It was now 10 p.m. By this time any other child was supposed to be asleep. But no. I instead had to hide inside the closet, hoping my currently rampaging mother doesn't check it. Of course she had to wake up a few minutes after I had entered my room and she just had to notice the slightly ajar cabinet door.
"You fucking little bastard son of mine! Where the hell are you, you breathing abortion!" she shouted as she tore through my room. "You're useless! How fucking dare you steal from me! You steal everything from me! First my marriage, then my youth. My job and reputation! All lost because of you!"
Meanwhile I was sitting inside the closet, knees hiding my face. Was it pathetic? Disgraceful? Undignified for a grown-up stuck in a child body? Yes to all of the above. But clearly you have never seen someone so mad at you that you're unsure if you will survive them finding you.
So yes, I was hiding. And not even well. I was prepared for her tearing open the closet door and ripping me out of its safety at any moment. But I still managed to hide and kept silent throughout the entire thing, until she left the room with a "Must have left, already.". Yeah, I'm not staying long if I can help it. Even the streets sound better than staying here. At least there I won't get killed for just breathing wrong.
Yeah, that night at least until I heard the keys jingle and the door locking, I stayed inside the closet. Later, once she had left and I had calmed down as good as I could, I eventually snuck out of it. I still didn't leave the room though. To my luck, after she had left, she had closed the bedroom door. Not that much of the bedroom was left. Though for some reason the alarm clock was unharmed.
I was still hungry. The energy bar had only done its job for a few hours. Hours that were wasted, stressed out hiding in my own closet. At first I wanted to go back into the kitchen and steal something else, but experience taught me otherwise. Then I remembered the cake the neighbor below had placed on their balcony. Here's to hoping they forgot it.
Turns out I was in luck. They had forgotten about it. I wanted to jump down and grab the cake, but then I remembered that my body wasn't just malnourished, probably, but had also never actually climbed a lot since my diagnosis. So it was unlikely that I would be able to return. The cake had to wait...
Time passed quickly after I had decided it was safer to stay hungry than to risk it and get caught. Instead I returned to my hiding spot in the closet. The entire time I spent falling asleep or at least trying to, felt incredibly uncomfortable for me. Like spending to much time in an already used hiding spot would lead to a quicker discovery. And deep down, I knew I was right. But that didn't mean I had any other place to hide. The only thing I knew was the time Inko would return from work and that would be tomorrow while I was in school. Then, based on a diary I had found from old Izuku, she would likely drink herself into unconsciousness again. So that essentially gave me just a few minutes or hours before she would again look for me. During that time I had to hope that the System gave me enough rewards to get me out of there.
Before I knew, I had fallen asleep.
This time, my alarm clock didn't ring. Instead, my System did it for me. Strange how a Quest-System had a function like that. Then again, only the early bird catches the worm so it might just be that. Meaning you have to stand up early to go on a quest....or something like that.
[Congratulations Host, you have completed your first daily Quest.]
[You have received: +5Exp and the Skill (Passive): Low Presence]
[Skill: Low Presence has been applied]
[Happy staying unnoticed,Host.]
came the emotionless voice from the System. Then it chimed again.
[New Daily Quest issued]
Objective 01: Escape Bakugo and his friends
Objective 02: Don't let your mother find you
Objective 03: Make a good hiding spot
[Rewards: +5 Exp, Skill (Passive): Detection, Voucher for food (x2)]
[Happy grinding, Host]
[New weekly Quest issued]
Objective 01: Avoid Bakugo and Co. after school, don't let yourself get caught.
Objective 02: Don't let your cover be blown, remain in school.
Objective 03: Train your Body
[Rewards: +50 Exp, Voucher for Equipment (Survival)(x3)]
[The System wished the Host good luck.]
As I read those new quests, I began to feel more confident. {System, please explain the Skill: Low Presence.} I asked the System, before it could disappear like yesterday.
[Explaining Skill (Passive): Low Presence]
This skill passively lowers the hosts presence. People and animals are less likely and can hardly notice you and the small traces left by your presence, such as shallow footprints. Their eyes slide off more easily. They lose you quickly in crowded and buys spaces. If line of sight is broken, they will mistake you for someone else and let you go.
It sounded like exactly the skill I was going to need today. And in live in general. My confidence soared after receiving this skill and the Rewards for the future missions were even more enticing than I had expected. The food being the most important one. Maybe I would get those vouchers every time from now on. That would at least lower the need to steal for food considerably. The Vouchers for Survival Equipment would be even better. But lets go to school instead of standing around. The Skill doesn't test itself.
Getting to school felt easier this time. People seemed to generally avoid me. Not that any of them noticed. Some small birds and dogs, the dogs being walked by their owners, got scared quite a bit once they realized how close I had come to them without them noticing. One of the dog-walkers was especially pissed at me for scaring his dog. It looked more like he had taken a dwarf hamster and put a leash on it instead of an actual dog. Weird.