, not the glowing, eager, loving kind. There was a legend one woman gave birth to stillborns over and over. Another told of someone stuck in childbirth for eternity. But nothing ever came out; she'd die before the baby breached, only to re-animate at the beginning of labor. No one was ever born alive in Hell.
But since Akon had been born, and grown up a little, this time would be different. She went about selecting a man to con. This was no easy task since the shinigami deployed to hell underwent special training designed to harden them against the deplorable lies sinners were capable of. Even so, there were few women in hell; there were fewer female shinigami around. Thus, for one so beautiful as the mother, seduction was not too difficult. She only needed to lure one man away from the rest, then Akon would take over.
There were several failed attempts. The mother would bring a shinigami to him, only to find that he could not hold their chain long enough. It burned. Minimally touching a chain entailed a brief static shock, maximally full-on charred skin burns. Not just his hands, it radiated through his whole body. He would pass out from exertion. Or his muscles would shudder unexpectedly, yanking the chain out altogether. That hurt even worse. He had never felt such agony, not in all the years of his mother's rough handling of him. Killing a shinigami meant sacrificing breathing for hours, a heart-stopping headache, such boiling heat in his gut. But each time he could hold the chain for longer, though the pain did not decrease in intensity.
Then one day, the plan actually worked. The woman lured what happened to be a fairly weak, younger male to Akon. She explained his choice: his life for opening a portal. This particular victim must have been relatively new because he conceded immediately, without any of the usual struggle the previous victims had exhibited. They were lucky, as it turned out. This young man happened to be one of the designated couriers between soul society and hell proper. They could leave almost instantly.
Akon was too focused on holding the victim's chain to notice his surroundings. It was easy enough to paralyze something, but to grant limited movement was taxing to say the least. Already the skin on his fingertips was melting down to the bone. He did not notice over the radiating pain in his forehead.
The poor fool killed itself. He tried to swing out, unsheathing his sword with the intention of striking the woman down. But since Akon's grip did not release, the movement yanked the chain free. Popping dots of pain shot through Akon's eyes, his ears rang within the vacuum of noise left by a soul instantly generating a hollow. Unnaturally fast transitions hurt. He falls to his knees, screaming in agony.
The walls of the precipice world start closing in, drawn to the presence of three entities no longer in the possession of a hell butterfly. The new hollow, still writhing about in confusion, is easily swept into the goo, its' existence extinguished with the first touch. The woman has the sense to scoop up her child and run for her life. There is still a tunnel, a path to follow, just no light at the end awaits them anymore.
"QUIT YOUR SQUABBLING AND SAVE US YOU IDIOT! AKON! DO SOMETHING! NOW! WE'LL DIE!"
The pain throbbing in his head was too great to allow any thought. It was his instinctual aptitude for self-preservation that saved the two that day. Unbidden, Akon's own chain lengthened out, plunging through the dead end ahead of them. His chain links to the nearest group of souls it senses, creating an anchor with which to draw the two across the border. This hurts even worse. The boy is barely even conscious anymore. His eyes flutter as the individual soul chains hooked to his chain begin to pop out, one after another. Dead dead dead dead dead. The pressure is too much. The gate will not open. Not enough lives.
His spirit roars a challenge to the universe. His chain finds more souls to tether to, farther and farther out.
It is enough. Somehow.
Out of the nowhere, the gate to hell opens, then disappears just as quickly. Everything nearby is gone. Every blade of grass, leaf, creature, even the rocks. Shadows fill their places, forms enough to hint at what used to exist in this place.
And there is a mother holding her weeping child to her chest, rocking him, soothing him.
"It's ok, baby, you did it. You saved us. It's ok."
Akon still cried, quietly though. She had never comforted him before. He felt so happy.
[a/n: from now on expect more canon characters to pop up. will also include more about his specific powers in notes ch starts. msg w/ ?s or comments please]