Several Anime Girls Appeared in my World

Chapter 59: The Unseen Bridge

The interior of the "Little Express" was a crucible of forced proximity and unspoken tensions.

Himeko, ever the scientist, had her datapad out, attempting to sketch a preliminary threat assessment based on the fragmented information Erza and Hancock had provided. Coffee cups, mostly empty, sat on the small utility table, remnants of a fragile attempt at normalcy.

"So, this 'Conqueror of Worlds'," Himeko began, her voice a calm anchor in the simmering atmosphere, "aside from his penchant for forced gladiatorial recruitment and planetary destruction, did the… informant… mention any specific vulnerabilities? Any patterns to his appearances?"

Erza Scarlet, who had been staring intently at a schematic of the probe's engine system on a nearby monitor, turned.

"He mentioned arrogance," she stated, her voice crisp. "A belief in his own invincibility. He also implied the Conqueror utilizes agents, perhaps even some of the displaced individuals themselves, to destabilize worlds before his main arrival."

Boa Hancock, who was attempting to buff her nails with a small, embroidered cloth she'd produced, scoffed without looking up.

"Arrogance is a common failing. It hardly narrows the field. As for using agents, it's a typically cowardly tactic, befitting a villain who fears direct confrontation with true power." She flicked an imaginary speck of dust from her trousers.

"If this Conqueror had any true understanding of beauty and strength, he would simply prostrate himself before me and beg for mercy."

"And I suppose your 'beauty' would stop an interdimensional warlord?" Erza retorted, her eyebrow arching. "Somehow, I doubt his armies are susceptible to being turned to stone by a pout and a well-timed hair flip."

Hancock's head snapped up, her eyes blazing with imperial fury. "My beauty has brought nations to their knees, pirate! It is a power you, in your clanking, utilitarian scrap metal, could never comprehend! And it is certainly more effective than swinging a sword with all the finesse of a drunken dockworker!"

"Finesse?" Erza pushed herself to her feet, her hands clenching. "My 'finesse' has protected my comrades and upheld justice! While your 'power' seems primarily concerned with self-admiration and enslaving the weak-willed!"

"Weak-willed?" Hancock rose gracefully, her voice dropping to a dangerous, silken whisper. "They are simply overwhelmed by perfection, a state you will never achieve! You reek of sweat and common desperation!"

Joey, who had been trying to make himself as small as possible on the bench beside Lyra, winced. Lyra clutched his arm, her wide eyes darting between the two furious women. Mirajane sighed, placing a gentle hand on Erza's arm.

"Erza, please. And you, Miss Hancock…" (she still didn't know their full titles, but used the name dropped in the previous argument) "...this isn't helping us understand the threat."

"The immediate threat is the grating presence of this unrefined Amazon!" Hancock declared, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at Erza.

"And the intolerable vanity of this preening peacock!" Erza shot back.

It was during this heated exchange that Himeko posed another question, her gaze steady.

"The informant, the man from the future… he seemed to place a great deal of responsibility on the two of you. Did he offer any specific tools? Any knowledge unique to him that might aid in this fight, or in finding allies among the other displaced individuals like Pip or Zylar?"

Erza and Hancock froze mid-glare. The gray stone. The note. The shared, agonizing flood of understanding. The mental bridge that now existed between them, a secret they had both, without spoken agreement, decided to keep veiled.

Erza was the first to recover, her expression guarded. "He offered… advice. And a warning about revealing his true nature to… certain individuals." A half-truth.

Hancock turned away, a dismissive wave of her hand. "His ramblings were largely incoherent. The pronouncements of a desperate, broken creature. Hardly reliable." Another deflection, masking the raw impact of his final words and the terrible visions he'd shown her.

She's lying even more than I am, Erza thought, a spark of irritation igniting. The woman was impossible. How were they supposed to coordinate against a cosmic threat if she couldn't even be straightforward with potential allies?

This armored brute questions my discretion? Hancock fumed internally, sensing Erza's unspoken condemnation through the strange, unwelcome connection they now shared. As if I would entrust delicate matters to these… provincials, one of whom keeps offering me lukewarm bean-water!

The tension was thick. Himeko, with her keen scientific observation, noticed the subtle, almost imperceptible shift in both women. A shared glance that lasted a fraction too long. A simultaneous tightening of their jaws that seemed to mirror each other. It was… odd.

Mirajane, too, felt it – a discordant ripple in the emotional atmosphere, a sudden, shared secretiveness that went beyond their usual animosity.

"He also said," Erza began, then paused. There was something she needed to clarify with Hancock, something about the "team of champions" Future Joey had mentioned, and his cryptic reference to "people he brought with them." But she couldn't voice it openly, not with Hancock's knee-jerk reactions.

She risked it, a mental nudge, a focused thought directed at the Pirate Empress, picturing Future Joey's face: The 'team' he spoke of – did he mean others from his time, or those already here?

Hancock stiffened almost invisibly. The mental intrusion was as unwelcome as a physical shove. How dare she use that… that cursed connection without my leave! she seethed silently. Yet, the question was pertinent.

She sent back a grudging mental image: Future Joey gesturing vaguely towards the stars, then towards Healdsburg. Ambiguous. Likely both. He was hardly a paragon of clarity.

The exchange took less than a second, a silent, lightning-fast volley of thought and image. But in the quiet, confined space of the Little Express, the effect was not entirely unnoticed.

Joey, hyper-aware and anxious, saw it. Both women had suddenly gone utterly still, their eyes unfocused for a split second, almost as if listening to something he couldn't hear.

Then, Erza's brow furrowed slightly, and Hancock's lip curled in a silent sneer, a micro-expression of disdain that seemed to be a direct response to something. He'd seen people react like that when they were on phone calls using those tiny, invisible earpieces. But there were no earpieces.

Lyra, whose senses were perhaps more attuned to unusual energies than human norms, tilted her head, a confused frown appearing on her delicate features. She looked at Joey, then back at Erza and Hancock, a small, questioning sound escaping her lips.

Himeko's datapad, which had been passively monitoring ambient energy levels, emitted a soft, almost inquisitive chirp. A tiny, anomalous spike in bio-neural energy, localized around Erza and then, a millisecond later, around Hancock. Too small to be an attack, too synchronized to be coincidental. Her eyes narrowed.

Mirajane, ever perceptive to the emotional undercurrents, felt a sudden, jarring disconnect from the two women, as if they had momentarily retreated into a private world, their earlier, overt hostility replaced by a shared, hidden intensity.

"Is… everything alright?" Mirajane asked, her gentle voice cutting through the sudden, strange silence. "You both seem… distracted."

Erza blinked, her composure returning, though a faint flush stained her cheeks. "Just… considering the implications of his words."

Hancock waved a dismissive hand. "His pronouncements were taxing. One requires a moment to process such… concentrated foolishness."

But the moment had passed. The shift had been noted.

Himeko set her datapad down, her gaze direct and unblinking.

"Erza. Miss Hancock. A moment ago, both of you exhibited a synchronized neurological energy pattern. Brief, but distinct. My sensors also picked up a faint, localized subspace distortion between you, almost like a… a non-verbal, directed communication." She paused, letting her words sink in. "Is there something you're not telling us? Another gift from your informant, perhaps?"

All eyes in the probe fixed on Erza and Hancock. Joey leaned forward, forgetting his fear for a moment, his curiosity piqued. Lyra watched, her head still tilted. Mirajane's expression was one of gentle concern, but with an uncharacteristic sharpness in her eyes.

Caught. Red-handed.

Erza Scarlet, the disciplined Titania, felt a rare wave of discomposure. She was not accustomed to being scrutinized like a specimen, nor was she adept at subterfuge outside the battlefield. Her instinct was to deny, to deflect, but Himeko's calm, scientific certainty was hard to dismiss.

Boa Hancock's reaction was, predictably, more imperious. "Nonsense!" she declared, her voice sharp with indignation, though her eyes darted momentarily to Erza. "Your primitive contraption is clearly malfunctioning. To suggest that I would willingly engage in any form of… 'directed communication'… with her," she gestured contemptuously towards Erza, "is an insult of the highest order!"

"My instruments are quite precise, Miss Hancock," Himeko replied evenly, her gaze unwavering. "And the observation was corroborated by a distinct behavioral shift. A shared, silent exchange."

"Perhaps you were merely witnessing the natural disdain two superior beings feel when forced to contemplate the sheer density of their surroundings," Hancock attempted, her chin high.

"Or perhaps," Erza interjected, her voice tight with annoyance at Hancock's flagrant, unconvincing denial, "there are aspects of our… recent experience… that are difficult to articulate. And not entirely for public consumption."

She was buying time, trying to gauge the best way out of this. Revealing the stone, the mental link – it felt like surrendering a vital, if unwanted, piece of themselves, given to them in an act of utter desperation by a dying man.

"Difficult to articulate?" Mirajane's soft voice held a new note of gentle disappointment. "Or difficult to share? We are trying to help. To understand. Secrets between those who must face a common enemy… they can be more dangerous than the enemy itself."

The weight of Mirajane's quiet wisdom settled heavily in the small cabin. Erza looked at Hancock, a flicker of their earlier, unwilling understanding passing between them, clearer this time for all to see. They were trapped, not by an enemy, but by a truth they had tried to conceal, and by the perceptive eyes of those who simply wanted to help. The unseen bridge between them had just become very, very visible.

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