Hira

## Hira

### Relatives

Navdeep (former foster brother)Mini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez (foster sister)
Mini’s brother (foster brother)
Mini’s unnamed mother and father (foster parents)

### Affiliation

The OtherworldOtherworld Foster Care System (former)

## Appearance

###  Appears in

*Aru Shah and the Song of Death*

**Hira** is a secondary character in *Aru Shah and the Song of Death*. She's a rakshasi girl who joins Aru Shah, Mini Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez, Brynne Rao, and Aiden Acharya after they defend her from her foster brother's friends, who worked for Meenakshi. Later, she's adopted by Mini's family and taken out of the Otherworld Foster Care System.

## History

### Being Fostered by Navdeep's Family

Hira was placed with Navdeep and his family via the Otherworld Foster Care System due to her not having any parents.

## The Pandava Quintet

### Aru Shah and the Song of Death

Hira helps out Aru, Mini, Brynne and Aiden in their plan to defeat Meenakshi.

## Appearance

Hira is a small rakshasi girl with hazel eyes, dark hair and light brown skin. She often wore clothes too large for her when she lived with Navdeep.

## Personality

Hira is very soft spoken, not speaking up when people treated wrongly. She tends to be on the quieter, less assertive side. Hira is very caring, too, if naive; she believes in people who don’t necessarily deserve her care. She defends Navdeep's insults against her, saying that he just acted that way while he was around his friends and he was very kind towards her during their time alone. She also doesn’t question that Meenakshi is good when she recruits her and Navdeep, and feels bad for her when she hears her story.

## Relationships

### **NAVDEEP** (former foster brother)

Navdeep treats Hira unkindly when he’s with his friends; however, Hira says that Navdeep is nicer when his friends aren’t over and let her get the bigger piece of dessert sometimes.

### **BRYNNE RAO** (friend, possible love interest)

Brynne is upset at Hira’s treatment and calls her brother and his friends pigs, and blows them into the mud. Later, Hira and Brynne seem to be friends and on good terms, and both are invited to Aru’s party. Brynne also sympathizes with Hira’s predicament with the Otherworld Foster Care System, and offers to have her uncles set something up for her, which ends up happening. In *Aru Shah and the City of Gold*, it is implied that Brynne has a crush on Hira, when she mentions that Hira is "Fine. Like, you know, she's okay, not 'fine' like...". In Aru Shah and the Nectar of immoratily Kara implied that Hira only listens to Brynne playing the harp because she like the player not the playing.

### **MINI KAPOOR-MERCADO-LOPEZ** (friend, foster sister)

Mini is upset at Hira’s treatment by her brother and his friends. When Brynne literally blows them off their feet, Mini shields Hira with a bubble, smirking slightly. Afterwards, at Aru’s birthday party, when everyone’s asleep, Mini and Hira curl up on the couch together.

### **ARU SHAH** (friend)

Aru is upset with Hira's treatment and they become close friends afterwards. Hira is invited to Aru's birthday showing that they still keep in close contact with eachother.

### **AIDEN ACHARYA** (formerly cautious of, friend)

Aiden is somewhat suspicious of Hira at first, questioning why he and the Pandavas should trust her. However, when she tells him about her family situation, Aiden lightens up. The two seem to be friends, if not interacting a lot.

## **Powers**

### **Shapeshifting**

Due to being a rakshasi, Hira can transform into any demon, human, or god, including fictional characters.

## **Trivia**

* Hira is an ancient word of Sanskrit origin which means “diamond.” The name can also mean quintessence, thunderbolt, powerful, and darkness.
* Hira shares her name with a character from *Star-Touched Stories*, also written by Roshani Chokshi. In *Star-Touched Stories*, Hira is Gauri and Vikram's granddaughter