A Girl

"Good morning Lieutenant Katalina!", one of the island workers said as she strolled by finishing her morning rounds. "Morning Jiro!" She said back as she entered the island headquarters. Katalina headed to the elevator and took it up to the headmaster's office. "Good Morning headmaster Lucien!" Katalina said cheerfully as she waltzed into his office. "Morning Lieutenant. Did you finish your morning rounds?" Lucien asked as he opened the blinds behind him. "Yes sir, I did!" Katalina said enthusiastically. "Good because I have another task for you." He said while handing her a file. "The sensors are picking up a signal from the south side of the barrier, I'm expecting a new pod to arrive in a few hours.", Lucien says while straightening his tie. Katalina opens the file and starts to read it, "Adrien Vanguard, sounds like a promising lad." She said. "Where will you be this evening sir?" Katalina asked. "I'll be meeting with the island workers on the east side, discussing the new construction plans, it'll probably take all afternoon, so I went ahead and agreed to take the construction meeting." He said. "Thank you sir, I'll do my best to make sure the pod gets here safely!" Katalina said. She saluted him and excused herself. She rushed out the office excited that she was gonna get to bring the new pod in herself! "Jiro!, get an island cruiser up and running, set the coordinates to the south side of the island." Katalina said sounding confident. "Yes Lieutenant!", Jiro says while walking along side her. "Have all the doctors on standby, we may need them as well.", Katalina says while boarding the cruiser.

As Katalina nears the south side of the island she starts shaking profusely, Jiro notices, "Something wrong Lieutenant?", he asks looking up from his tablet. "Huh, oh yeah, it's just I never received a pod by myself, I wanna do a good job, the Lieutenant's counting on me.", she says. "Don't worry, I've assisted on dozens of pod retrieval's, this one will be a piece of cake, besides we haven't had a pod on the island in months, it'll be exciting to have a fresh face on the island." Jiro says placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Thanks Jiro, you're right, this won't be so stressful after all!" She says while laying back in her seat. "I know how scary it was when I was first brought to the island, we have to try and be welcoming when they wake up." Jiro says. They arrive to the south side of the island and land the cruiser near the shore. When they get there they see all the doctors and workers in a panicking frenzy. "This has to be a mistake!" Katalina heard one of the workers go. Katalina and Jiro get closer to the crowd surrounding the new pod. "Lieutenant Katalina, thank goodness your hear! We have a huge problem!", one of the professors said. Katalina walked up to the pod, nervous that someone was hurt. She looked at the pod inspecting the person's body to make sure he wasn't hurt. Right about when she got a look at the person's waist she noticed something different, when she got to the face she immediately knew what the problem was. She almost had a heart attack. "Oh no!"

The whole headquarters was in a frenzy, workers were running left and right trying to fix this major problem. Katalina and Jiro left in the island cruiser returning to headquarters, waiting for further instructions from the headmaster. " Hello, Headmaster Lucien!, yes sir I made contact with the pod, but— Um yes it arrived safely but there's been a terrible mistake and — what no it's not injured or anything like that, but you don-" Katalina says as the call cuts off. "Did you tell him?" Jiro asked expecting the headmaster to flip out. " No, he hung up before I could tell him anything, how could the mainland make such a stupid mistake! I can't deal with this on my own, we need to wait for further instructions when the headmaster gets back from his meeting." Katalina says rubbing her forehead in frustration. 'Please get back soon Lucien!' Katalina thinks to herself. Her phone starts to ring. She answers immediately, "Sir you don't understand it's a—" she gets cut off by another male voice. "Katalina are you okay?" Kasai asked inquisitively hearing the panic in her voice. She snaps out of her self-induced panic mode. "Oh, Kasai! Did you need something?" She says trying to sound normal. "Yeah it's Thursday, are you coming or not." Kasai says sounding impatient. 'Oh no!, it's spar day, I forgot!' Katalina thinks to herself while pinching her nose. "Sorry Kasai, I forgot, go ahead and go home, I won't be able to train with you today." Katalina said sounding guilty, as she had planned this event herself and felt like an idiot for not even showing up or even giving him a heads up. "Why, what's going on, is everything okay?" Kasai asked, suspicious of the tone in her voice. "Yes! Yes! Everything is fine! I'm just gonna be away for a couple hours, so don't wait up!, okay bye!" She hangs up the phone.

Kasai stands in front of the dorms processing what just transpired on the phone. He gets another call, "Hey Kasai, you done sparing today!" Nanaji's voice boomed on the other side of the screen. "Yeah, I guess, Katalina cancelled last minute." He said while walking to his room. "Aww, bummer dude, anyways I don't have anything to do, wanna grab some ramen!" Nanaji said expecting a yes from Kasai because he knew ramen was his favorite food. "Sure, why not. If your buying." Kasai said while walking back outside the dorm. "Fine!" Nanaji said with annoyance in his voice. They both hung up and walked to the local noodle hut near the shopping district on the island. Kasai was walking alongside the different shops looking at his phone to see if there was any news on the island worth reading. Until one header grabs his attention, 'New pod arrives for the first time in months' he reads. "Is that what Katalina is so worked up about?" He says to himself. 'This isn't news worthy since it's just basically routine for everyone on the island' he thought to himself. 'If it's just a new pod why is it suddenly a big deal?' He wondered. He knew these types of news sites always dramatized everything so he didn't think anything of it and closed it. "Oi, Kasai! Took you long enough!" Nanaji said waving him over. Kasai walks toward the noodle bar and sits down. "So, why'd Katalina cancel your training today?" He asked with his mouth full of food. "Dunno, I'm guessing it has to do with that new pod." Kasai said while order his ramen. "She's never really been gone this long for a pod though, I kinda worried. He said looking down at his phone to check the time. "Hmmm?" Nanaji said teasingly. "Stop that!" Kasai said while punching him on the shoulder. "She just sounded so frazzled over the phone while I was talking to her. I was really looking forward to training." Kasai said while looking deflated. Nanaji notices and places a hand on his back. "If it makes you feel better, I just won't use my ability when I'm around you!" Nanaji says jokingly. Kasai stays silent. "Look dude, your just a late bloomer that's all, you have an ability of your own, it's just gonna take a while—" Nanaji says while getting cut off by Kasai. "My ability should have developed a year ago!" Kasai says while banging his fist on the table. Everyone was now staring at them. Kasai sighs. "I think I'm gonna head home, I'm not hungry." He says sounding melancholy. He walks all the way back to the dorms, hands in his pocket with his head down.

"Has anyone gotten a hold of Headmaster Lucien yet!?" Jiro asked as he paced back and forth in the control room. Just as he says this Lucien walks through the doors and everyone sighs a breath of relief. "Headmaster! Thank goodness your hear! We have a problem. Jiro says as he leads him to where they've taken they pod. "What is it, did the pod arrive safely?" Lucien asked. "Yes, it did bu-" Jiro is cut off by Lucien. "Good! Now where is Lieutenant Katalina?" Lucien asks while following Jiro to the retrieval area. "She's with the pod now but I need to tell yo—" Jiro says trying to tell Lucien what's wrong. They enter the retrieval area together. Katalina is already standing there studying the pod intently. She notices Lucien walks in. "Ahhhh! Headmaster Lucien! What are you doing back so early?" She asks, trying to divert his attention away from the pod. "We finished the meeting early today, I wanted to get back quick to see how the pod was doing, is everything okay?" He asked trying to see what everyone was so worked up about. "Lieutenant? Can I see the pod?" He asked looking at her with a concerned expression. "NO! I mean... it's okay we've gotten everything under control, we just need t-" Headmaster Lucien walks past her to look at the pod. "Wait headmaster don't!" She protests. He peers into the glass door of the barrier. All of their faces fall into an expression of shock and horror. "ITS A GIRL!!!?"