As the Hunters began to file towards the Artemis Cabin- being led by a lovestruck Grover- I made my way over to see Thalia and the others. Uta rushed over and threw her arms around Thalia in a tight hug, relieved that she was okay.
Thalia didn't stop her, hugging back tightly and burying her face into Uta's shoulder. She was holding back a lot of emotion, not wanting to show it where just anyone could see.
I turned my gaze over to Penny, who looked exhausted. Apollo had said something to her that I wasn't able to hear before he got back in the bus and it took off, soaring away. The other girl, on the other hand, was practically bouncing with excitement.
"Mission go okay?" I asked.
She sighed. "It was... Somewhat of a success, but..."
I just nodded; the lack of Annabeth made things very clear. "So, who's our new little friend?"
"I'm Nicole," she chirped happily. "Nicole di Angelo! Are you a Demigod too? Do you have any cool powers? How many hit points do you have?"
"Nicole, we went over this," Penny sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry about her."
"No need to apologise, most people are normally excited to learn that they're half god," I told Penny, waving it off. "Yes, I'm a Demigod. I don't have any cool powers besides being good with weapons. As for hit points, I don't know- I'm more a Duel Monsters player than a Mythomagic Player."
"What's Duel Monsters?" She asked in curiosity.
I smiled at her. "I'll teach you later. My name is Yuno, by the way. Yuno Fuji- I'm half-Japanese, hence why my name might be a little weird for you."
"That's so cool!" Her eyes lit up. "What's it like in Japan? Do they have gods over there too? Do you-?"
"Questions for later," I gently poked her forehead. "We'll take you to meet the camp Director first, then you can ask your questions."
She rubbed her forehead with a pout. "Hey, don't treat me like a kid," she whined lightly.
I just chuckled and turned my eyes over to Uta and Thalia, who had pulled away from one another. Thalia looked a bit better after getting a hug but clearly, she still needed to let out a lot of emotion.
"Let's go to see Chiron," I told them. "Once we've informed them... Penny, Thalia, both of you should go get some rest. You look like death."
"Feel like it too," Thalia grunted, glaring at the place where the Sun Chariot had been before Apollo flew it away. "I am never flying any stupid flying chariot ever again," she hissed in distaste.
Uta looked at her with concern, but I knew the real reason was because Thalia was terrified of heights... Though she would never be able to admit it.
A Daughter of Zeus, scared of heights? Not only would Thalia be a laughingstock if people found out, but she'd also bring shame to her father- something that she definitely didn't want to go through. She already believed he didn't really care about her; she didn't want to be a disappointment on top of that.
Thalia took the lead as she matched towards the Big House. Penny trailed along behind, and Nicole walked beside her. She excitedly pointed at everything, asking what they were and what their purpose was. Penny, though looking absolutely exhausted, was patient with Nicole and patiently told her about everything.
Uta and I brought up the rear, following behind the group, though my eyes were on Nicole.
In this world, Nico was also a girl instead of a boy- just like Penny... And something told me it wasn't a coincidence.
It was something I'd pushed out of my mind, but I'd also noticed the ratio of boys to girls in camp was very skewed... There were vastly more girls than boys... Hell, the entire Aphrodite Cabin was nothing but girls- there wasn't even a single boy within the cabin.
Was it possible that the Gender Ratios in this world were very skewed? They were already skewed in my own world- it was why Harems were legal- but in this one too...?
"Hm... Interesting...~" Tez grinned slowly. "I mean, come to think of it... Isn't the Chatroom yours?"
I raised an eye slowly. 'What do you mean mine?'
"Just look at the facts. Jack Atlas is a girl. Percy Jackson is a girl. Every other person in the chatroom besides you is a girl... Statistically speaking, there should have been at least one boy. But instead, they are all girls. And even now, when you come to this world, the gender ratios are heavily skewed in the favour of girls, with even the so-called 'protagonist' being a girl."
Tez's words gave me pause... Because they made sense.
The Chatroom had come to me first, it was my system. Responding to my inner desires and adding girls from worlds with skewed Gender Ratios... It would be a small price to pay, wouldn't it? Making it more likely for me to be able to make them mine without risking 'losing' them to anything like another guy coming along.
Still...
'In the end, it doesn't matter. Whether the Chatroom is skewing things in my favour or not- it provides massive benefits either way. Though it does provide an explanation, at the very least...'
We stopped at the Big House, heading inside where Chiron was waiting, reading a book while Mr D was reading a Wine Magazine.
Chiron set his book down and looked over. "Ah, Penny, Thalia," he looked relieved. "By our new guest, I can see the mission went well... But..." He looked over us. "Where is Annabeth?"
"She was..." Penny swallowed the lump in her throat, seemingly not willing to say it- as if saying it would make it real for her.
Chiron slumped, his eyes visibly dimming. "Not another one..."
"Another one?"
The Centaur just shook his head. "It's... With the Titan Lord being active, things are happening. Demigods, monsters, spirits- they're all disappearing... Annabeth is now just the latest victim in a long line of disappearances- and we have no idea where their base is to even think about saving them... And, even if we did... Well..." He cast Penny a look. "Lord Zeus declared the matter closed a year and a half ago, as you're aware. Any talk of it would be strongly rejected."
"Is there nothing we can do?" Thalia asked desperately.
Chiron opened his mouth to answer before the doors burst open as Grover entered.
"The Hunters are all moved in," Grover said happily, a dreamy look still on his face.
"The Hunters?" Chiron frowned. "Oh dear... That's not good..."
Nicole, luckily, hadn't seemed to notice the heavy atmosphere and was still excitedly looking around at everything like she wanted to ask questions.
"Uta, could you take Nicole to see the orientation film?" I suggested. "I think she needs it."
"That's a good idea," Uta nodded quickly, knowing it was for the best that Nicole didn't hear what was about to be talked about.
"There's a film?" Nicole's eyes lit up. "That's so cool! But what's its age rating? Cause Bianca's kind of strict-"
"It's PG-13," Grover said helpfully.
"Cool!" Nicole cheered as Uta led her out of the room.
From there, Thalia and Penny took charge and explained everything that happened to Chiron. About how they encountered a certain monster- the Manticore, though they never used its name thanks to paranoia- then explained about how they tried to blend in when Penny noticed the sisters were missing. She followed them and was ambushed and taken away. The others arrived and they tried to fight, but they weren't doing too well before the Hunters arrived. Dr Thorn- the Manticore- got spooked and went to grab the Demigods and flee, but Annabeth ended up pulling him away from them and he leapt off the cliff with her.
"Not dead," Penny made it clear, her voice strained like she was trying to convince herself of that as well. "Art- Er, Lady Artemis helped me clear my head after I sort of lost it when she went over. That I couldn't sense them in the water below the cliff, that they must have vanished using some sort of spell instead."
"There must be some way to save her," Thalia said. "A quest or-"
"Most certainly not," Mr D snorted. "Oh yes, very tragic, Annabelle is gone. But if we sent a quest after every missing Demigod, then there'd be no end to them. And I do enough paperwork for this wretched camp, thank you very much."
I saw Penny's hands curls into fists, and I grabbed her wrist immediately. "Don't," I told her firmly.
She whirled on me, her sea green eyes flaring. I could practically hear the waves churning on the beach, despite the fact they should be far away.
"This won't bring her back," I told her. "Getting angry won't bring Annabeth back. Calm yourself. Channel your anger into your training."
I turned my eyes to Thalia. "You've all mentioned this 'Luke' before. Do you truly believe he'll let Annabeth come to permanent harm while under his purview?"
Thalia bit her lip... Part of her clearly wanted to say yes, after all he had changed and rebelled against the Gods. But...
"No," she shook her head. "Use her for some twisted plan? Yes... But I can't believe he'd kill her or let her be killed."
I turned my eyes to Penny. "And you? Do you believe Luke would kill her or let her come to permanent harm under his purview?"
Looking at Penny, she clearly wanted to scream 'Yes' as loudly as she could. She clearly wanted to do something, anything, to try and force a quest so she could try and find Annabeth.
But ultimately, she shook her head. With how close Luke and Annabeth had been, she just couldn't accept that he'd let something truly bad happen to her.
"Then, for now, accept that there's nothing we can do," I told her. "Instead, train. Get stronger. At some point, the God King won't be able to ignore the signs of the Titans' rise. At that point, Quests will no doubt be issued in order to try and ensure their ultimate victory. One quest may just lead to saving Annabeth."
I noticed Chiron relax a little. Clearly, he had been worried Penny was going to snap at Mr D and that he was going to have to step in to stop things from escalating too far.
"Well," the Centaur said, turning his gaze towards Thalia, who looked exhausted, "For now, I think you all should go to your cabins. Rest and recover, we can talk about the next course of action when we're all a bit more refreshed."
"I'll stay up and show Nicole around Camp," Penny said. "I promised her sister that I'd take care of her, and I'm a woman of my word."
"I'll get some rest," Thalia agreed, letting out a yawn. "I didn't sleep at all back when we set up camp... I'm shattered..."
I raised an eye... That was some of my British slang that Thalia had picked up. I was British in my first life, and I still used some slang terms from that time... Along with occasionally making up a word to fill in what I needed.
Suddenly the doors burst open, and Nicole entered with an excited look on her face, Uta trailing behind her with an exasperated expression.
"You're a Centaur!" Nicole exclaimed as she walked over to Chiron, babbling about some of his Mythomagic Stats.
"I... Pardon?" He blinked, totally flummoxed by her comments on his 'stats' in Mythomagic... The Centaur comment was normal, especially given he was using his Wheelchair at the moment.
"And you!" Nicole looked at Mr D. "You're the Wine Dude! Your powers are so sick!"
"The... Wine Dude...?" Mr D looked as though he were having a brain aneurysm.
A grin slowly crawled onto my face...
This made the entire day totally worth it~