Shogi (将棋, shōgi, English: /ˈʃoʊɡi/, Japanese: [ɕoːɡi]), also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi. Shōgi means general's (shō 将) board game (gi 棋).
Shion no Ou tells the story of a young girl by the name of Ishiwatari Shion . At the age of 4, Shion`s parents were murdered at their house. The police didn`t find anything at the crime scene that might lead them to the murderer apart from a shougi board upon which the pieces were lined up in an orderly fashion. Shion was not harmed even though she was at the house at the time of the murder but the shock of seeing her parents lying dead in a pool of blood resulted in the loss of her voice. The Ishiwatari neighbours and close friends, the Yasuoka family (made up of Yasuoka Shinji and his wife Sachiko) adopted Shion after the murder and raised her as their own daughter and so she was renamed Yasuoka Shion since then. Shinji is a professional Shogi player and during the years that passed after the murder, he taught Shion how to play shogi. Shion was a natural at playing shogi. She learned the game very quickly and mastered it at an early age. She rose quickly in the ranks of the game and became a genius professional player just like her new father. The story is about Shion`s life 8 years after the murder and how her chosen path as a professional shogi player might one day lead to finding her parents` murderer.
桐山零は、幼い頃に事故で家族を失い、心に深い孤独を負う17歳のプロの将棋棋士。東京の下町に一人で暮らす零は、あかり・ひなた・モモという3姉妹と出会い、少しずつ変わり始めていくー。
玄関を開けるとJSがいた――― 「やくそくどおり、弟子にしてもらいにきました！」 16歳にして将棋界の最強タイトル保持者「竜王」となった九頭竜八一の 自宅に押しかけてきたのは、小学三年生の雛鶴あい、九歳 「え？、…弟子？え？」 「…おぼえてません？」 覚えてなかったが始まってしまったJSとの同居生活 ストレートなあいの情熱に、 八一も失いかけていた熱いモノを取り戻していくのだった