Alira Shinka

"'I... I never wanted to be champion, if I must be honest, it, it was supposed to be him and I...'""-Alira, during the second arc of Reflections"Alira is one of the protagonist in the Pokemon Sword story, Reflections From The Past To The Present. She is the current reigning champion of Galar, and owner of the Rusty Sword.

Appearance
Boyish is the best way to describe her in one word. Her dark brown hair is extremely short, cut in a boyish style. She usually wears a black shirt under a white jacket, jeans and regular shoes along with a backpack for traveling. She also wears a binder under her shirt for comfort reasons.

Personality
Shut-in would be an apt term for how Alira would be if she wasn't friends with Hop, as Alira's normally very quiet and keeps to herself, only joining the gym challenge because Hop did and she wanted to follow him, plus she wanted to see more of the Galar region.

She's polite and kind to a fault, mild-mannered to practically everyone, however... She very protective of her friends, to an unsettling and extreme degree at points; this namely been shown when she encountered Bede after his battle with Hop and she found out what he said to her best friend. She almost decked him, lifting him up by his jacket, and the darkness shown in her expression promised that if he did that again, he would not walk away unscathed again as she growled out that if he EVER said those things to Hop again, he wouldn't live long enough to regret it.

Due to events she hasn't yet told Hop that happened before she moved to the Galar region with her mother, she's got extreme abandonment issues and is terrified of Hop or her pokemon leaving her, she doesn't want to be alone again, resulting in her fiercely protective nature regarding them.

She's got some issues expressing her emotions at points, and as a result, she's got a signature half-smile she puts on when she's unsure of how to express what she's feeling.

Trivia

 * She fiddles with her hands, glasses, or bag straps when nervous.
 * When nervous, she tends to stammer and stutter.
 * She hums to herself tunes she has on her phone at random intervals.
 * She's very touch starved so she jumps at the chance to get hugs from her pokemon or her best friend Hop.
 * She sometimes finds it hard to trust people, but when she does trust someone, they have it until they do something to break it.
 * She's got a bad memory in regards to a few years of her life, namely the year before she moved to galar and then the immediate year after she moved to Galar, only recalling small or important snippets of both years.
 * She likely has a form of Autism, ADHD, and social anxiety, but hasn't ever had time to get diagnosed.