Shukichi Haneda

A professional shogi player, as well as the former boyfriend of Yumi Miyamoto He is also the middle brother of the Akai family, making him the sibling of Shuichi Akai and Masumi Sera. Shukichi Haneda was presumably born as Shukichi Akai until some incident, perhaps the death of his father, caused Shukichi and Masumi Sera to switch to using "Sera" as a family name. The Akai family apparently lived a rather wealthy life. He might have been born in England. When the family moved to Japan, Shukichi's older brother Shuichi left them to study in America. After that his younger sister Masumi was born.

Seven years after moving to Japan, he and his family were briefly reunited with Shuichi, who plans to join the FBI to investigate the death of their father. When Shukichi graduated from high school he began using the family name Haneda from Koji Haneda, a shogi player he admire. It is not clear what their relationship was. At some point he started his career as a professional shogi player. Shukichi's main objective is to prove himself worthy as Yumi's boyfriend by secretly winning all seven shogi titles, despite having technically been dumped by her.

He was widely known by the name of Taiko Meijin in the world of shogi even before he finally achieved all seven titles in his most recent Shogi match, due to his unique skill. Even though he then lost one in a revenge match with his rival Chikara Katsumata, he intends to stick with his original plan.