Honkai Impact: My Power Grows When Valkyries Fall For Me — Chapter 20

Chapter 20: So Long as Seele Can Be Saved, Bronya Will Do Anything

Bronya practically scrambled off Lucian, a rare, faint blush dusting her cheeks. She hastily straightened the hem of her dress, desperately trying to compose herself and restore her usual expressionless demeanor.

“The Bronya was only carrying out the mission… This person is the target,” she attempted to explain, her voice laced with an uncharacteristic hint of awkwardness.

Seele’s gaze drifted from Bronya to Lucian and back again. A flicker of insight dawned in her eyes, and her lips curved into a soft, knowing smile.

“Mm… Seele understands.”

She nodded gently, her tone as tender as a spring breeze. “But right now, all of us in this space are consciousness bodies. We cannot harm one another.”

“Consciousness bodies?”

Bronya tilted her head, a flash of confusion in her gaze. The term wasn’t entirely foreign; in Anti-Entropy’s research, particularly concerning Brain-Computer Interfaces and Virtual Reality, she had often encountered similar concepts. But hearing it from Seele’s lips, used to describe their current state, imbued the phrase with a strange, almost mystical weight.

“Yes, Bronya-oneesama.”

Seele responded softly, seeming slightly surprised herself that she could articulate the idea so clearly. She looked down at her own hands, which were translucent, her fingertips almost dissolving into the pure white halo of light that surrounded them.

“Our physical bodies didn’t actually come here. What came… is ‘we’ ourselves.”

“It’s our thoughts, our memories… the core parts that make me, ‘me’,” she murmured, struggling to organize her words and convey the subtle, ethereal sensation. “It’s like… being in a very, very lucid dream.”

“The ‘me’ in the dream can walk, talk, and feel everything, but the body on the bed is still sound asleep.”

Bronya nodded slowly, glancing down at her own legs, which had regained their feeling. It seemed her own situation could be explained in the same way…

After listening for a moment, Lucian sat up, rubbing a throat that still felt raw and aching. He looked at Seele. “Miss Seele, you seem to know quite a lot about this place…?”

“Seele… doesn’t know.”

Seele bowed her head slightly. She had no idea how she possessed this information; the words had simply tumbled out, a subconscious stream of knowledge. The voice of ‘The Other Me’ that usually echoed in her mind was also completely silent. It seemed only she had been brought to this space…

“I just… said it without thinking.”

Seele blinked, her slender fingers unconsciously twisting together in a gesture of charming confusion.

“Seele was originally just drifting in the sea, but in the next second, I appeared here.”

“In the sea…”

Bronya’s brow furrowed. She looked at Seele’s translucent form and asked, her voice tight with concern, “What… what did it feel like there? Seele, have you been… alright?”

Seele tilted her head, appearing to give the question serious thought.

“The sea is very quiet, and very… empty. Seele spends most of the time sleeping, or just watching those… flowing lights and shadows.”

“Sometimes, I can feel fluctuations from the outside world, but they’re very blurry, like I’m separated from them by a thick wall of water.”

Seele’s description was delivered with a placid calm, but each word struck Bronya’s heart like a shard of ice. She couldn’t begin to imagine how long Seele had endured such deep solitude in that lonely place.

“Seele is fine,” Seele said with a small smile, turning her attention back to Bronya, her own voice now filled with concern. “What about you, Onee-sama? During this time… you haven’t been hurt, have you?”

Bronya shook her head. She took a step forward and reached out, her hand trembling slightly as she tried to touch Seele’s cheek.

Her fingertips passed straight through, stirring nothing but a ripple of faint light.

“Bronya-oneesama.”

Seele called out softly. She reached up, her own ethereal hand closing around Bronya’s, which still hovered in the air.

Bronya’s pupils contracted. A flicker of shock, nearly imperceptible, crossed her habitually stoic face. She could feel it—a faint, cool touch.

“This space might not be able to maintain itself for much longer,” Seele’s voice was a light whisper, but her smile was brighter and more genuine than before. “It’s so good… to be able to touch Onee-sama again.”

“The Bronya feels the same way…”

The two girls embraced, a touching reunion in the stark white void. The only one who could witness this bittersweet scene, however, was Lucian.

Forgotten off to the side, he watched them and couldn’t help but shake his head with a wry smile.

‘The Azure Sea ship is real,’ he thought, a term from his past life surfacing unexpectedly. ‘Some things are just canon.’

“Goodbye, Bronya-oneesama.”

Even as she held Bronya, Seele’s body grew increasingly ethereal. She began to dissolve, breaking apart into countless motes of light that dissipated into the pure white space.

“Seele… The Bronya will save you. Very soon…”

Staring at her now-empty arms, Bronya whispered the vow to the empty air.

Seele vanished, her consciousness returning to her body adrift in the Sea of Quanta, leaving only Lucian and Bronya in the rapidly destabilizing mental space.

Bronya remained frozen, her arms still slightly open in the phantom embrace, standing there in a daze until Lucian’s voice gently pulled her back.

“Bronya? Can I call you that?”

“As you wish. Weren’t you already calling the Bronya that before?”

Bronya’s arms slowly fell to her sides. She turned, her expression having returned to its usual emotionless mask.

“The Bronya needs to apologize to you.”

Her tone was flat and devoid of inflection, but her amethyst eyes locked onto Lucian’s, revealing a stark sincerity.

“Apologize?”

Lucian was genuinely surprised. He hadn’t expected this version of Bronya to concede so quickly. He had been bracing himself for another round of debate.

“Yes.”

Bronya nodded and took a step forward, proactively closing the distance between them. The girl stopped just a step away from Lucian, close enough that she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze.

“The Bronya only wants to save Seele.”

“For that sake,” she continued, her voice calm but her words carrying an immense weight, “as long as it is something the Bronya can do, the Bronya is willing to do anything.”

‘If this were some other story,’ Lucian mused, ‘this would be the part where the hero scoffs and says something cynical like, ‘You really can’t think about anything but Seele, can you?’. But he wasn’t that kind of protagonist.

“So,” Lucian said, picking up her cue, “you want me to help you bring Seele back?”

Bronya nodded, her gaze fixed on him, unblinking.

“Yes.”

“But when I proactively suggested it just now, not only did you not agree, you almost strangled me to death, Bronya~” Lucian’s voice carried a hint of helpless exasperation. He deliberately elongated the last syllable, putting on the smug face of a merchant who knew he had the upper hand.

“…”

Bronya stared at his theatrical expression, her own face remaining impassive. She fell silent for a few seconds, then took another step forward, closing the remaining distance between them.

“Please.”

Her voice was a near-inaudible whisper, but it carried clearly to Lucian’s ears.

Those eyes, which were always as still as a frozen lake, were now trying so hard to meet his, attempting to convey a clumsy, desperate plea she didn’t know how to voice.

Looking at her like this, Lucian sighed, his playful facade melting away. He raised his hand and gave Bronya a light, gentle rap on the forehead with his knuckle.

“Bronya, acting cute is ineffective against me.”

“Tsk…”