Ai Hinatsuru

Ai Hinatsuru is a nine-year-old shogi prodigy and one of the principal characters in The Ryuo's Work Is Never Done! She becomes the first formal disciple of teenage Ryuo Yaichi Kuzuryu after running away to pursue professional shogi training.

Ai Hinatsuru: motives, abilities, and relationships

Polite, earnest, intensely competitive, and emotionally attached to her master, Ai combines childlike jealousy with exceptional concentration. Her abilities include rapid calculation, board vision, memorization, endgame reading, and growth through official women's shogi competition and daily study.

Ai Hinatsuru's abilities and key relationships

Yaichi is her master and central attachment, while Ginko Sora becomes both a formidable senior rival and an example of the professional path Ai hopes to follow.