"Well, one of you has manners," the fox says. "My name is Reim. To the rude one's question, I am no one's summons - though I find it encouraging, that your magic allows summoning. Rare, that. Useful in the right circumstances." The fox pauses. "And it is so very good to meet you both. You see, I'm in need of a little - help."

Tetsuma blinks. Ah, well, the fox-who-apparently-wants-to-hire-them isn't nearly as strange as this entire world. "I apologize for any insult, honorable Fox," they say, only somewhat insincerely, then: "What would you offer for our assistance?" And since the fox is apparently able to communicate with both of them - "And would you share your translation jutsu?"

"—our help in particular?" she asks, looking between Reim and Testuma. "Erm, sure—but I can't really understand them..."

"Well," says the fox, "I suppose I can offer the translation magic as an investment and initial payment, of sorts. You will have to let me touch you, of course, but it will allow you to communicate in any format you wish, with anyone."

Only sort of answers their first question (presumably more magic is on the table; makes sense for a fox spirit), but Tetsuma nods and steps forward.

Uh sure why not.

The fox taps both of them. The magic should feel sort of tingly, and then they'll be able to understand each other just fine (talking in someone's native language should also feel possible, but it won't be intuitive how). If Tetsuma is paying attention to their wood-sense, they might notice some just-out-of-sight plants wilting. Small things, mostly. 

Yeah Tetsuma's paying more attention to the fox, and their wood sense doesn't do non-trees all that well.

When they feel the magic settle, they (politely) thank the fox, then turn to Dayo and say, "Hello! Sorry for running into you earlier!"

"—hello! Oh wow this works. Erm, it's okay—and I think I'm very far from home, all this magic is completely impossible."

"...Yeah, I was figuring I got hit with a space-time ninjutsu, though not sure why unless I stumbled onto someone else's fight without noticing. This is a bit overly complicated for a genjutsu - plus it's next to impossible to fake senses you don't have, and my wood-sense thinks this forest is real, just strange." Tetsuma shrugs.

"So you're non-native too? Not sure how someone would do the edge-of-world thing, but I tend not to assume anything's impossible for jutsu, there's always some weird kekkei genkai that'll prove you wrong. How'd you end up here, then?" 

(The spell will offer literal translations and even explanations of the foreign words, but leave them untranslated to Dayo's ears as unique concepts. Jutsu: technique, in this case specific magical ones. Ninjutsu: jutsu that cause physical effects. Genjutsu: illusions. Kekkei genkai: powers specific to a bloodline.)

(The fox, meanwhile, is just silently watching them talk). 

"—none of those things you just said exist where I'm from. Jutsu and all that."

"Huh. If you don't have jutsu, how does... magic? Work in your world?"

"Ravelry is what we call it. Less than one in a hundred people have it, when they're teenagers they get a choice amongst a few options and the one they pick is their ravelry for life. If they don't pick one the options start disappearing until there's only one left and they're stuck with that. Mine's shapeshifting, but there's all sorts of things."

"...Proper shapeshifting is actually something jutsu has a lot of trouble with. You don't rule out potential enemy capabilities, but not everything's - easy. I can - " And they demonstrate, forming a ram seal, shifting with a puff of smoke to a more masculine form (their default is feminine unless they're unhappy enough with it to justify the cost), " - but that's costly to maintain, attention- and chakra-wise, and can be dispelled if someone hits me, since it's more illusion than actual shift. I can't do non-human other than as an illusion." Well, so far.

They let the male-shift dismiss, then say, "It sounds like your ravelry's more common, but less flexible. There's maybe a few hundred shinobi in the Land of Fire, out of... I think civilian numbers in the low millions. Does ravelry come with a cost? Jutsu use up chakra, if you run out you'll risk dying."

(The fox is now watching very intently, ears pricked forwards.)

"There's a cost in, er, energy? The same kind of energy you use to not fall asleep, or to run a marathon—if you do a lot of ravelry you get tired and need a nap or to sleep or to drink a lot of coffee. You can't die of it, though, you'll just pass out first. How's your magic picked?"

(Yes, she has noticed the fox, she'll move on to that in a moment.)

"You learn it as a child, but I've been making progress despite getting a really late start, and it might be a tradition, not a requirement. I've never heard of anyone not from a shinobi clan using jutsu, but that might be just because we're secretive and don't teach it to outsiders." They frown a bit. "Most people within the clan who they're willing to teach can learn at least how to dispel illusions and speed up movement, though being able to pull off the complicated or high-energy stuff's rarer. Kekkei genkai on the other hand are inherited. My wood-sense and wood manipulation are part of one."

"Why do you not teach it to outsiders? What kinds of things can it do? I mean, illusions and speed and wood manipulation don't sound... like the same thing at all, so I'm having trouble generalising from that."

"I'm not really a theorist, but there's three things going on - yin release, yang release, and elemental transformation. Most people just say spiritual and physical effects. I think the poetic description is that yin creates form out of nothing, and yang breathes life into form? Yin requires more control to use, I think, yang more raw power, and you can increase yang by using chakra a lot or just by exercising. Most people are better at one than the other. You have to use both to mold chakra for non-elemental jutsu, but different jutsu require different amounts - like, genjutsu's almost entirely yin, taijutsu is yang, ninjutsu's a mixture but the kinds people use lean towards yang. It sounds like your ravelry is entirely yang release, from the energy it uses. Can you get bigger effects if your physical endurance is high?"

"As for what it can do - " Tetsuma shrugs. "Enhancing taijutsu and weapons-use is actually the most common, since it's easiest to make yourself physically better at something you're already good at. Illusions that can fool civilians aren't super hard, but being good enough to trick shinobi is rare. Elemental transformation is more... restricted? Like there'll be a set thing you can do with each jutsu, and most people are only good in one element, sometimes two. The basic elements are fire, wind, lightning, earth, and water. You can only use one at a time, though some kekkei genkai work by combining them - my wood manipulation is earth and water. Ninjutsu can also do healing - which requires ridiculous control, creating clones, barriers, seals - like explosive tags, messing with space, and I'm actually really not sure what the upper limit is, since most of what's possible is only recorded in legends. Our world's kinda constantly at war, so people don't tend to get much past the basics, which is most of what I know."

...well this is fascinating. "You can't get bigger effects with more physical endurance, exactly—you can do exactly the set of things you can do, and you can do more of it, or more complicated things with it, but not exactly bigger.

"Anyway, you say anyone in your world can do that if taught? Do you know if you could teach me?"

"I could try? You're not, like, a chakra-less zombie or anything, I would've noticed that. And I think it's 'anyone could learn chakra manipulation' the same way 'anyone could learn to sword-fight.' And raveling sounds like it might interact interestingly. It's entirely possible it expends yang chakra? So you might already have decent reserves, though you'd then want to focus on building yin chakra, they're supposed to be balanced. I wonder if learning ninjutsu, genjutsu, or especially taijutsu would help with raveling..."

"That'd be fun! I have no idea how it'd interact, it's not like ravelry's a thing that develops or that needs practice or anything like that, but maybe with this chakra thing it will."

"I've never taught before, but I remember my lessons well enough, and we can probably figure stuff out." They pause and glance over at the fox. "What do you think about his offer? I'd like more information, like why us and what he needs help with, exactly." 

"—right, we shouldn't be nerding about magic right now." She looks at the fox. "How can we help?"

The fox stands, stretching. "Oh, I mostly need help with retrieving a certain item that was stolen from me. A jewel on a necklace, of mostly sentimental value, as it was a gift from my mother. Would get it myself, but - " He holds up a paw. "I have a rather unfortunate lack of opposable thumbs, you see. Gets quite in the way of opening doors." Reim then pauses. "As for why you - well, most who wander by this island are ley-captains using the dock for a rest. Quite in a rush, most of them. Rarely interesting in offering a bit of help. Your magic systems are also unlike anything else in this world - jutsu is flexible, and I suspect local detection magic will have trouble picking up on ravelry. Native magic is more - energetically obvious.

"There will, of course, be payment. I can do some persistent magical effects, and if you wish for a more conventional reward, I have quite the store of trade goods - precious gems and the like. The amount I'm willing to offer is fairly arbitrary."

"If you have so many gems and this necklace jewel only has sentimental value, why did anyone steal it in the first place, and why can't you bribe them to get it back what you'd pay us? Other than terrible incentives, I guess."