Kusuo´s mind-reading powers were cool until they were not. It began to get annoying when he would just know everything I would try to do to win. But I could deal with that, I now had a real challenge for once.
No, the mind-reading began to become a pain for us all when they developed and became more powerful.
The consequences had started small. Kusuo would at first just be distracted because of what was going on in people's heads around him. Then he had problems falling asleep due to knowing everything that was going on with the neighbors. Our neighbors had nightly fights but still stayed together.
Then he had trouble eating and I hypothesize that having psychic powers that were as powerful as Kusuos mind-reading burnt a lot of energy.
School sent in letters of concern due to Kusuo's thin frame and eyebags. Kusuo barely bothered playing with me anymore. He began asking us questions even I didn't consider when I was that age. We couldn't lie to him about those adult themes, for he just extracted the cold hard truth from our minds.
I sometimes heard Kusuo cry at night. I sometimes witnessed him holding a pillow over his head clenching his eyes shut. I sometimes joined him in cuddling up with our parents who were also hurting because of those psychic powers. It pained us to see Kusuo hurt.
That is why I made the power limiters.
My parents didn't fight me too much when I said we would have to drill holes into Kusuos skull. Probably because they could see him wearing down from the constant growth of his power.
Kusuo had cried a little when the power limiters were put in and then gone right to sleep. He began enjoying sweets again and found out his love for coffee jelly. He even got the energy to go to the cinema... until the movies got spoiled for him.
That is when it hit little Kusuo that he would never be like all the other kids.
It hurt us all to see Kusuo slowly close off and stop trying to spend time with others. Stop trying to get praise and stopped playing with other kids... even if they were stupid baboons who could not hold a candle to Kusuo.
It hurt me to see because I wanted my little brother to be happy, and he wasn't. Not really.