Not his real form, then? Hmm.

"I'm Kaede. It's a pleasure."

"The pleasure's all mine. Now, what brings you here today?"

"Should I assume your secretary didn't elaborate? It's about your artefact and the fact I expect it may be from my world."

"What leads you to say that?"

"Fox spirits are known to carry jewels—glowing balls, usually—and are said to be willing to do anything to retrieve them," she says mildly.

"And what is your interest in my artifact?"

"Academic. Are you from my world?"

"I don't know which world you're from."

"The same world the artefact's from, keep up. Are you from that world? You'd recognise it."

"There are common themes across worlds. I will believe you've somehow narrowed the possibilities down, but that doesn't answer my question. And no, I am not from the artifact's world. I inherited it from an old friend, who came to this realm when she was still young."

She raises an eyebrow. "Inherited it? So she's dead?"

"Unfortunately, yes. And you still haven't answered my question."

"I have, it was academic. I hear of an artefact that looks a lot like magic from my world, it's in the hands of this powerful guy who's doing heavy duty magic with coincidental timing, I know a lot about magic from my world, a girl gets curious."

"And what do you intend to do with your knowledge about my artifact?"

She blinks. "I don't want to do anything about it, I just want to know. That's the whole point."

Wryly: "Somehow I doubt that 'curiosity' is the entirety of your motivation."

"Well, I may use any new knowledge I get to build a jutsu or two," she says, waving a hand dismissively. "But mostly, fox spirits—and their jewels—well, they're mysterious where I'm from. There are stories about them, and rumours about what the jewels can actually do and it would be incredibly exciting to figure out more about them, find out who's right."

"And what reason do I have to indulge your curiosity?"

"Well, I'd been kinda hoping you don't know much about the artefact yourself so my being from its world and knowing its world's magic could prove a useful asset in figuring it out. That's... less likely, now, if you've inherited it."

"She didn't exactly teach me her magic system, so I do not know the underlying mechanism. Perhaps you can be a help to me. But first, tell me, have you by any chance met a fox by the name of Reim?"

"...no?" She peers at him, a bit suspiciously. "Why?"

"He seems to think his status as Yuuyake's son overrides her stated will, and has been a - problem - over the issue of inheritance. If you haven't met him, though, then that's no matter."

She becomes suddenly interested. "So there is a fox that's interested in getting the jewel back! I've never met one! I don't suppose—well, if he's been a problem you probably aren't in the best of terms, are you..."

"He never had it in the first place. And, no, we are not on good terms. An introduction from me would be quite amiss. If you haven't met a fox, why do you think you'd have any unique insights?"

(He seems to find her wording mildly suspicious.)

"I don't think I'd have any unique insights on the fox himself," she explains as if trying to avoid sounding like she's doing so to a small child. "I know about the magic and the jewel, being presumably a part of the same magic system, is also presumably analysable by same. But like I said, the stories say these foxes would do anything to get the jewel back, and, well." She smiles a bit apologetically. "I am ever so curious to find out why."