Baranovskaya, Elizabeta
Summary
Elizabeta Baranovskaya was a Russian ballerina who began training at age four and attended the Moscow State Academy, hailing from Smolensk with a Belarusian mother. Her ambition was to perform at the Bolshoi Theater, a goal shared by her late mother, but a tumor diagnosis led her to Italy for treatment, resulting in the amputation of her leg. Following a failed suicide attempt by jumping from a hospital roof, she was kept in the hospital until the SWA intervened. Her handler, Alessandro Ricci, renamed her Petrushka, a boy’s name chosen by analogy with Rico, and subjected her to physical augmentation. As the prototype for the second-stage generation, she debuted in volume six alongside her primary weapon. Unlike first-stage cyborgs, most of her body was replaced, with features modeled after the doctor’s first love rather than her natural red hair and green eyes, as Alessandro only specified she not be a redhead. At sixteen, she possesses a teenage body, distinguishing her from the younger girls in the program. While second-stage cyborgs typically have their SWA life pre-programmed, an error left Petrushka with no memories, yet she is compelled to follow Alessandro’s and the Agency’s orders without hesitation and is forbidden from speaking ill of her handler. Often called Petra, she favors the Spectre M4 SMG and Taurus PT92 pistol. Although omitted from the anime, she makes a cameo in episode five of Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-.
