It was the day of the Comprehensive Combat Evaluation Examination for the members of the United Nations’ 11th Force, 207th Training Unit. Hardened by the draconian regimen of their instructor, Sergeant Marimo Jinguuji, the all-female combat squad had been molded into the best future TSF pilots in the unit’s history. Led by their captain, Cadet Chizuru Sakaki, the unit consisted of Cadet Kei Ayamine, Cadet Mikoto Yoroi, Cadet Miki “Tama” Tamase, and the group’s rising star, Cadet Meiya Mitsurugi. With the completion of the multi-day training exercise in the tropical jungle setting that the examiners had chosen, the individual unit members would be promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and would all be reassigned to a TSF squadron on the front lines of the BETA Wars.

The “proctor” of the examination was none other than Professor Yuuko Kouzuki, the Vice-Commander of the United Nation’s Yokohama Base and head of the Alternative IV project. In reality, however, Yuuko’s best friend, Marimo, was the one directing the examination; the brilliant physicist simply came along to relax and enjoy a much deserved break from her duties and research on her own Quantum Causality Theory.

Upon the unit’s arrival to the training grounds, the five cadets found their commanding officer stretched out in a navy blue zero-gravity chair, clad in a risqué bikini and soaking up the sun’s rays, all while a glass of ice cold lemonade for her personal refreshment rested upon a small plastic table to her left and a chilled bottle of alcohol sat in an ice bucket upon a similar table to her right. The physicist’s outfit was a simple purple design, using as little material as possible to cover her sultry form. Twin strips of violet triangular straps covered only the center of her massive breasts, leaving her cleavage and most of the sides of her bosom completely exposed. Her bikini straps drew upwards instead of simply over her shoulders, criss-crossing directly below her neck before being tied gently behind her back. A lone matching bikini bottom gracefully accented her curves, splitting into four mini-strips around her hips and butt for support. What truly made Yuuko’s choice of beachwear unique was the golden choker that hung around her neck: a long gilded chain fell from its center, tracing directly through her ample cleavage until it stopped just below her navel, where it then split into a circle to surround her posterior to further accent her incredible beauty.

“Oh, good, you all made it here,” the sly professor grinned as she addressed the candidates, slowly bending her left knee as she playfully wiggled her bare toes in glee. “I’m letting Marimo handle your exam, but I guess I should tell you good luck and all that, right?” Yuuko extended her left arm and grabbed her lemonade, bringing it to her lips and gently sipping the cool liquid through a bent straw. “Ah, it’s nice to take a break now and then,” she sighed contently. “I’ll be here while you’re off in the jungle, so make sure to take a while, hmm? Marimo, they’re all yours.”  

After Yuuko “officially” began the examination proper, the five cadets were instructed by Marimo as to the requirements in order to pass their final evaluations and the forty-eight hour time limit on the exam’s completion. With the conditions for success outlined, Marimo sent the unit on their way, each of the cadets heading out on their separate paths into the depths of the tropical jungle in the hopes of completing their tasks and emerging as a qualified TSF pilot.

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An hour had passed since the 207th Training Unit commenced their Comprehensive Combat Evaluation Examination. In that period of time, Professor Kouzuki had done nothing but enjoy her time off by taking in the luxurious coastal scenery before her, having since put up a large beach umbrella and donning a pair of rose-colored sunglasses to shield her from the blinding sun as she enjoyed her various beverages.

“This is nice and all, but I think it’s time for something stronger,” the bikini-clad scientist sighed as she raised her arms backwards over her head, closing her eyes in comfort as she crossed her fingers along the back of her head. “Marimo, mind grabbing me some of the high-quality alcohol I brought along?”

Usually, a “Sure, Yuuko-chan!” or some variant thereof could be heard within seconds of the violet-haired vixen’s requests, but at the present moment, Marimo was nowhere to be found.

“Marimo, are you there?” Yuuko called out again after she failed to receive a reply from her only friend, opening her eyes to take a look at the surrounding area. “I guess she went to go check on her students to make sure they’re doing well on the exam,” she sighed, taking off her sunglasses as she slowly swung her feet off her chair and made contact with the warm sand below her. “She definitely was meant to be a teacher. Must be hard knowing I purposely made their test significantly harder so they’d be guaranteed to fail.” The physicist stood up to her full height, stretching her arms over her head and yawning nonchalantly. “Oh well, guess I’ll just have to grab it myself. I just hope it’s still where I left it, though I doubt Marimo’s had any herself.”

Yuuko took a few steps towards the inner portion of the tropical isle, her bare feet gradually taking her from her makeshift lounge on the coast to the small encampment Marimo had set up for them near the jungle’s outskirts. Once she had arrived at their lodging, Yuuko began to search for the expensive bottle of spirits she had brought along on the trip specifically to enjoy with Marimo, ultimately not finding it in the cooler where she last remembered placing it.

“Huh, it’s not like Marimo to go off and drink on her own. Maybe I underestimated how stressed out she might be?” The thought was immediately dismissed from her well-grounded mind. “Or maybe I just left it somewhere else.”

Having no luck inside her lodging, Yuuko made her way around to the back of the campground, finding nothing on the unkempt ground as well. As she was about to give up the search and go look for Marimo, Yuuko’s right foot bumped into a hard object, a small black bottle that appeared to be a vintage wine, the cork still lodged in its opening.

“Hmmm? This wasn’t here before...” Yuuko noted as she picked up the bottle, examining its exterior for any signs of what the contents inside might be. Her scientific curiosity taking over, the genius scientist popped the cork off the container, only for an opaque black mist to escape from the container. “Is this...poison gas?!” Quickly dropping the bottle onto the jungle floor, Yuuko immediately took several steps backwards as she covered her nose and mouth with her hands as a precautionary measure, letting the gas dissipate in the open area in front of her. As the Vice-Commander was about to return to her lodging to radio Yokohama Base about a possible coup d'état, she stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar voice coughing in the location from where the gas was clearing up. Yuuko cautiously watched as the remainder of the dark cloud gradually vanished, leaving in its place an auburn-haired teenager that the physicist knew all too well.

“...Shirogane, is that you?”

As Yuuko had correctly guessed, Cadet Takeru Shirogane of the 207th Training Unit lay unconscious on the wild grass where the plume of unknown gas had just finished dissipating. The only male of the rookie squadron, Takeru had joined the 207th Training Unit a mere month ago after stumbling into Yokohama Base from the ruins of a town long-since annihilated by the BETA. In that brief period of time, he repeatedly failed at every task assigned to him despite his best efforts, no matter how much private instruction he received from Sergeant Jinguuji to strengthen his physical core. As a consequence of his failure to improve, Takeru was held back from participating in the two-day examination, ordered to remain on the military base as the rest of his squadmates went on to attempt to achieve their promotion to officer status. However, despite the orders given to him by his superiors, here he was now at the examination site, dressed in what appeared to be a clichéd genie outfit in the colors of his combat fatigues: a black vest that exposed his toned upper body, a dark blue pair of parachute pants with a brown belt wrapped around his waist, and a dark pair of Arab-style shoes on his feet. Even for Yuuko, a woman who had studied the complex, disgusting inner workings and organic mechanisms of the BETA in incredible depth, the sight was quite the strange one to behold.

“Kou...Kou...Kouzuki-sensei? Is...Is that you?” Takeru asked as he slowly regained his senses, awoken by the sound of Yuuko’s inquisitive voice. Within a few seconds, the young man staggered to his feet, attempting to remain standing as his temporarily weakened leg muscles struggled to keep him upright.

“Of course it’s me. Who do you think it is, the BETA?” she sarcastically asked. “Mind telling me why you’re disobeying a direct order and-”

“Oh, Kouzuki-sensei, thank goodness you were the one that found me!” the trainee exclaimed, a sudden feeling of relief filling him with a burst of energy as he ran towards his commanding officer and began hugging her tightly.

“EHHH?!” Yuuko raised an eyebrow, letting her subordinate embrace her.

“I came back to...to make sure Alternative V doesn’t happen!”

Quickly pushing the young man away from her, the scientist immediately began to scan over Takeru’s body with her piercing crimson eyes, a cold glare of suspicion falling upon the cadet as she began to look for any anomalies in his features, triggered solely by his mentioning of the name of a top secret plan known only to high-ranking members of the United Nations: Alternative V. Humanity’s final gambit against the relentless BETA invasion on Earth, Alternative V involved the institution of a modern-day Noah’s Ark, selecting a mere 100,000 humans to flee the planet via immigrant spaceships in search of another hospitable planet somewhere in the depths of space, while the rest of the human race remained on Earth to fight the BETA to the bitter end, using a large number of G-Bombs in an attempt to end the decades-long conflict once and for all. It was Yuuko’s sole goal in life to avoid the implementation of the Alternative V plan by attempting to complete her research into the final stages of the Alternative IV operation that she herself had initiated, and any mention of the plan’s name instantly put the usually calm, calculating woman on edge. “Who told you about that plan?” she demanded.

“You did, Kouzuki-sensei,” Takeru answered as he pointed towards the bikini-clad woman. “Well, a lot of you did, actually.”

“Huh?” Yuuko blinked, dropping her guard at the outrageous statement.      

“You’re probably not gonna believe me, but just hear me out first, alright?” the cadet asked.

“Why I should even take you seriously in that outfit of yours is another thing entirely, but for the moment, you have my attention,” the physicist agreed, placing her right hand below her chin as she began to listen intently.

“Alright, so here goes…” Takeru began as he took a deep breath. “I’ve been through this whole thing way too many times to count by now. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it happen, but no matter what I do, no matter what happens, I can never help you complete Alternative IV. No matter how hard you try, Kouzuki-sensei, you’re never able to get 15 billion semiconductors to fit in the palm of your hand. I lived through it, I’ve seen Alternative V be implemented...over...and over...and over again...and each time, I stay behind, only to die and end up starting back from square one. But even then, only the same result happens: there is no way of stopping Alternative V. However, this time, I was given a chance, a chance to make history right! After probably the millionth time I’ve seen Alternative V implemented, I’ve been given the chance to finally deny that false future and put humanity on the proper course of survival. Kouzuki-sensei, I’m here because I was given a gift to specifically help you complete the Alternative IV plan: I’m here to grant you three wishes to bring about humanity’s ultimate survival and to destroy the BETA once and for all!”

Yuuko simply blinked, never removing her hand from her usual inquisitive posture. She had listened to the cadet’s farfetched ramblings merely to humor him, and in the off-chance he actually had something relevant to the completion of the Alternative IV plan, to possibly take him seriously, but after the truly inane nonsense Takeru had just sprouted, the bikini-clad genius had to control herself from bursting out in hysterical laughter. “Do me a favor,” she asked in a sarcastic monotone, “repeat that last part for me, one more time.”

“Um, alright,” he complied. “I’m here to grant you three wishes to help humanity destroy the BETA forever!”

"...Shirogane, did you hit your head or lick any strange frogs?" Yuuko inquired, returning her hand to her side. “It was mildly amusing before, but that’s really not funny anymore if you honestly believe that nonsense,” she sighed, shaking her head in disapproval. “Listen, I know you wanted to participate in the exams, but this is taking it a bit too far, don’t you think?”

"I'm serious, Kouzuki-sensei! C'mon, you have three wishes to save the planet!" the teenager implored her. “There’s nobody I’d trust more than you to make it happen. You’re the only one who can make it happen!”

“And I’m just supposed to believe you can, what, magically do whatever I ask of you, hmm? Do you honestly take me for a fool, Shirogane? There is no such thing as magic. The only thing close to it is science, and even that has its limitations.”

“Kouzuki-sensei, please, I’m begging you, you have to believe me,” Takeru pleaded with his superior. “Please, make a wish for anything right now and I’ll grant it. If I’m lying, you can do whatever you want to me when we get back to Yokohama.”

“Oho? Anything, you say?” Yuuko’s eyes perked up, a devious grin forming on her beautiful visage. “In that case, you’ll be my guinea pig for all sorts of experiments when we get back...for the rest of your life. Are you that confident in yourself, Shirogane? I’ll give you a moment to back out if you’d like, but if you refuse, know that I absolutely intend to follow through on that promise.”

“No way!” the young cadet confidently shook his head. “I won’t back down at all! I’m telling you the truth, and when you make your first wish, you’ll know I’m not lying!”

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Yuuko chuckled slightly as she shrugged her shoulders. “Now then, supposing I do believe you, give me a moment to think of something…” In the professor’s mind, it was completely obvious that Takeru had either gone mad or was on some sort of hallucinogen from sampling the local fauna, but considering that he had agreed to her condition, it would not hurt her to wish for something so trivial that there was no reasonable way for it to occur. “Alright, Shirogane, I have my wish,” she stated flatly. “I wish for a full bottle of high quality alcohol.”

“Y-You’re going to waste your first wish on getting drunk?!” Takeru exclaimed, his jaw practically hitting the floor from the shock of his commander’s outrageous desire.

“Considering the price of a single bottle these days is easily in the thousands of dollars range for exceptional-quality alcohol, it’s a reasonable request,” the scientist reasoned. “Not to mention mine has gone missing for some reason, so I could really use a replacement right about now.” Yuuko paused for a moment, giving the teenager a moment to get over the simplicity of her initial request. “Well, Shirogane? I made my wish, so why aren’t you granting it, hmmm?”

“I...I can’t believe you’d waste a wish on something like this, but...but fine! Your wish has been granted!”

Both Yuuko and Takeru simply stared at one another for several seconds, nothing out of the ordinary occurring in the area around them. “What’s wrong? I thought you had granted my wish?” the snarky woman teased. “And here I was thinking that my day was going to be terrible without my alcohol. However, now that you’ve agreed to be my labrat, my day has become much better.”

“I granted your wish, Kouzuki-sensei,” the trainee calmly replied. “Don’t you see it? It’s right by your feet.”

“Ehhh?” Yuuko took a step backwards as she looked down at the ground below her, finding that a clear, sealed bottle of high quality spirits had suddenly appeared between her legs. Gently bending downwards to pick it up, the trained scientist began to examine the container upon returning upright for any irregularities, pausing her inquiry when she noticed the name of the manufacturer on the side of the bottle. “This label...it’s the rarest quality alcohol on the planet,” she observed, recognizing the maker with ease. “This bottle alone goes for $25,000 at the very least at the liquor auctions, and there’s only been a limited release of their products outside of America…”

“Go ahead and try it,” Takeru grinned confidently. “It’s the real thing.”

“Oho? Cocky now, are we, Shirogane?” the researcher fired back. Holding the bottle in her left hand, Yuuko slowly opened the bottle with her right, proceeding to sniff the contents of the bottle’s insides. “It smells like the real thing, but…” Bringing the bottle up to her lips, Yuuko took a brief sip of the liquid within, swishing the fluid around in her mouth to analyze its contents as her lips left a stain from her fuchsia-colored lip gloss on the bottle’s exterior. As she swallowed hard, the physicist noticeably perked up, smiling as she let the remaining flavor of the alcohol dance upon her taste buds. “There’s no doubt about it. This is Rosewood Rum, the only flavored spiced high-quality alcohol produced on the planet,” she affirmed. “I’ve only had it once at an official UN gathering a few years ago, but there’s no mistaking that taste. This is the genuine article.”

“Ha! I told you!” the auburn-haired teen gloated. “Looks like I don’t have to be your labrat after all, huh?”

“Shirogane...how did you-”

“It’s like I told you, Kouzuki-sensei, I granted your wish,” he interrupted. “Now do you see that I’m not lying? You have two wishes left, so I hope you’ll take me seriously now that you know what I can do and wish for an end to the BETA.”

Yuuko was unsure of what to make of the whole situation. The well-versed physicist knew that magic and wish-granting was just a myth, a device used in fairy tales to inspire hope in children that anything could happen from such extraordinary powers, and that the so-called “magic” that once existed in the world before the BETA arrived - card tricks, illusions, and the like - could all easily be explained with enough scientific reasoning. However, at the present moment, all her years of training and research seemed to be for naught, as the young cadet before her dismantled the fundamental scientific principles she had always relied on in an instant with his sudden manifestation of the rarest liquor on the planet. Yuuko knew that what she had acquired was an impossibility, yet here it was staring her in the face, a concrete, physical bottle of flavored rum that she held in her hand and tasted like the real thing.

How...How did he do it? she asked herself, closing her eyes in deep thought. What he did was definitely impossible, so how did he get it here? Is he...No, that’s nonsense. He probably stole it from General Radhabinod’s quarters or something. Still, I can’t rule out the possibility that he might actually be telling the truth. Shirogane - or whoever this is pretending to be him - knows about the Alternative V plan, something that very few people on this planet know about. If he’s telling the truth, then perhaps I should test him on that point…

“Um, Kouzuki-sensei, are you alright?”

“Shirogane!” Yuuko exclaimed, dramatically pointing at the cadet with her right index finger. “You will grant my second wish.”

“Oh, so you were thinking about what to wish for?” Takeru assumed. “I thought you were, Kouzuki-sensei. Alright, what is it? Just, uh, please don’t-”

“You say you’ve come back to prevent Alternative V from happening, right?” Yuuko interrupted, glaring at the young man with a burning passion behind her crimson eyes. “In that case, it’s time to put your words to the test: I wish for a weapon that I can use to crush the BETA and end their invasion here on Earth once and for all.”

“A weapon that you can use, huh?” the cadet pondered. “Hmmm…”

“What’s wrong, Shirogane? You can’t do it?”  the violet-haired scientist smirked, mocking her underling yet again. “Making a bottle of alcohol appear out of nowhere is child’s play for illusionists, but actually devising a weapon capable of annihilating the BETA? Not even my research has reached that point. This is where you lay all your cards on the table: Are you able to give me the weapon I asked for right here and now?”

“Hey, what did I say about underestimating me earlier?” Takeru fired back. “You want your weapon, Kouzuki-sensei? Fine! Your second wish is granted!”

“This oughta be good…” Yuuko chuckled to herself. “Let’s see what you came up with, shall we?”

As Yuuko finished her sentence, the shrill sounds of piercing feminine screams rang out across the training island, voices that the Vice-Commander knew all too well. “Marimo and the others? What the...Are the BETA attacking?! No, impossible! This island is far behind the front lines, so there couldn’t be any BETA anywhere around here. Just what exactly is going on?” A few seconds later, the ground began to quake uncontrollably as Yuuko realized exactly why her subordinates were panicking. “Shirogane...What...What have you…?”