Several Anime Girls Appeared in my World

Chapter 62: The Shattered Silence

The hum of the Little Express's advanced life support system, usually a comforting background thrum, seemed to magnify the sudden, crushing silence.

Erza Scarlet and Boa Hancock sprang apart as if scalded, their foreheads, which had been pressed together in an act of intensely private, almost intimate communion, now burning with the cold fire of exposure.

Hancock, her imperial composure shattered, whirled around, her eyes, like chips of obsidian, blazing with a fury that made her previous outbursts seem like petulant displays.

"How dare you?!" she hissed, her voice a low, venomous lash directed not at Erza, but at Himeko and Mirajane who stood frozen at the probe's ramp.

"Spying? Lurking in doorways? Is this the level of barbarity I am to expect in this… this backwater dimension?"

Erza, her face flushed a deep crimson that clashed with her scarlet hair, clenched her fists, her mind racing. Caught. Utterly and undeniably caught.

The excuse of "shared traumatic resonance" they'd concocted earlier now felt pathetically flimsy against the stark reality of what Himeko and Mirajane had just witnessed. Her disciplined mind, usually so quick to strategize, felt mired in a humiliating quicksand of exposure.

Himeko Murata, her initial surprise giving way to a focused, analytical intensity, stepped further into the cabin. Her gaze, calm yet unyielding, was fixed on the two women.

"Spying is a rather accusatory term, Miss Hancock," she stated, her voice maintaining its thoughtful elegance, though an edge of steel had crept in. "We returned to our own vessel. What we witnessed was… unexpected. And, given your previous evasiveness, highly suspect."

Mirajane followed, her gentle features etched with a profound disappointment that was almost more damning than Himeko's scientific scrutiny.

"Erza… Miss Hancock," she began, her voice soft but laden with sorrow. "We offered you sanctuary, trust. We asked for honesty. What was that? What is this secret you are so determined to keep from us?"

Joey, from his bench, had recoiled as if struck, his notepad falling to the floor with a soft thud. Lyra, beside him, let out a small, frightened whimper and buried her face in his arm. The sheer intensity emanating from Erza and Hancock, now amplified by their shock and anger at being discovered, was terrifying.

"It is nothing that concerns you," Hancock spat, drawing herself up to her full, regal height, attempting to regain control through sheer arrogance.

"My methods of communication, however unorthodox they may appear to your limited understanding, are my own affair. And certainly not for the perusal of commoners or… intergalactic busybodies!"

"Commoners?" Erza whirled on Hancock, her own embarrassment momentarily forgotten in a fresh surge of indignation.

"These women have offered us aid, shelter! While you've done nothing but complain and preen! If anyone here lacks decorum, it's your imperial self-importance!"

"My self-importance is warranted by my station and my undeniable perfection!" Hancock retorted, her voice rising.

"Unlike some who hide behind layers of unsightly metal and bark orders like a drill sergeant with a particularly painful boil!"

"My armor is for protection! For battle! Not for parading around like a… a gilded statue!" Erza shot back, her hand instinctively reaching for a sword that wasn't there.

"A statue many would gladly worship!" Hancock declared. "Which is more than can be said for your… functional eyesores!"

"Stop it! Both of you!" Himeko's voice, rarely raised, now cut through their tirade with the sharpness of a laser.

"This infantile bickering is precisely why your secrecy is so concerning. If you cannot even engage with each other without resorting to insults, how can you possibly be coordinating effectively against a common, cosmic-level threat? That is, if you are coordinating."

She took another step closer, her datapad held loosely in one hand, though her primary focus was on their faces, her eyes missing nothing.

"That was not a 'shared traumatic resonance.' That was a deliberate, controlled act. The energy signature, while minute, was indicative of focused psionic or bio-etheric transfer. A mental link. You have a way of communicating directly, mind-to-mind, do you not?"

Erza's jaw tightened. Himeko's deduction was unnervingly accurate. She looked at Hancock, a silent, furious question in her eyes: What now?

Hancock met her gaze, an equally frustrated and trapped expression flitting across her features before being masked by her usual hauteur. Deny it, you fool! the unspoken thought seemed to hang in the air between them, transmitted perhaps through the lingering dregs of their unwilling connection.

"Your imagination is as vivid as your choice in… transport, Navigator," Hancock said coolly, attempting a dismissive wave of her hand, though it trembled slightly.

"We were merely… intensely disagreeing. Perhaps the sheer force of our personalities created some sort of… static your delicate instruments misinterpreted."

"Static that required forehead contact?" Himeko's eyebrow arched with polite skepticism. "A novel approach to dispute resolution. I must make a note of it for future diplomatic missions." Her sarcasm was subtle but biting.

Mirajane stepped forward again, her expression pleading.

"Erza," she said, her voice gentle but firm, addressing her guildmate directly.

"You know me. You know I would not ask this if it weren't important. What is going on? That man, the informant… what did he truly give you? Why this secrecy, even from those who wish to stand with you?"

Erza looked at Mirajane, at the genuine hurt and concern in her friend's eyes. The weight of Future Joey's warning pressed down on her.

"You cannot know who to trust." But looking at Mirajane, at Himeko's steady, intelligent gaze, at Joey's terrified but honest face… was this paranoia, or necessary caution? The line felt increasingly blurred.

The future Joey had also said: "The people I brought with you to my time can talk to you about it, and you can discuss your plans." He hadn't specified who among them he had "brought." Had he only meant her and Hancock? Or was it a broader implication?

"It is… a complicated matter, Mira," Erza began, her voice strained.

"The informant… he gave us knowledge, yes. And a means to… ensure we understood each other, given our… initial antipathy." She chose her words with excruciating care, avoiding the direct lie but skirting the full truth.

"It is a method that requires… concentration. And privacy. We were attempting to clarify certain aspects of his warning, aspects too sensitive to discuss openly without full comprehension between ourselves first."

"Sensitive how?" Himeko pressed, her analytical mind seizing on the admission.

"What information could be so dangerous that it cannot be shared with those who are offering you unconditional support and resources?"

"The informant warned of… infiltration," Hancock interjected smoothly, seizing the thread Erza had offered.

"That this 'Conqueror' has agents, eyes and ears, perhaps even among those who appear… innocuous." Her gaze flickered pointedly, almost imperceptibly, towards Joey and Lyra, then just as quickly towards Himeko and Mirajane, a subtle, poisonous dart of insinuation.

Mirajane recoiled as if struck, a genuine look of pain crossing her features. "You believe… one of us… could be an agent of this Conqueror?"

"One can never be too careful when dealing with matters of such magnitude, my dear," Hancock replied, her voice syrupy sweet. "Beauty and innocence can often mask the most treacherous of hearts."

"That's outrageous!" Erza snapped, her loyalty to Mirajane, and even her burgeoning, grudging respect for Himeko's competence, overriding her caution.

"Mirajane would never— Himeko has offered us nothing but aid!" To imply such a thing about her guildmate was intolerable.

"And yet," Hancock purred, "you were being equally secretive, were you not, Titania? So quick to jump to their defense now, but unwilling to share the full burden of knowledge with them moments ago." She smiled, a cold, knowing smile. "Secrets breed suspicion, do they not?"

Erza felt trapped. Hancock, with her manipulative words, was twisting the situation, using their shared secret to sow discord while simultaneously protecting it. It was infuriatingly clever.

"The method of communication," Himeko said, her voice cutting through the renewed tension, her focus returning to the core issue. "The forehead contact. What is it? A device? An inherent ability you both discovered you share?"

Now what? Erza thought, glancing at Hancock. They hadn't discussed this part of the cover story.

It was Hancock who, surprisingly, offered a partial, if still misleading, explanation.

"The informant… the dying fool… he possessed a strange artifact. A… stone." She spoke the word with distaste.

"He claimed it could facilitate understanding between… incompatible minds. He pressed it to our foreheads before he… vanished. The effect, it seems, is temporary, and requires renewed… contact… to re-establish the… regrettable link."

It was a masterful blend of truth and fabrication. There was a stone. He had pressed it to their foreheads (implicitly, when giving it to them in the vision of his future, or when they first used it). The rest was a carefully constructed lie to explain the forehead touching they'd just been caught in, implying it was a re-activation.

Himeko processed this. "A psycho-reactive artifact? Capable of creating a temporary telepathic bridge? Fascinating. And this stone, where is it now?"

Erza, seeing the opening Hancock had created, quickly followed. "He… took it with him when he vanished. Or it dissipated with him. We are unsure. We were merely attempting to see if any… residual effect… could be accessed."

"By touching foreheads," Himeko repeated, her expression still skeptical. "A rather specific and… intimate method for accessing a 'residual effect' from a vanished artifact."

"Desperate times, Navigator," Hancock said with a dismissive shrug. "One tries whatever crude methods present themselves when faced with existential threats and… uncooperative partners." She shot another pointed look at Erza.

Joey, who had been listening with wide, terrified eyes, finally spoke, his voice small and trembling. "S-so… you can… read each other's minds?" The idea was both fascinating and horrifying to him.

"Not 'read minds,' boy," Hancock corrected sharply. "It was more like… an unpleasant jumble of emotions and… and clashing colors. Utterly disorienting. And hardly desirable."

"A way to share direct understanding, perhaps?" Mirajane mused, her earlier hurt giving way to a thoughtful concern. "If you were both shown or told the same critical information, ensuring you both interpreted it identically, without the filter of words, could be… advantageous." She was trying to find a logical, even positive reason for their secrecy.

"Precisely," Erza seized on Mirajane's more generous interpretation. "Given the… gravity of the informant's message, absolute clarity between us, however… uncomfortable the method, was deemed necessary before we conveyed potentially flawed interpretations to the wider group."

It was a plausible enough collection of half-truths and deflections to momentarily satisfy, or at least to stall, further direct interrogation. Himeko made several more notes on her datapad, her expression thoughtful but no longer openly accusatory. Mirajane's brow remained furrowed with concern, but the sharpness in her eyes had softened a fraction.

"If such a stone existed," Himeko said finally, "its technology, or magic, is beyond our current understanding. And if its effects are indeed temporary or residual, relying on such a method for critical communication seems… unreliable."

"Agreed," Erza said quickly. "It was… an experiment. Clearly, not entirely successful, and certainly not discreet."

"Quite," Hancock drawled, already looking bored with the interrogation. "Now, if this tedious inquest is over, I would very much like to retire. This planet's primitive atmosphere is doing dreadful things to my complexion."

The immediate crisis of discovery had been navigated, however clumsily. But the seeds of distrust had been sown, or perhaps, merely watered. Himeko and Mirajane now knew that Erza and Hancock shared something – a method of communication, a secret understanding – that they were not privy to.

The nature and extent of it remained veiled, hidden behind a wall of pride, expediency, and perhaps, genuine fear of Future Joey's warnings.

The fragile alliance within the Little Express had just developed its first significant fracture. And as the probe hurtled silently through the night, carrying its disparate passengers towards an unknown destiny, the unseen bridge between an Empress and a Titania, built of shared trauma and a desperate hope, remained a secret known only to them, a silent testament to the strange and terrible wonders of a universe tearing at its seams.

________________________________________

If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on Patreon. with 40 advanced chapters available on Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/c/JoeyLean