The day after meeting Pernelle, I run randomly into Adèle and Gisèle at a bistro not far from my hotel, together with my parents. Gisèle spots me first, then nudges Adèle who turns and waves.

"Bonjour, Mlle Taylor!" Adèle says.

I head over to her table. "Mind if I sit here?"

"That's fine," Gisèle says.

So I take a seat next to Gisèle, while Mom hovers around standing and Dad heads over to the till to order some coffee.

"Hmm?" Mom asks in English. "Who are these two nice young ladies?"

Adèle responds in the same language. Her English is really good, which surprises me a little. She does have an accent, but she seems totally fluent.

"We just met the other day," she says. "Ashley was looking for directions to a particular place of interest, and my sister and I guided her there."

"Ah, I see," Mom nods. "Well, I'm glad to see my daughter can make friends even in a foreign country."

"Y-yeah, sure," Adèle says.

From the way she says it, I assume she wasn't really thinking of us as friends, which makes me feel a little sad… but we did only meet once, and it wasn't the best of circumstances, so I guess I can understand.

"Does your mother not speak French?" Gisèle asks in French.

I shrug and respond in the same language. "Pretty sure she can speak it at least a little… she comes here for work often enough. But I'm not really sure. Anyway… since you're here, I wanted to ask if we could exchange phone numbers?"

Gisèle blinks at me.

"But… we're not exactly friends, right?"

"Do we have to be friends to exchange phone numbers?" I ask. "Although I'd like to be friends, but… I mean, we do have something in common. I just figured having a few contacts who can understand your problems would be helpful. I realize you've got Nisha, but who knows if she'll always be available?"

Adèle nods. "Yes, you're right. Let's exchange numbers, then."

We all take out our phones and tap them together. I then unlock my phone to double-check that it worked. Sure enough, entries for Adèle François and Gisèle François have now been added to my contacts. I edit their names to append the sparkle emoji to mark them as magical girls, the same as I've done for Sarra and Alice.

"I should probably pay Nisha a visit too," I muse. "I wasn't able to take advantage of her services last time."

"I recommend it," Gisèle says fervently. "It's more effective than you'd think."

Adèle lowers her voice so that my parents can't hear.

"I'm pretty confident we wouldn't be alive today without her services."

At that moment, Dad returns with two cups of take-out coffee.

"Well, your Mom and I have someplace we'd like to go, alone," he announces, in pretty good French. "So I'll leave you young ones to have fun together. Just be sure to get back to the hotel before dark, okay Ashley?"

I nod. "Sure, I'll try."

With that, Mom takes her coffee from him, and they leave the bistro together.

"So it's that effective, huh?" I muse. "Then I should definitely give it a try."

"So, did you manage to get a meeting with… you know… that person?" Adèle asks.

I suppose she doesn't want to bring up Pernelle's name in the middle of a crowded bistro. It certainly wouldn't be too surprising to find people who recognize the name here in Paris, so I guess her caution is warranted.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I did," I nod. "She even agreed to make me a weapon! It went way easier than I'd anticipated. The only downside is the weapon will take awhile to finish."

"Well, I'm glad for you," Adèle says. "Both of us already have a melee weapon, so I can't imagine what it'd be like to have nothing but… whatever that teddy bear thing is."

"I call him Teddy Mk II," I say. "And the extra floating heads are the Teddy Drones."

Adèle giggles. "It's totally appropriate!"

A waiter comes by to take my order, so I ask for a double mocha frappé, and he nods and heads over to pass the order on. The François sisters are about halfway through their own drinks.

"Are there a lot of magical girls in Paris?" I wonder.

"Mon dieu, don't get me started on that," Gisèle retorts. "Our territory is barely large enough to sustain us. Step across the line for any reason, and we risk a confrontation… though as long as we have a good reason, the confrontation rarely turns violent. That is, any reason not related to magical girls… oh, visiting Nisha is considered a good reason too, thankfully."

"How long have you two been magical girls?" I ask.

"Almost three weeks," Adèle says. "We both made our contracts at the same time."

"I see… and has Nisha been here for that entire time?"

Adèle nods. "Yeah… when we first made a contract, there was a magical girl here who helped us learn the ropes, and she introduced us to Nisha. Unfortunately, she was killed by a witch three days before we first met you…"

"Aww… that's too bad," I say. "I'm happy to say that I've yet to see a magical girl die… but I imagine that won't last forever, huh?"

"We only knew her for about two weeks, but she was so nice to us," Gisèle muses. "Still… she taught us what we needed to survive, so we have to keep fighting to honour her memory."

"Right, I get that," I nod.

My mocha frappé comes, and I start slurping it down with gusto. It's so delicious that I end up going too fast and getting brain-freeze.

"Ow…"

Adèle smiles. "It's really good, right? I've made that mistake many times."

"I think I'd get it without the coffee next time, but… yeah, it's delicious," I nod.

"Oh, you don't like coffee?" Adèle asks.

"I don't mind it, but I'm more of a tea person, you see."

Adèle nods. "I see, certainly there are people like that… our late mentor included…"

"So, hey, do you really think you'll be able to beat that Walpurgisnacht?" Gisèle asks me.

"Hmm… well, this new weapon will surely help, but… even then, I doubt I can do it alone," I say. "If you two are willing to travel to Japan and fight with me, that would be great!"

The sisters blink at me, then exchange glances.

"Euh… when would that be?" Adèle asks. "Is it the first of May, or…"

"I'm not quite sure," I reply. "I expect it to appear sometime around then, but I won't know for sure until it gets closer."

"But even if we wanted to," Gisèle says, "flights are pretty expensive. I'm not sure we could even afford it."

"Maybe you could convince Pernelle to teleport you," I muse. "Or on second thoughts, she probably can't teleport that far, so I guess it wouldn't help…"

"Plus, we don't have passports," Gisèle adds.

"Well, think about it," I shrug. "If you don't want to, that's fine. If you do want to though, or you're not sure but you think you might want to, this is probably a good time to start getting a passport. As for the cost of the flight… I think I'll be able to work something out, but I can't make any promises yet."

"Well… we'll think about it," Adèle says.

"I'm sure Scheherazade will be there," Gisèle muses. "Such a historic event, I'm sure she wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Speaking of Scheherazade, does anyone actually know what her powers are?" I wonder.

Both sisters just shrug.

"To be honest, all we know of her is what we've heard from Nisha," Adèle says. "I think she's a fan, so it comes up quite a lot."

"Ohh, is that how it is…" I nod. "You know… Scheherazade is the name of the sultan's daughter in the Arabian Nights, isn't it? I wonder, is that a coincidence?"

I don't know that because of my memories of my previous life. I mean… I was aware of the Arabian Nights back then, and I could've quoted a couple of the most well-known stories from it – like Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, The Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I've even read some manga based on it, such as Magi: Labyrinth of Magic. But the name of the sultan's daughter from the framing story isn't the sort of thing that would've stuck in my memory. No, I only know this because I literally looked it up on Wikipedia last night.

"I doubt it's a coincidence," Gisèle says. "But I also doubt that the Arabian Nights could be considered a recounting of her early life."

"Maybe she's even the author…" I muse.

"Ah zut, I never even thought of that possibility," Gisèle says.

I nod. "Yeah, I mean… if she's the author, then the framing story could be entirely fiction, making it essentially just a compilation of Arabian folk tales. But yeah, who knows. You'd have to ask the woman herself."

Once we've all finished our drinks, we pay the bill and leave the bistro to head to the Latin Quarter. Nisha's bistro is just as deserted now as it was early in the morning, and she appears even more promptly than she did last time when the bell tinkles.

"Oh, it's you two again," Nisha says. "Here for another tune-up?"

"Ah, no," Adèle says. "But I think Ashley was interested."

"Oh, is that so?" Nisha says. "I assume you have the payment, right?"

I nod. "Of course. It's Sue's grief seed."

Gisèle looks confused. "Huh? Sue's… grief seed? Do witches have names?"

"Of course," I say. "You just need to be able to read the runes."

"…those runes actually mean something?" Adèle asks. "I assumed they were just gibberish…"

"Well, they do mean something, but it's not exactly something useful," Nisha says. "It's cool to know their names, but it doesn't really help to defeat them. Although, occasionally you see other writing in the runes, and once in awhile it'll hint at the witch's weakness. Now then… Ashley, follow me into the back. You two can wait here or leave, I don't mind either way."

I follow Nisha into the back room, which is set up kinda like a massage parlour. There's a table to lay down on, and a couple of chairs by the entrance as well as one next to the table.

"So I just… lay down there?" I ask.

Nisha nods. "Yes, but hand over your soul gem first, and your payment. Oh, and Puella Care guidelines require me to inform you that the procedure will allow me to view your memories. If this is a problem, you can still back out now. Of course, I'm bound by patient-therapist confidentiality, so I can promise I won't tell anyone what I see in your mind. That only applies to what I see during the procedure, mind you."

I shake my head. "No, there's nothing I really need to hide in there. Not from you, at least."

I fish out Sue's grief seed and transform my ring into gem form, handing both of them over, taking care to keep them apart so that corruption doesn't flow from the gem into the seed. Not that there's much corruption in my soul gem right now, but still. Nisha accepts them both and stows the seed away, and then I lay down on the table.

I can feel a phantom touch as she gently prods at my soul gem with her fingers. Unlike Kyuubey's demonstration to Sayaka in the anime, I don't feel any pain, just the sensation of something touching me inside. After a few seconds, I feel my consciousness drifting off.

The experience is surreal. Memories I thought I had long since forgotten start to come to the surface. I remember details of my previous life that had been consigned to the void even before I woke up here, in this world. But most importantly, I remember my true name.

"Chelsea Flanders."

I blink. I'm sitting in a classroom, surrounded by vaguely familiar students. I look around in confusion, then look at the teacher.

"Chelsea Flanders!"

I raise my hand.

"Um! Here!"

"Chelsea, please pay more attention when I call your name. And put your phone away. School's already started."

"R-right!"

I look down at the phone in question. It's an older phone than I remember, but still an Android model, not an iPhone. Tamaki Iroha stares back at me from the screen, just watching. It always amazed me how life-like these girls seemed, breathing and shifting in real time like an actual person. This means I'm in twelfth grade, as Magia Record had first come out just a few days before I started my last year of high school. As a die-hard fan, I'd played on the Japanese servers from the start, or as soon as I figured out how to work around the region restrictions to get it installed. I remember joining the North American servers too as soon as they became active, but I was always more focused on my Japanese account, since that was where I'd built up my army of magical girls over the preceding two years. So for me, it didn't really hit that hard when the North American servers suddenly shut down.

Before I can hit the home button and stow my phone away, the memory fades away, replaced by an even older one. I'm laying on my stomach on my bed, working my way through the Madoka game on the PSP. I seem to be in the middle of a boss fight against Candeloro… I've gotta make sure that never happens here in this world.

I'm just about to beat Candeloro when that memory fades too, and now I'm an adult, doing a pull in Magia Record. It's one of the event gachas, featuring a new character, and I think this is the thirtieth or fortieth pull in a row. And then, she pops up on the screen – Ashley Taylor. With a sigh, I tap the button to return to the main gacha screen and look at the three girls featured there. To my surprise, Ashley Taylor is one of them. I'd forgotten that she wasn't a common character available from the standard gacha. The fact that I drew her at all in this gacha meant that she was a featured character. But those other two girls… who are they? Even though this is in my own memories, I somehow don't remember them. They must have some kind of association with Ashley, right? They wouldn't be featured together for no reason. And no – they're not Sarra and Alice. However, they do look vaguely familiar somehow, and I don't mean in the sense that I saw them before in my previous life. No… I mean I feel like I've seen them before in this life. Of course, matching a cartoon character with a real-life face isn't exactly easy…

I want to move my finger to tap the gacha details button and learn who these girls are, but this is just a memory. I don't have any control over my actions. So instead, I just roll over in bed. As I'm drifting off to sleep, I can hear a deep male voice at the edge of my consciousness, but the words don't make any sense to me.

"Xiaphosmu ximsump fewophub; azaphaophach Klesump Vazzu."

Suddenly, I'm awake again, and Nisha looks at me from the chair next to the table. It seems like all sorts of memories of my previous life have resurfaced. In particular, I finally realize the significance of Phantom Thief Magical Kirin. It was a manga within the Magia Record game that several characters, including Ashley, were fans of. It's not an important detail, perhaps, but it's one of the things that's been nagging at the back of my mind for awhile now. And of course, there's my former name. It turns out I was right from day one – I used to be called Chelsea.

"Well, you should feel a little stronger next time you use your magic," she says. "I tuned your etheric pathways to improve your efficiency… it's no substitute for actual training, obviously, but it'll certainly help a bit. That said… I thought you were a bit of an oddball when I met you, but nothing prepared me for the hard truth, Ashley… or should I call you Chelsea?"

I sit up, blinking, and take my soul gem back from her, returning it to ring form on my finger.

"No… I've left that name behind," I say. "Even if I'm not the original owner of this body, I still think of myself as Ashley now. That said… I'm happy to remember my previous name. But does this tune-up thing normally help to dredge up lost memories?"

"It's happened before," Nisha shrugs. "I wouldn't prescribe it for amnesia, though."

I nod. "I see. Well, maybe next time I get a tune-up, I'll remember even more."

"Just note, it's not really helpful to get a tune-up more than once a month," Nisha says. "It won't hurt… but it won't really have an effect."

"So, I'll wait at least a month before going again," I say. "But I'll be in Japan by then…"

"If you're in Japan, there should be Puella Care members in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Kamihama," Nisha offers. "At least, that was the case as of October. Some of them travel a lot, so it's possible they've moved on."

I already knew there would be one in Kamihama, so that doesn't really help me, but there's no reason she needs to know that. I guess she didn't see all my memories, just some random flashes or something.

"That's helpful, thanks."

"But if you're ever in Paris again, feel free to drop by," Nisha says. "I'd be happy to give you another tune-up. For an appropriate fee, of course."

I nod. Then, after a brief pause, Nisha adds another question.

"By the way… have you ever considered what happened to the original Ashley?"

I blink at her.

"Actually… no… I never really considered it," I say.

"Well… I do have a theory, based on what I witnessed," Nisha says. "Want to hear it?"

I nod. "Sure… I guess it can't hurt."

"My theory is that the real Ashley died of her illness," Nisha says. "But then, for reasons unknown, your soul migrated into her body and revived it. It doesn't quite explain why the illness disappeared though…"

"Huh… so you're saying, it's possible I'm only here because she died," I say. "But at the same time, she's still sorta here inside me, so I dunno…"

Nisha shrugs. "It's just a theory. I don't have any strong evidence to support it."

I nod thoughtfully, and return to the front room where I find the François sisters still waiting for me.

"Huh? You didn't need to wait…"

"It's not like we had anything better to do," Adèle shrugs. "School's on break until next week, and we hadn't made any plans for today."

"Well, thanks for waiting, then."

The three of us exit the bistro and head down the street. I guess we may as well spend the rest of the day together…