Synopsis: Despite Kusuo's telepathic abilities that he could not turn off, he was kept from the many little lies and truths that operated in his family. Only a tragedy could reveal the truth.

AN: Trying something new. Many smaller chapters instead of my usual mega chapters. This idea so enthralled me that I stayed up all night writing this. Cross Post in AO3. Enjoy.

italics - thoughts

"italics" - telepathic messages.

Title: Secrets of Secrets

Chapter 1 - Headache

It happened during senior year, in the first term, sometime before the summer break, in June, about two to three months after the meteor incident.

All in all, Kusuo was without his psychic powers for about two weeks. If he thought hard enough about it, even during that time period, his powers always peeked at the edge, bursting at the seams. Those two weeks had proven educational for him. The benefits of those powers, primarily the ability to protect himself and his friends, outweigh whatever personal detriment he perceived.

Then the meteor incident happened. The urge to save the world again and to prevent his father from being used as a puppet in Kuusuke's schemes actually brought a return to his powers. So things returned to the way they were.

On that particular day in June, Kusuo woke up with a splitting headache. There was a ringing in his ears that would not stop. His precognition ability, which flares up whenever he had a headache, appeared to have glitched out, showing him random scenes that made no sense. There was not an explosion. No car wreck. No fire. No terrorist attack. Nothing. Just random images, mostly of broken furniture, bunsen burners, beakers, spreadsheet, and strangely rock-paper-and scissors matches. The images paraded themselves in front of him in a blinding swirl, overlying themselves on top of his regular vision. Added to all the sounds coming in from his telepathy, it was dizzying.

Were his third-generation limiters being faulty?

The first generations of limiters worked flawlessly for over seven years, except that it was easily removable, can be damaged, and the right one was part of a twisted game concocted by his evil older brother.

The second generation of limiters was supposed to erase his psychic ability and that actually worked, for the most part. He did not like the design though but kept it just in case he felt like experimenting.

The third generation of limiters was far smaller. They were the size of a large sewing pin, large enough to easily hold but small enough to hid perfectly in his hair. It solved the problem of people, namely Nendo and Teruhashi, removing his limiter by accident. Kuusuke also gave him boxes of these things like they were mass-produced candy, just in case they broke again.

Since both pins worked as limiters now, instead of one being a dummy, Kusuo was able to change them out without fearing accidentally breaking something while a limiter was out. And if both of them are in, he could get his petrification under control.

So Kusuo changed them out.

No change in status. Headaches and random images overlaying each other.

Was he sick?

He levitated in his room and activated his pyrokinesis to burn out whatever possible infection that could be making him ill.

Nope, the headache was still there. The ringing in his ear was just as awful. The random images were still filtering in.

Damn, another mystery he'll have to live and puzzle out for the day.

He went through his daily routine and got ready for school.

"Ku-chan, are you okay?" asked his mother at breakfast. She placed a small bowl of miso soup, a couple of pieces of toasts with jam, a small veggie dish, and of course, a cup of coffee. A somewhat traditional nutritious breakfast for her boy who liked the taste of the coffee. "You look pale."

Meaning that I look white? Like a ghost? he thought. He was pretty pale in the first place. But he waved away her concerns. "I'm fine, mom."

His mother, Kurumi, did not seem convinced.

"I just have a headache." He allowed a faint smile to touch his lips, trying to reassure her. "Usual ones."

"And is everything okay?" asked Kurumi. She knew, at least, that headaches were usually a side effect, or precursor, to precognitive visions to disaster. What type, she never knew. Her baby kept to himself and never liked to share more than necessary.

"It's no different than the volcano one from the end of sophomore year," Kusuo sent to her. On a pain severity, that was true. The dream and headache at the end of the sophomore year were one of the worst. "And that was taken care of." After a ridiculous amount of tries...

"If you say so," said Kurumi, still looking worried. She never liked how Kusuo's exterior expression had devolved from the occasional genuine smile as a small child to almost always a disappointed frown now.

At hearing her thoughts, Kusuo forced himself to smile a little wider, not wanting to worry his mother.

Kurumi seemed to detect this. So she occupied her mind on how happy she was to find that he had many friends at school and was a good neighborly young man to Yuuta next door. How he was always so helpful around the house. He was becoming a fine young man and the simple fact simply thrilled her.

Kurumi's concerns were distracted by the arrival of her beloved husband, Kuniharu to the breakfast table. She went over to him immediately, greeting him with a smile, a hug, and a kiss on the cheeks. They professed their love to each other again, being sweet and lovey-dovey.

Kusuo turned his attention away from his parents immediately, focusing on eating breakfast, allow his usual default blank look to return. When his parents doted on each other, their thoughts sometimes turned toward the intimate and no one liked to witness the exact physical process from which they were made.

Kusuo slipped out to school just in time before his father could beg him for a trip to work.

And into another headache of keeping his abilities a secret from most of PK Academy.

AN: Let me know what you think. R&R.