"Might be better to just pay more attention to what we're each of us saying and use that plus the meanings the translation magic is giving us."

"...I really don't think I'd do that well with parsing larger chunks of words, though. And my memory would do better with writing, I think. We can try both?"

"Sure."

"I can go ahead and make some paper and charcoal, if you want to start on that for today, or we can do something else? It's still a long while until noon. Maybe discuss our worlds and languages at the same time?"

"That sounds like a good idea, yeah."

So Tetsuma can make some reams of paper and charcoal, giving some to Dayo and keeping the rest for herself. She starts with a map, labeled in Japanese, with the political situation as of the last time she checked. She leaves spaces for translations, and (somewhat more slowly than usual), explains each country and who leads it. She tries to concentrate on individual words whenever Dayo talks, rather than just focusing on the translation itself.

(She strongly suspects Dayo's language's writing system will be a lot less complicated than the three-writing-systems pileup that is Japanese.)

...yeah, it is in fact a lot lot less complicated than that, what the heck, Japanese is bizarrely complex.

Tetsuma actually has no idea why it's so complex! But of the three systems (kanji, hiragana, and katakana), you don't super much need to learn katakana, making it effectively two systems for everyday use, and the hiragana is pretty straightforward, each symbol corresponding to a syllable. 

But yeah Tetsuma hates kanji. A separate symbol or set of symbols for each word is way too complicated. 

It is!!! Here, her alphabet is entirely phonetic, that should help.

That's extremely helpful! Tetsuma takes out a separate sheet of paper to write out which consonant-vowel combinations correspond to which hiragana. Once she thinks she has the hang of the alphabet, she writes Dayo's full name in her cutest handwriting in hiragana, which isn't very neat but is pretty (involving flowers, hearts, and little smiley faces), and makes an earnest attempt at neat - or at least legible - in the alphabet. She then writes her own name underneath, in the same style.

Her handwriting is adorable. She's adorable.

Tetsuma's cheeks turn a splotchy brick red. "Oh uh - thanks! You're really pretty - I mean your handwriting is really nice too - I mean..." Annnddd it'd be even more awkward to literally sink into the ground, wouldn't it. 

She giggles. "So you like girls, hm?" she asks, in a lightly teasing tone.

Ahhhhhhhh how did the ground swallowing jutsu work again

"I like everyone," Tetsuma mumbles. "You're always pretty."

She leans forward, resting her chin on her hand. "Useful information."

Why can't she remember the earth swallowing jutsu.

At least she's... fairly sure Dayo's flirting back?

Ahhhhh how does flirting even work.

"You're rather red. Are you feeling ill?"

Tetsuma makes a sound somewhere between a groan and an eep.

"No, you're just - you." 

(There is a reason Tetsuma didn't get sent on undercover missions.)

"I am indeed myself, but if I'd known I could do this to people I might have tried to be less that!"

"I like how you you are."

"Oh? So this redness is a positive development? What a peculiar variety of human you must be."

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Tetsuma stares resolutely at the sky.

Then, all in a rush (with a bit of squeaking): "I don't know how flirting works and you're really pretty so I have no clue what I'm doing."

A deep breath, then in something approximating a normal human vocal register, "And, um, if you think I'm pretty too I'd kinda like to know? For sure? I think you're flirting with me - I mean I'm not sure - I'm going to be quiet now."

Earth swallowing jutsu probably starts with a Tiger seal, right?

"Look at me."

Tetsuma does.

And she leans forward and kisses her.