"You're sure you haven't forgotten anything?"

"Mom, I've checked six times already! I'm sure!" I retort.

"Well, if you're sure, let's get going."

It's early in the morning on the twentieth of December, and we're leaving the house equipped with a suitcase each. We squeeze the suitcases into the trunk, pile into the car, and then Dad drives off. It'll take us about an hour to get to San Francisco International Airport, where our flight is scheduled to depart at half past eight.

In the three weeks since I made my contract with Cube and became a magical girl, I've fought thirty or more different witches and gathered a surplus stock of four usable grief seeds, and somehow I've managed to convince Alice to occasionally team up with Sarra when there's a witch she can't handle alone. I've read the entire run of the Phantom Thief Magical Karin manga, though I still can't remember why the title was so oddly familiar to me when I first saw it. I've constructed a very rough and tentative timeline of events that occurred in the Kazumi and Suzune spin-off mangas, and what I believe to be a fairly accurate set of timelines for Akemi Homura's time loop scenarios, including even some of the ones from the games or the spin-off manga. All in all, I'm feeling ready to get my hands dirty in Japan.

But before that, there's one more thing I want to do. The reason I requested a trip to Paris is because I know the Flamel couple lived there in the fourteenth century. Although I have no strong reason to believe that Pernelle stayed there after her recorded death date, it seems like the best place to start looking. Plus, the house that the two of them allegedly lived in is still there, as a sort of minor tourist attraction.

I didn't bring along any manga for the trip, as it would greatly inflate the weight of my luggage, but I did bring a portable gaming device I discovered in Ashley's room. It seems similar to the PS Vita, but a bit smaller and more compact – presumably the successor to that device. Maybe even the successor to the successor. I also have my smartphone, which I've installed a few new games on. I consider playing one of them on the way to the airport, but it turns out I'm still pretty sleepy, so I end up drifting off while deciding which game to play.

Before I know it, we're at the airport. We find a parking spot, check in our luggage, eat breakfast in a small café in the airport, and wait for our plane to be called. Mom and Dad mostly chat among themselves while I spend the time lost in thought. Surprisingly though, I'm not thinking of Pernelle or any of the girls I expect to meet in Japan. Instead, I'm thinking of Alice and Sarra. Sure, I only knew them for three weeks, but they already feel like close friends, and I'm worried that one or both of them will die while I'm off in Japan working to save them from despair… or worse, that one of them could turn into a witch. At least I've got both their numbers now, so I can contact them via text message and make sure they're still okay. I'm almost tempted to text them right now, but I figure they're still asleep, so I manage to restrain myself.

Eventually, I pull out my smartphone and start playing one of the new games, and before I know it, it's time to board the plane.

After the ten hour flight, the three of us finally disembark at the airport in Paris at around three thirty the following morning and catch a taxi to our hotel. My parents are exhausted from the flight and go straight to bed, but I feel totally chipper. Maybe it's because of my enhanced magical girl body? I'm not really sure, but I decide to take the chance to go scope out the local magical girls.

Of course, at four in the morning, the streets are still dark, and there's almost no-one around as I wander around looking for signs of magic. Once or twice, one of Ashley's memories surfaces, recalling a café she had once visited or a patisserie whose sweets she loved. It seems that, unlike me, she has been to Paris before. However, all the places in question are closed at this hour.

I've been wandering the streets for a little over an hour when I pick up a trace of magic and start following it. It leads me into a run-down area of town, where I come across a few people moving like zombies. I check their necks quickly and sure enough, there's a kiss mark. This one resembles a baseball diamond, I think? I'm not much of a sports person, but that's the impression it gives off. I follow them, keeping an eye out for the labyrinth, and finally find it in front of an old abandoned building. The portal seems stable, so I don't think anyone else is fighting it right now.

I step inside and take a look around. I'm standing at one end of a baseball stadium, but it looks like it's made out of various newspaper cutouts all glued together. The spectators filling the stands appear to be pig-like, while the players on the field look like weasels in baseball gear, with numeric witch runes marking the back of their shirts. And speaking of witch runes, there's also a line of them pasted against the dome of the sky. They read "Franziska von Wiesel", which I guess must be the witch's name. I don't see anything to distinguish which players are on which team, though. I'm not the type of person who watches sports, but I've seen it on TV every now and then. Wouldn't they normally have different-coloured shirts or something?

The weasels are in the middle of a game as I enter the labyrinth. The pitcher throws the ball, but it's so fast that the batter swings far too late, leaving the ball flying directly for my face. I tilt my head slightly as I repel the ball right back at them, striking the batter squarely in the head and causing it to explode. As the hapless batter's bat clatters to the ground, the rest of the weasels turn to look at me as one, and the spectator pigs suddenly start booing en masse. The boos seem to have some sort of weight to them, making my body feel heavy. The pitcher throws another ball with the speed of a bullet, and I'm unable to dodge due to the weight of those boos, though as before I manage to halt it before it hits me. I summon the fallen bat to my hand and smack the ball back at them, once more hitting a random player and causing it to explode.

The other weasels seem to just watch as the pitcher and I bat balls back and forth at each other, falling like flies whenever I can send a ball their way. The fallen players are replaced after a short time, however, so the total number of weasels on the field stays roughly constant. In other words, for all the back-and-forth of balls that I've been doing, I haven't made any progress yet.

And then, as if to add insult to injury, the spectators join in the fight by throwing objects at me. I dodge several in a row and glance back, spotting the remains of smashed eggs, as well as what looks suspiciously like splattered tomatoes. Fortunately, these don't have the speed of a bullet, so I can dodge them even with the heaviness from the pigs' boos. But then the the next bullet pitch smacks me right in the gut, the force propelling me back towards the stands.

However, I'm not about to just let myself get pushed around that easily! Teddy Mk II zooms behind me to provide me a foothold from which I launch myself up into the air. The pitcher looks up, of course, but the Teddy Drones zoom in on it with great speed, though not exceeding the sound barrier, and draw its attention away from me. The weasel swats at them like flies, while I draw on my telekinetic powers to accelerate my fall.

"Teddy kick!"

It's not exactly a named attack, but it feels right to call something out as I smash the pitcher's head in. With the most dangerous familiar down for the count, the booing from the stadium suddenly dies off, and I feel incredibly light again. I'm not sure how I even managed to move the way I did with all that weight upon me. I guess it's thanks to my enhanced magical girl body.

Though the spectators continue to throw eggs, tomatoes, and an assortment of other food items at me, those are easily deflected with my telekinetic powers. Other than the batter, the other weasels on the field seem unwilling to approach me, and the batter is reduced to a stain on the ground by Teddy Mk II when he tries. So, I have a moment of relative calm in the fight, giving me a chance to probe the labyrinth with my clairvoyance. This reveals that the pitching mound and the jagged sun hanging in the sky above are both doorways that lead deeper into the labyrinth. However, I'm unable to get a clear picture of anything appreciably beyond either door, so there's no way to know which of them leads towards the witch's chamber.

I make the snap decision to go down, and direct Teddy Mk II to smash open the pitcher's mound. It takes three blows, but soon a brand new hole is opened in the middle of the playing field, and I hop into it, following Teddy Mk II down a shaft decorated by innumerable gold trophies in strange and exotic shapes, each engraved with words such as "1st Place" or "World Champion". The only commonality between them is that they all vaguely have a cup- or bowl-like shape. One trophy takes the form of a massive kaiju emerging from a shallow bowl, breathing fire into the sky. Another takes the form of three nude women dancing on the rim of a very warped-looking vessel. A third is a cup where the handles look almost exactly like cat ears, with a massive sneering face on it similar to the Cheshire cat, only about ten times more menacing. And that's just a tiny sample of the many strange and bizarre trophies that speed past as I fall.

Then I finally land on something soft at the bottom of the shaft. It squelches beneath my feet like mud, yet it's as red as blood… or, judging by the smell, ketchup. Looking around, I see I'm in a sort of subterranean cavern, with giant baseball bats spaced out at irregular intervals as pillars. As with the scene in the stadium, the whole vista gives off a sort of flat impression, as if it were composed of scraps of paper pasted together.

Almost immediately, more weasels pop up all around me. Unlike the ones above, these ones appear to be moving on all fours, although they still wear baseball uniforms. There are no runic numbers on the backs of their shirts, though. Instead, each one is emblazoned with the witch's own symbol, the same symbol I spotted on those people's necks earlier, the same symbol that comprised the portal through which I entered the labyrinth.

As I'm taking in the enemy, each and every one of them opens its mouth so wide that it practically turns inside out, revealing multiple rings of teeth surrounding a blood-red tongue. Then an eye opens up on the tip of the tongue and looks at me, and I feel a chill go through me. When those teeth start flying at me like a rain of bullets, somehow I'm unable to dodge at all. Only the timely intervention of Teddy Mk II prevents me from turning into a pincushion, though a good number of teeth embed themselves in my body nonetheless.

Then the chill subsides, and I can move again. The tongue-eyes have all closed now, so I guess it's some sort of gaze-based attack. That means that I may be able to dodge next time, if I move the moment I see those eyes starting to open. The nearest weasels leap at me, biting and clawing, and I sweep them away with my baseball bat as I look around, trying to determine the best direction to travel in. The movements hurt a little, due to those teeth embedded in my body, but I grit my teeth and bear it. Once again, I briefly activate clairvoyance, looking for a hint.

Unfortunately, the layout down here makes it hard to distinguish one area from another, so although I get a glimpse of a gigantic black trophy overflowing with something red, I have no idea which direction it lies in. Still, staying in one place can't possibly be a good idea, so I just take off in the direction I'm facing, the Teddy Drones zooming ahead of me to clear a path, my bat ready to take out any weasel that gets past them. Maybe if I'm lucky the paths will ultimately circle around.

As I run, smacking aside a weasel now and then, faint sounds of combat reach my ears from above. It seems like another magical girl has made their entrance. I hope it doesn't come down to a fight for the grief seed… at least I have a few spares, so I won't mind letting the local girl have it if it comes down to it.

I must have run for at least five or ten minutes, or maybe as much as half an hour, but finally I spot the black trophy cup I saw in my vision. As I get closer, I see there's a trapdoor in the ceiling right above it, so I direct Teddy Mk II and the Teddy Drones to form a staircase to allow me to ascend up to the ceiling. Standing atop Teddy Mk II's head, I swing my bat with as much force as I can muster and smash the trapdoor open. As the dust clears, I hop through the new opening and enter the witch's chamber.

At almost the exact same moment, a doorway on the far side of the chamber is kicked open, and a pair of magical girls bursts through. The girl on the left is dressed like a ballerina, with a pink leotard and tutu to match her flowing pink hair. A pink beret with a long white feather, perhaps from a swan, caps off the outfit, and she grips a wand in white-gloved hands which bears a golden cage set atop a pair of pure white wings.

In contrast, the girl on the right is barely decent, her outfit seeming to consist of a single strip of deep blue ribbon which loops around her neck, crosses over her collarbone and breasts, presumably crosses again on her back, then loops forward over her hips and passes between her legs, after which it appears to coil down her legs where it finally attaches to her high-heeled sandals. No sooner have I taken in this scandalous design than I realize I've missed a crucial piece – she wears a second layer of clothing over the ribbon, a pale blue translucent negligée that reaches to her knees. Besides the questionable choice of clothing, she wears earrings that look like icicles, and her cyan hair is tied into high twintails that fall to about shoulder level. The slightly childish hairstyle feels a little jarring against her outfit. She also grips a massive forked sword, looking for all the world like a tuning fork that had been sharpened into a deadly blade.

All this takes forever to describe but only a mere moment to witness. The moment the two of them get a look at the witch Franziska, a frightened-looking rabbit huddling up in the middle of the room, they slap their hands together. I spot the telltale glow of a connect, and then the blue one charges forward, pummelling the witch with shards of ice before planting that forked sword where its chest should be. Then, as the rabbit ears grow mouths and attempt to strike back, she leaps back, slaps her partner's hand again for another connect, and they trade places, the pink one dancing forward to direct a maelstrom of flame upon the witch. This time, the rabbit's front teeth snake forward like tentacles and attempt to snag her, but she leaps high into the air, performing a somersault and landing gracefully next to the blue girl. I note that the speed of the tentacles drops dramatically once the flame touches Franziska. Perhaps that's the blue girl's connect skill – slowing the enemy down certainly seems useful. There's no sign to suggest what the pink girl's connect skill is, but it could be just a straightforward boost to attack power, or perhaps some other type of buff that's hard to see.

They wait a second or two for the flames to clear. Once they do, they can see as well as I that Franziska seems to have taken barely any damage. It's only her fearful nature that keeps her from immediately counterattacking; instead, she huddles up into a ball and shudders.

"It seems like this one's a little tough," the pink girl says with a sigh. "What should we do… do you have any ideas, sœurette?"

She's speaking French, but I realize with some surprise that I can understand her perfectly. It must be Ashley's memories surfacing again. I guess she knew French as well as Japanese. More surprising is that the comment reveals the pink girl to be older than the blue girl, even though from their physical appearances I would've assumed the exact opposite. Even ignoring the outfits, the blue girl is about half a head taller and substantially bustier to boot.

"Let's do our combination attack," the blue girl says. "This witch is scared, so I bet she won't fight back…"

Unfortunately, her words are interrupted as a horde of familiars pour in from all sides. These are the pig familiars, wearing a variety of clothing styles, some relatively normal, others incredibly wacky. As in the stadium earlier, they pelt the girls with eggs, tomatoes, and a variety of other foodstuffs.

"Zut alors! I forgot about the familiars!" the blue girl exclaims, spinning to face them. "Argh, va chier! We have no time for you abrutis right now!"

That blue girl sure has a foul mouth… with a swing of her forked sword, she erects a wall of ice separating blocking off the horde of familiars. Then, having bought the two of them some time, she seizes her older sister's hand.

"Alright, chère Adèle, let's do this!"

The pink one nods. "I'm with you, chère Gisèle!"

After glancing back to make sure I'm not being subject to a similar new horde of familiars, I summon Teddy Mk II and start charging my ultimate attack. While it charges, I smash away a few stray weasel familiars that approach me. Meanwhile, Adèle and Gisèle have closed their eyes and appear to be building up a sphere of their combined power. I let Teddy Mk II continue charging, waiting for the moment they fire so that I can match their timing.

Then they open their eyes and shout the attack in unison.

"Brilliant Flaming Whirlwind of Ice!"

I call my attack at the same time.

"Ultimate Teddy Glittering Gunk!"

The sisters' ultimate attack lives up to its name quite nicely. It's literally a whirlwind of ice and flame that somehow manages not to cancel out. The freezing conflagration bears down upon the shivering witch, together with my glitter beam, and utterly destroys the poor thing.

Or so I expected, but when the whirlwind dies down after nearly thirty seconds, Franziska is barely even scratched. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. It's more accurate to say that the damage she's taken is barely skin-deep – she's covered in scratches, but seems largely unharmed.

"Merde!" Gisèle exclaims in frustration. "This one has crazy high defence!"

But the effect of my glitter beam has also taken effect, and the witch no longer acknowledges the three of us as enemies. She emerges from her huddle and looks around for a moment, then stands up to her full height, towering over me at nearly seven feet.

"Look sœurette, there's something different about her now," Adèle observes. "See? Until just now, she was shivering like crazy, but now, she seems calm."

I get a good look at Franziska's true form now that she's no longer huddled up. The front teeth are just teeth, and the mouths on the ear tips are not visible. She's a gaunt and lanky figure, wearing what looks to be a torn and splattered baseball uniform. On the back of the uniform are two rows of three runic letters each:

V E R
R A T

I have no idea what that means, however.

"Quelle chance!" Adèle gasps. "This is our chance to strike her down!"

As she charges the witch with her forked sword, and Gisèle backs her up with a couple of fireballs, I step forward to contradict her.

"It's not luck," I retort. "That's the effect of my magic."

To my mild surprise, the words come out in French, and at an unexpectedly fluent level at that. The sisters glance at me with some surprise, but don't interrupt their attack. Surely they must've noticed me before now, though? Although, they were pretty focused on the attack, so maybe they didn't.

"What? It's so much easier to cut her now," Adèle muses.

"And my flames seem to be doing more damage as well," Gisèle says.

While the sisters focus on Franziska, I notice that the wall behind them is beginning to collapse, and send the Teddy Drones forward to defend their backs. At the same time, I'm forced to deal with a new horde of weasels that has appeared out of the woodwork. This time, when they expose the eyes on their bizarre tongues, I leap into the air, push off Teddy Mk II for an extra boost, flip in midair, and push off the ceiling. As I speed back down to the floor, I throw the baseball bat ahead of me, spinning it through the horde before flipping upside right again and landing on a weasel in the centre of the horde, seizing my bat again to take out several in one swipe. The remainder are wiped out by Teddy Mk II's stomps, enabling me to dash over to the horde of pig familiars and carve a swathe through them as well.

When I have time to focus on the witch again, I see she has huddled up once more, but she's now covered in burns and adorned by a pincushion of icicles. Clearly, she took a lot more damage when she wasn't frightened.

"It's not working anymore," Gisèle notes. "Could it be she increases her defence by shuddering?"

"Then, we need to get her to let her guard down again," Adèle muses.

Then she turns and points at me.

"You! How did you do that before? Can you do it again?"

"That attack takes some time to charge," I reply. "However, if I connect with you, then I can confer the effect on your attacks."

The sisters look at me, confused.

"What is this 'connect' you speak of?" Gisèle asks.

I blink. "Huh? But you did it yourself when you first entered, didn't you? That thing where you press your hands together to share power?"

"Oh là là!" Adèle gasps. "You can do that too? I thought it was unique to us, because we are sisters…"

"Maybe that makes it easier for you to connect," I shrug. "But I'm pretty sure any magical girl can do it… the two I sometimes team up with both figured out how to do it after meeting me."

"Then let's do it!" Adèle says eagerly.

Both of them extend a hand to me, and I blink. Can I connect with both of them at the same time? In the game, there's a sort of charge-up time required to connect, so using it twice in a row wouldn't be possible. But it can't hurt to give it a try. This is real life, not in a game. I slap both the offered hands with my own, and the telltale glow of the connect flashes between them.

"Yes, this is exactly the same," Gisèle nods. "Only the feel of your magic is a little different…"

The two of them turn and unleash a barrage of fire and ice upon Franziska, while I return to smacking down familiars left right and centre. But just as I think I've got the upper hand, the pig familiars also choose to reveal their trump card. There are five or six left, and their heads suddenly pop off and float into the air. I watch them warily while trying to keep an eye on their bodies at the same time, but it's difficult to watch both at once. The Teddy Drones knock two of the floating pig heads out of the air, causing them to burst and release a shower of hard candies. The moment those heads burst open, a sheaf of tentacles emerges from the neck of the corresponding bodies, snatching the falling candies and flinging them with the speed of a bullet. However, Teddy Mk II is ready for them, acting as a makeshift wall between the familiars and the two sisters. For my part, I dodge some and swat others away with telekinesis.

Since destroying the head first produces a hail of candy bullets, I next decide to destroy a couple of the bodies, hoping that the heads might just evaporate if the body is gone. With a smack of my bat, two of the headless pig familiars are torn to shreds, and their corresponding heads immediately burst open to rain down candies. The only difference this time is that there are no tentacles snatching up those candies to throw them with great force. I'm getting ready to finish off the last of them when they suddenly burst into a cloud of sparks and vanish. Turning around, I see that the sisters have defeated Franziska, exchanging a high-five before Gisèle leans down to retrieve the grief seed. Adèle on the other hand turns to approach me, regarding me with a certain level of suspicion.

"So, what are you doing hunting in our territory?" she asks.

"I'm just here on vacation," I reply. "Although I don't need grief seeds right at this moment, I wanted to contact some local magical girls and figured hunting a witch was the surest way to find one. And I guess it worked."

"It sure did," Adèle says. "We're Adèle and Gisèle François, the newest magical girls in Paris. It's been a little over two weeks."

"That makes you almost as new as me," I say. "I'm Ashley Taylor, and it's been almost a month for me."

"So… I take it you don't intend to dispute the grief seed?" Adèle says.

"No, even though I technically got here first, I'll let you two have it," I agree.

Gisèle comes over to join us as the labyrinth finally collapses. The three of us power down simultaneously. In their civilian clothes, the air given off by the sisters is totally opposite – although somewhat tall, Adèle is dressed in cute clothes and looks almost like a doll, while despite being somewhat shorter, Gisèle still somehow manages to look awkwardly lanky, dressed in jeans and a sweater. Adèle wears tights under her pink frilled skirt to ward off the encroaching chill of winter, and the hooded jacket she wears has flower embroidery on it. I look around and see some of the people the witch had kidnapped, including the man who led me here. Currently, they're unconscious, but they should soon recover and go back to their normal lives.

"So, why did you wish to contact some local magical girls?" Gisèle asks.

"Actually, I heard about a powerful witch called Walpurgisnacht," I explain. "Have you heard of it?"

The two girls shake their heads, but as if on cue, Cube hops up onto Adèle's shoulder.

"Walpurgisnacht is a legendary witch among magical girls," it explains. "It is so powerful that it does not even need to hide inside a barrier. When it appears, humans perceive it as a massive hurricane, and it leaves death and devastation in its wake."

"Oh là là, that sounds terrible!" Gisèle gasps.

I grab Cube by the tail and fling it into the air with as much force as I can muster. I'd prefer if Cube didn't learn too much about my plans, after all. It might decide to sabotage them. It's better if it only finds out after it's too late. I think in that case it would accept the defeat and make the best of the new situation… or at least I really hope it would. The girls give me a strange look, but before they can say anything, I continue my explanation like nothing happened.

"Well, the thing is, I might be a little strange, but when I heard of it, I thought it would be great if I could finally defeat such a witch, once and for all. But I don't think my power is all that strong… so I need to find a way to boost it. That's why I was looking for one magical girl in particular, someone I suspect might be in Paris."

Adèle nods. "We've had some run-ins with nearby magical girls, so it's possible we could know her if she's here. What's her name?"

"Her name is Pernelle Flamel."

Gisèle gasps. "W-what? The legendary alchemist? But… but surely that's impossible! Even if she was a magical girl, that was centuries ago! There's no way she could still be alive now!"

"But she and her husband are said to have discovered the secret to eternal life, right?" I point out. "I have no idea how much truth there is to that, but you've gotta admit that it suggests there's a chance of finding her."

Adèle nods slowly. "I see your reasoning… but unfortunately, neither me nor my sister have heard of her around here."

"Euh… if there's anyone who might know," Gisèle ventures. "It would probably be the magical girls of Puella Care, right?"

"Right, they seem to have a wide information network," Adèle agrees.

I tilt my head. Something about that term sounds vaguely familiar.

"Puella Care? What's that?"

"How to put it," Gisèle muses. "I guess they're something like magical girl doctors? They usually wander all over the world, using their powers to help magical girls grow stronger or healing cracked soul gems in exchange for grief seeds. They're usually not very good in battle, so they've come up with this alternative way to get grief seeds, you see."

I nod slowly. "Okay… that makes sense… so where can I find them?"

"One of them has settled down near the university," Adèle says. "We were planning to drop by after defeating this witch anyway, so you may as well accompany us."

I nod. "Great! Then let's go!"

Magical Girl Corner

Whenever a new magical girl is introduced, I'll include a brief profile of her here. Some details may be redacted, or contain minor spoilers. You have been warned! The numeric ranking values are on a scale of 1 to 10.

Adèle François

Age: 15
Eye Colour: Green
Hair Colour: Pink
Origins: Paris, France
Symbol: A torch
Soul Gem: An oval pink gem at the base of the feather in her beret
Element: Fire
Weapon: A wand with a golden cage and swan wings
Powers: Fire, speed boost
Wish: "I wish I could be more elegant and refined."

Speed: 7
Magical Stamina: 4
Offensive Power: 10
Defensive Power: 1
Initial Power Usability: 10
Learned Powers: 1

Gisèle François

Age: 13
Eye Colour: Green
Hair Colour: Cyan
Origins: Paris, France
Symbol: A snowflake
Soul Gem: Split into two blue triangular pieces, one in each hair ornament
Element: Water
Weapon: A forked sword, vaguely resembling a tuning fork
Powers: Ice, slowing movement
Wish: "I wish to be free of the expectations everyone has of me."

Speed: 3
Magical Stamina: 8
Offensive Power: 7
Defensive Power: 5
Initial Power Usability: 8
Learned Powers: 2