Geode: Beneath the Mask

“Please, hold steady. It took me a while to find a vein,” a strange voice echoed, snapping me awake from my blurry vision.

My eyes flickered open, revealing a female doctor trying to inject me.

What’s going on? What is this? Why do I feel like I’ve experienced this before?

Wait—

The realization suddenly hit me, and I jerked up in shock, stopping the doctor mid-action.

“Ma’am, please, let me administer the anesthesia. It’ll only take a minute,” she insisted, trying to hold me down. But I slapped the syringe from her hand, sending it flying across the operating room.

I leaped off the bed and dashed for the door, kicking it open before sprinting down the hallway.

“Hold her! Don’t let her run!” the anesthetist screamed, chasing after me. Immediately, hospital staff lunged at me, but I dodged them all with sharp reflexes, racing toward the exit.

“Grab her!”

“Grab her!”

They shouted as they chased me frantically. I reached the final floor, nearing the hospital’s exit, when a security guard stepped in front of me, his smug grin daring me to try. I knew instantly I couldn’t outmaneuver him like the others. Just as he lunged, I kicked him straight in the groin.

“Arghhh! My balls!”

Seeing him collapse, I burst through the exit and ran out of the hospital, not daring to stop for air.

Once I was far enough, I slowed down, panting heavily. Collapsing onto a public bench, I grabbed a half-empty water bottle someone had left behind and gulped it down desperately. People around me stared, their eyes filled with unease. I didn’t blame them—I was barefoot, wearing nothing but a surgical gown.

My name is Layla Blade, the only biological daughter of Adam Blade, a powerful Mafia boss who ruled New Jersey’s dark market and underground. After his death, I inherited his empire. But my adopted siblings despised it and despised me because they believed a quirkless ape like me had no right to lead the Blade family.

In this world, those without quirks are called apes by the gifted, we're insignificant in their eyes. People with quirks are like gods, blessed with powers ranging from simple abilities like Earth manipulation, Silk manifestation, and Energy projection, known as productive quirks—to more destructive ones like Fire, Lightning, Sound, and Blink, classified as offensive quirks for their violent potential.

My father possessed a fire-type quirk, the signature of the Blade bloodline. His flames were so fierce that he was nicknamed “The Fire God” and feared for his unmatched destructive power. Even the government couldn’t touch him. But he died under mysterious circumstances.

After inheriting the clan, betrayal became my daily bread. Those I trusted most turned on me, and after being stripped of my position, I was still murdered, by the one I trusted the most: my adopted brother, Rudy.

In my previous life, it all began in this very hospital, when I was falsely diagnosed with breast cancer. They said my breasts needed to be removed. But it was all a lie, an elaborate trap set by my adopted sisters and clan members to humiliate me. The hospital had been compromised, performing an illegal surgery to destroy me. I didn’t question it; after all, only people without quirks could get cancer. But that was merely the start of my misery.

I took another sip from the bottle, swallowing hard. Only one thought pulsed through my head.

What the fuck is going on? How am I still alive, reliving a moment I already lived? The last thing I remembered was Rudy stabbing me, his eyes cold and merciless.