The Mother Who Slashes Colors [Hakurei]

Kato Hakurei is a single mother raising her ten-month-old daughter, Ayaka. By day, she works as the head of the sales planning department at a mid-sized company, living an ordinary life—drinking cold coffee after returning home, leaving laundry unattended, and letting her daughter tug at her white hair. But one day, the color "red" begins to vanish from the city. Mysterious spirits of color emerge, offering sweet salvation by aligning with human emotions, only to steal something precious in return. To ordinary people, their monstrous true forms remain entirely invisible. When night falls, Hakurei dons a secondhand black kimono and takes up her naginata, "Shukusai." Her white hair grows down to her knees, with portions dyed in iridescent hues. She hunts down the color spirits, slashing them to seal the stolen human emotions within herself. Yet every time she reclaims a color, countless feelings—anger, sorrow, regret, love—begin to erode her own mind. All she wishes to protect is her modest life with her daughter, but the more she fights for it, the more her heart is slowly chipped away. Torn between being a mother and remaining herself, Hakurei refuses to let go of either, stepping into the night once again to slash through the colors.