Bronya Zaychik (Russian: Броня Зайчик; full name: Bronya Alexeievna Zaychik) was a Russian orphan who was raised as a child soldier. She was sent to St. Freya High School in order to spy on Schicksal. During the events she befriended Kiana Kaslana and Raiden Mei.
Appearance[]
As the youngest of her classmates, Bronya has a short and slim stature with piercing silver eyes. She keeps her silver-gray hair tied up in signature double pigtails in a drill shape and includes a matching ribbon that coordinates with her battlesuits. Her main weapon is a set of cannons (that function either as typical cannons and lasers) that are wielded by her robotic companion, Project Bunny 19C. Thanks to her robotic legs, Bronya has the ability to both walk and float, though she rarely bothers with the former.
Personality[]
Due to an event in her past, Bronya rarely shows emotion except in the direst of circumstances. However, she does have a fondness for sarcasm, oftentimes referring to Kiana as "Kiana Idiotka" and getting called "Bratnya" in return. She also collects and displays HOMU merchandise, something she has in common with Principal Theresa.
Despite her lone wolf personality, Bronya does work well with the other girls and is shown to protect Mei against Kiana's constant advances. Her cold personality and prowess with Project Bunny allow her to take a more back-line role in battle, where she can use her cool head to deploy support abilities or devastating long-range attacks. Before her injuries that lead to her robotic limbs, Bronya is shown to be skilled at hand-to-hand, improvisational combat, and is a supremely skilled sniper. While she is still the main sniper of the Valkyries, she rarely has a need for physical combat and simply uses Project Bunny to occasionally knock back enemies.
History[]
Bronya Zaychik was born in Siberia, shortly before the second Honkai incident. The Honkai attack in 2000 caused Siberia and surrounding regions to fall into disorder and many children were placed into the Army, where they were trained to become cold-blooded killers. Bronya was one such orphan, and became a skilled sniper earning the moniker, Silver Wolf of the Urals. Bronya was sent to Russia to assassinate a high priority target, Cocolia (sometimes spelled Kakaria). She failed, and was instead captured by her target, who brought her to her own orphanage. There, Cocolia became Bronya's mother. Unbeknownst to Bronya and the other children, the orphanage was part of Anti-Entropy and they were injected with the Honkai virus for Project X-10. The experiment allowed human cells and the Honkai virus to coexist within the human body and was hoped to be a way to ensure humanity's survival. If successful, the test subjects would theoretically be able to control matter on a subatomic or quantum level, but all seven children who had been tested thus far had died as a result.. Bronya was registered as the eighth test subject.
At the orphanage, Bronya befriended Seele Vollerei. The two of them became close friends and shared a room. Two years after being brought to the orphanage, however, Seele was kidnapped by human traffickers hoping to sell her for her special abilities. Bronya stormed the kidnappers' hideout on her own, choking the guard's neck with one of her stockings and then killing the men inside with only a knife for a weapon. Bronya's skill at killing and bloodied appearance frightened Seele, and so Bronya promised never to hurt anyone again.
Years later, in 2013, a classmate named Sin Mal became jealous of Bronya and Seele's friendship, and pushed Bronya down the stairs, injuring her legs. Bronya lied about her injury to Cocolia, saying she fell down the stairs by accident, but her mother saw through Bronya’s lie. Rather than call her out, however, she simply reminded Bronya to say her goodbyes before the start of Project X-10. Afterwards, Seele told Bronya that she had witnessed the assault from Sin Mal. Bronya assured Seele that she would protect her while keeping her promise to never hurt anyone. After the kidnapping incident however, Seele experienced an awakening of another self. This other self convinces her to take revenge against Sin Mal on Bronya's behalf, and mentally tortured Sin Mal. Seele returned to her senses and discovered the page Sin Mal was holding, which revealed that Bronya was set to participate in Project X-10. Seele confronted Cocolia, revealing that she has a stigma mark on her chest, and asked to take Bronya's place in the experiment, fearing her friend's death.
The next day, Bronya awakened to find Seele and Cocolia missing. While she searched for the two, Seele proceeded with the experiment. Although the tests were briefly successful, Seele's body began to break down on a molecular level. Her other self, an alter ego born from her stigma, appeared to inform her that the power was too much for her to handle, but that she could visit Bronya one last time. Seele took off towards the orphanage, pursued by Anti-Entropy's mechs, but just before reaching Bronya her body fully disintegrated and she disappeared. Bronya found Seele’s hairpin that had been left behind and cries. Cocolia informs Bronya that Seele attempted the X-10 Experiment, but it resulted in failure and Seele is now trapped in a quantum state.
Bronya forced Cocolia to allow her to take part in the experiment as well, threatening to commit suicide should she refuse. Cocolia reluctantly agreed, but warned Bronya that she would only attempt it for five minutes, or else Bronya's injured legs will become infected by Honkai energy and be destroyed, likely killing her in the process. Bronya, however, had already decided that if she was able to join Seele, she would rather stay in the quantum state with her rather than return. The experiment began and Bronya was able to meet Seele, who convinced a reluctant Bronya to go back. Bronya promised that she would search for a way to save Seele. As the Honkai infection grew within Bronya, Seele gifted her the power of "Rebuild" and kissed her, sending her back to the real world. When she awoke, a giant robotic guardian had appeared, later named Project Bunny 19C. However, Bronya lost many things from the results of the experiment, including the use of her legs and ability to feel emotions. Bronya was later fitted with an exoskeleton to allow her to move, and driven by her promise to Seele, Bronya — with Cocolia’s aid — tried many methods to save her friend. None were successful.
Finally, they pinned their hopes on the power of a Herrscher to bring Seele back. This Herrscher — the Herrscher of Thunder, living inside Raiden Mei — would be their last hope. Cocolia sent Bronya to Nagazora city to retrieve the awakened Mei, but instead, Kiana Kaslana interfered, helping to seal away the Herrscher within Mei. Bronya snuck aboard Murata Himeko's battleship after the battle and later became a student at St. Freya Academy with her new friends, Mei and Kiana.
Story[]
Becoming a Valkyrie[]
Cocolia had secretly adopted orphans and took them into her orphanage. She chose specific orphans that are capable of withstanding Honkai energy in order to advance the Project X-10 experiment. Bronya was one of the initial test subjects, but Seele took her place after showing Cocolia her stigma's power. The experiment ended in failure, as while the desired results were obtained, Seele dissolved into a quantum state and could only be communicated with on that plane.
Shortly after, Bronya learnt everything from Cocolia, and demanded access to the X-10 Experiment by threatening to commit suicide if she was denied. Cocolia informed her because of her wounded leg, she could not stay longer than 5 minutes inside the quantum state. In reality, Bronya had no intentions of returning, as she was determined to be with Seele at all costs. Seele was surprised to see Bronya and knew that she had taken part in the experiment and begged her to leave, though Bronya refused to do so.
The allotted time had passed, and Anti-Entropy's researchers attempted to extract her from the quantum plane, but she resisted all of their attempts. The Honkai energy began to damage her brain and legs. Seele confessed her feelings to Bronya, and the two made a promise that Bronya would find a way to bring Seele back to the real world. Seele also gave Bronya what she discovered inside a box, the power of "Rebuild", which was Remodelled Bunny 19C. She then surprised her with a kiss, before letting her know that she would have to return the favor the next time they met. As a result of staying in the quantum plane longer than intended, Bronya lost the ability to feel a wide range of emotions, required advanced leg prosthetics in order to move and had a biochip inserted in her brain to maintain survival.
Her last hope was to have Seele manifest using the Herrscher of Thunder. The girl was revealed to be Raiden Mei, whose father, Ryoma, had sealed the Herrscher within. Cocolia tasked Bronya with bringing an awakened Mei to her, but was unexpectedly stopped by Kiana Kaslana, a fellow Valkyrie and student.
Chapter I[]
Bronya is sent alongside Mei and Kiana to hijack the seemingly abandoned Selene that was heading for Sapphire and saving it from being crashed into. Her hacking abilities prove themselves to be useful in traversing the ship's interior faster and gaining access to the ship's main control panel. During their investigation, however, Bronya’s brain chip causes her to lose control and attack her teammates. While she has no memories of the incident after she wakes up, she understands the situation immediately and vows to not slow down anyone anymore. She returns to her school where she undergoes medical exams as per her own request.
Chapter II[]
Bronya hacks into databases of hospital she was staying at to update her physio readings and approve her own discharge. She then stays at a library where she's found by a worried Kiana who was supposed to discharge her. Kiana initiates a HOMU game duel which is interrupted before it can end by Mei who's been looking for Kiana, thinking she's been slacking off. Kiana gets dragged away and Bronya continues to spend time on her own.
On the day of the yearly Valkyrie exams, Bronya's paired against Kiana in one of the combat trials and loses, admitting that maybe she didn't fully recover yet. Later that day, when a training device Kiana was using goes out of control and spawns simulated Ganesha, Bronya joins her friend in battle against the monster sim together with Mei.
Chapter III[]
Upon arriving at the New Zealand branch, they found a single girl in a wheelchair, who introduced herself as Wendy and revealed that she has the gem they were looking for sealed away in her leg, which crippled her. Bronya felt sympathetic for Wendy as she was disabled like her and offered her a ride to show her how it feels to fly. The gem later caused her to transform into a Herrscher. Bronya tried to persuade her to stand down, which she eventually did. However, Bronya suddenly had her mind hacked into and controlled by Cocolia, causing her to transform into the Black Nucleus form and attacked Wendy, who now believed Bronya had lied to her and retaliated against the other girls. Wendy was weakened during the battle, and Anti-Entropy mechas later arrived. Her adoptive mother, Cocolia, came to retrieve the Herrscher Core and departed with her, Wendy and Mei to their headquarters, but left Kiana behind as Schicksal forces arrived and Anti-Entropy no longer had time, leaving Kiana to rescue them all.
The Anti-Entropy Incident[]
Bronya would eventually help Kiana, Theresa enter the Anti-Entropy headquarters despite the obvious trap Theresa suspected. When they approached Mei, Cocolia tried to have Bronya battle Kiana, but she refused, revealing to her that because of the kindness Mei had showed her, she removed her biochip even though it has the great risk of dying. After defeating the mecha MSR-7 "Godfather", both Bronya and Wendy were immediately rushed into intensive care. Wendy did not survive but the efforts of Schicksal's medical team ensured that Bronya survived, albeit in a comatose state.
Recovering her Memory[]
While in her comatose state, Fu Hua used her powers to enter Bronya's mind. Since she had forgotten everything about herself, Fu Hua told Idol that she was the Sage and helped her break out of prison. She was referred to as the Idol. During the escape, she also encountered a HOMU and freed it from the prison and attended a competition to see which HOMU could control the Golem (Remodelled Bunny 19C). When the Idol approached the Golem, it woke and expended its powers before testing her, which she passed. The Idol would later assist the HOMUs in fighting the witches.
Upon encountering the Ice Witch (Snowy Sniper) was defeated and threatened to kill a HOMEI, though HOMU distracted her enough for the Idol to kill the Ice Witch. The Ice Witch represented Bronya's loneliness, which the Idol absorbed. They then moved on to the Aegis Witch (Yamabuki Armor), a paranoid witch who relied on a shield. Upon defeating her, the Idol stated that the shield was full of discontent before killing her, taking those traits in. The last witch, the Dark Witch (Black Nucleus) attacked the HOMU kingdom but was defeated by the Idol. The Sage revealed that the Idol had the power of playback, but she did not give up and continued on her mission. Upon battling and defeating the final witch, the Dark Witch cursed Bronya to be used as a weapon, which Bronya had finally accepted and took in the last remaining remnants of her personality. She also recognized the Sage as the Monitor and chastised her for invading her mind, even though the Monitor stated that she would forget all of the recent events when she woke up.
Trivia[]
- Her name and surname are both Russian words which together mean Armor Bunny.
- It is quite possible that "Bronya" is a form of the name Bronislava.
- Bronya rarely shows empathy or acts coordinately with others. However, she adores HOMUs and Seele, and symphatizes with Wendy. When she became the Herrscher of Reason, the Core of Reason repaired her legs and brain, allowing her to feel the emotions she had lost.
- She has a grown-up personality, and has a very logical way of thinking. On the other hand, she cannot understand concepts based on intuition, which is what Kiana often does.
- Generally she will use a polite pattern of speech towards everyone, but towards the ones she think are idiots (in this case, Kiana and the Captain), she would use a cynical and straight-to-your-face manner.
- She is an top-gamer with a MMORPG game account at rank 98 of 100 named "Metal Gear Bronya" (changed to Alloy_Bron), even having a stash of games that she doesn't share with anyone except worthy opponents and worthwhile friends.
- When fighting, she will always fight with Remodelled Bunny 19C.
- Bronya is known to have over 1 million gold in stock, have superior stock trading skill and bought the miHoYo company from Liu Wei, as stated in the Summer Memories plotline.
- Cocolia actually knew Bronya's father, named Alexei Zaychik, during the 2nd Honkai Eruption. He was killed and his wife, Bronya's mother, Alexandria, died giving birth.
Other Languages[]
| Language | Official Name |
|---|---|
| English | Bronya Zaychik |
| Chinese (Simplified) |
布洛妮娅·扎伊切克 Bùluònīyà - Zháyīqièkè |
| Chinese (Traditional) |
布洛妮婭·札伊切克 |
| Japanese | ブローニャ・ザイチク Burōnya - Zaichiku |
| Korean | 브로냐·자이칙 Beuronya - Jaichik |
| French | Bronya Zaychik |
| Thai | Bronya Zaychik |
| Vietnamese | Bronya Zaychik |
| German | Bronya Zaychik |
| Indonesian | Bronya Zaychik |
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