The Eden operative who was her ride is an elf, and does not look particularly surprised to see the fox ears and tail. Then again, they work for Eden, and fox ears and a tail are really not that outlandish, when it comes to adventurers (at least the more powerful ones). They cast a little spell that makes a pillar of blue light appear in front of them and when Akiho steps into it her vision flashes blue and she's elsewhere.

On the mainland, Eden lounges are divided by rank, with the rank 0 lounge accessible to everyone (including people not affiliated with Eden at all), but as Akiho is already registered and rank 1, herself, she can go to the rank 1 lounge. It's a reasonably spatious room, with enough space for a few dozen maybe a hundred people, split into several more self-contained nooks with chairs and tables and rugs and bookshelves. It's busier than what she's used to, back in Amatsu, if not by much, but she stands out a lot more: while the all-ranks lounge in Amatsu included all sorts of people, most of the adventurers here are also rank 1, and while the fox ears and tail would be unremarkable on a powerful adventurer they are very much remarkable here.

Still, adventurers are selected for being approximately as chill as possible about people looking weird, so other than a handful of glances and a couple of stares they leave her be.

...except for one person, actually, an employee who's making a beeline for her. "Excuse me, would you happen to be Ms. Morikawa?"

She playfully winks at anyone staring at her, because if she didn’t have a coping mechanism for staring, she wouldn’t have ever left the woods.

Someone knowing her name already surprises her, though. She didn’t think anyone was likely to care about her arrival, let alone flag her down by name.

“… Yes?” she says, politely, but the straightening of her tail and the twitch of her ears gives away her unease.

"Would you be willing to accept a rank 3 mission? We would normally send someone more powerful, of course, but it seems like it fits your particular areas of expertise exceptionally well, and you might in fact be in less danger than anyone else."

“Iiiiiiiiii will need to know more about the rank 3 mission before I just up and say yes?? … But that’s not a no, so. What exactly is going on?”

On one hand: it would look so good on her resume, and earn her so much money!!! On the other hand: if she is uniquely suited towards whatever it is, that has implications. She’s a little concerned about those implications.

"Come with me, please," the person says, then turns around and starts walking towards a reception counter. "What do you know of Payon?"

She follows, of course.

“I don’t.”

"It's a village in the southeastern mountains of the Kingdom of Rune-Midgard, and it lies on top of ancient ruins of a lost city. The cave leading into those ruins had been used as a burial site prior to their discovery, and since the Advent of Magic—pardon me, I'm not sure what the standard Amatsu term would be for the event—their dead have been consistently rising over and over again."

Here's the counter, they walk around it and start leafing through some papers. "This wasn't a very big problem, except recently the quantities and power levels of the undead have been steadily rising, and a duo of adventurers took a bounty to investigate the reason. It turns out the reason seems to be a ghost of a fox demon hybrid, who had been sealed in the ruins, and whose seals worn off enough that she got free." They lift their head up to look at her. "So it's very serendipitous that you arrived when you did! —apologies, were there any questions, and was there anything else I could help you with?"

A ghost of a fox demon…? So. Just like her. Damn. That’s actually worse than she expected, and, well. Now she has to get involved, doesn’t she.

“Well, I am definitely willing to at least consult for this,” she says, firmly. “So I suppose my questions are all about her circumstances of haunting, which is information you might not have. Uh. Who do I go to for that information, and to give my perspective on the circumstances of our shared condition?”

"The two adventurers who found the spirit are still on site as that happened, ah, earlier today, so they and the other people living there might be your best sources of information about that."

“Oh.” She was not expecting things to be moving that quickly, but she supposes that gossip travels faster for adventurers than it does for fishwives, so: checks out. “Then how expensive is the teleport, and is the guild willing to reimburse me for it, considering the circumstances.”

Her, mercenary? Yes. She is a unique consultant and she will be compensated for it, damn it.

"Certainly. Was there anything you wished to do here, or would you be willing to go now?"

(Also: people are definitely staring, now, and it is not even mostly about the fox body parts.)

“I’ve already dropped my stuff off at Kafra. Now’s fine,” she shrugs. Does it amuse her that so many of her peers are staring? Yes. Yes it does. Ha, she got asked for by name for a specific rank 3 bounty!! She’ll be remembered for…. Admittedly like a month or two, the adventurer gossip network is cutthroat.

"Excellent, then, please come with me?"

And down a hallway and they poke a colleague and the colleague crushes a blue gem in their hand and now there's a portal in front of her. "This should lead you to the village proper, someone should be able to direct you to the cave."

“Right. Thank you.”

Into the portal she goes, though she doesn’t mention that she’s doing way more investigation before she just. Up and walks into the danger cave. That is how adventurers burn through resurrection points, thank you, and despite a couple of close calls she has yet to.

Payon is nestled at the foot of a mountain in the middle of a forest. Every direction she looks, even in the village proper, has trees and grass, and the canopy above her is almost, but not quite, thick enough to block out the moonlight. The architecture, however, is very familiar to Akiho. She might even feel at home.

The buildings are wood and thatch, built on slightly raised wooden platforms, with doors of stretched paper. In the distance, to the northwest, she can see a temple or a palace that borrowed very heavily from the same style used by the Lord's Castle in Amatsu. If someone had told her this was a village back there and she got teleported to the wrong place, it would not be easy for her to contradict them.

But not impossible. There are more people than any village she's been in, the trees are different (though there are cherry blossom trees, recognisable even off-season), and people's style of dress isn't really the same at all.

She thinks she would have been less unsettled if it were completely alien architecture. The similarities… well. She’s likely in the right sort of place for self improvement, but. Damn if she doesn’t feel like she’s a stranger in a once familiar land.

“Excuse me,” she calls, to no person in particular, swishing her tail nervously, “could someone direct me to the other adventurers? The ones that just went into the cave? I’m a specialist sent by Eden, I’d like to ask them some questions.”

Someone in what's clearly some sort of ceremonial or religious robe walks up to her. "You wish to go to the cave? I can lead you there; it is by the temple in the Archers' Village."

“Not into it, yet,” or, you know, until someone much better at killing things shows up, because as adventurers go she is made out of paper, “But if directly outside it is where the adventurers are, then yes.”

"I believe they are recuperating at the temple, yes. Please follow me."

“Of course,” she agrees, and yep! She will follow.

They take a road of packed dirt leading north, and don't seem to be feeling particularly hurried. "Do you have personal experience with kitsune spirits?" they ask, using the Amatsu loanword.

Is. Is that a serious question. She. She has fox ears. And her yukata is short enough to show her swishing fox tail. Yes! Yes she is familiar with them!!

“My mother was cursed by them when she carried me in her womb. So. Yes? I am half kitsune, half human.”

They nod. "That has not happened here in centuries, at least as far as I know. It is perhaps a sign of the gods that you have come, though a sign of what I could not say. It may become clear in due time."

Also a sign of the almighty power of the adventurer gossip network, and magical engineering to make teleport points. Those were rather large factors in her being here. But, sure. Local kami might be messing with things. They do be like that.

Instead of saying any of that, she just hums an affirmative.

They don't say anything further and just lead her the rest of the short walk in silence.

The "Archers' Village" is the name for the open area just north of Payon where the Archers' Guild houses and trains its members. Several simple buildings are visible a short way off the road they're walking, and archery ranges of various kinds and difficulties can be seen everywhere. The temple is recognisable as the biggest building right by a wide clearing, but the cave is equally eye-catching off in a corner to the left.

Especially eye-catching are the dozens upon dozens of paper seals taped against its walls and hanging off ropes crisscrossing the entrance and making it effectively impossible to walk in.