Hakushi

Hakushi is one of the oldest active players in the death games, holding a record of 95 consecutive clears.

She is introduced as Yuki Sorimachi’s master and a living legend among veteran participants.

Her body has been heavily and independently modified with advanced prosthetics and artificial organs, outside the control of the game’s organizers.

Because of this, she does not die even if her entire body is destroyed or disassembled.

Her real name is Manami Shiratsugawa.

In the narrative, she initially aims for 99 consecutive wins as her reason to keep living, but retires after losing her 96th game.

Hakushi is a tall, slender woman with long, wavy white hair and pale white skin.

This “white-on-white” appearance has become her visual trademark.

It is unclear whether her white hair and complexion are natural or side effects of years of reckless play and extensive body modification.

Her age is officially unknown, but she casually interacts with acquaintances who call themselves “around thirty,” behaving as if she is of a similar generation.

Her beauty is often noted, but her demeanor is distinctly cool and understated rather than flashy.

She speaks in a blunt, no-nonsense, slightly masculine way, which adds to her tough, seasoned-veteran aura.

Despite her rough speech and brusque attitude, Hakushi is not heartless or cruel.

She tends to show her concern and care through action and practical advice rather than warm words.

Hakushi first appears in the original volume’s episode “Candlewoods.”

By this point, she has already cleared 95 games and is only four wins away from her goal of 99 consecutive victories.

In the Candlewoods game, a disguised serial killer named Kyara infiltrates the participants.

The situation escalates into a lethal confrontation that pushes the already-worn-down Hakushi to her limits.

Hakushi ultimately loses to Kyara in this game.

On-page, she suffers a horrifying defeat in which her entire body is cut apart and disassembled, seemingly marking her death.

Witnessing this apparent death, Yuki Sorimachi, her disciple, inherits her dream.

Yuki decides to continue living by “playing death games to put food on the table” and vows to achieve the 99-win streak that Hakushi could not complete.

However, a scene immediately afterward reveals to the readers that Hakushi is still alive, despite her catastrophic injuries.

Her survival is due to her heavily rebuilt body, which by then is composed largely of high-precision prosthetics and artificial organs.

Over the course of her 95 games, Hakushi had replaced damaged parts of her body bit by bit.

By Candlewoods, her body had become so modified that even having all her internal organs pulled out was no longer enough to kill her.

Even so, there are limits to how much lost flesh and natural function can be replaced with machinery and synthetic parts.

By this stage, her physical potential has dropped so far that she can no longer fight evenly against opponents of her own former level.

The narrative makes it clear that this severe decline in raw ability is the reason she was so easily defeated by Kyara.

Facing that reality, and seeing Yuki publicly declare that she will take on the goal of 99 wins, Hakushi decides to retire from death games.

In her own mind, Hakushi also decides that Yuki no longer needs her as a guide.

Because of that, she quietly disappears from the front lines without informing Yuki that she survived.

Later, a mutual acquaintance reveals Hakushi’s survival to Yuki.

After this, Yuki reaches out, and their relationship resumes in a new form, with Hakushi as a retired mentor rather than an active front-line fighter.

Hakushi’s most striking achievement is her 95-game winning streak in lethal death games.

This feat alone underscores her unparalleled tactical skill and survivability.

She possesses extremely sharp judgment and calm decision-making under pressure.

Her choices in combat are typically precise, efficient, and free from emotional distraction.

Even though, by Candlewoods, her physical stats have degraded drastically, she can still overcome weaker opponents purely through technique and experience.

Her downfall against Kyara is explicitly attributed not to a lack of skill, but to the accumulation of long-term physical wear and the limitations of her prosthetic, patched-together body.

A flashback to roughly half a year before Candlewoods shows how overwhelming she once was.

When she first meets Yuki, who is already displaying extraordinary potential as a newcomer, Hakushi defeats her effortlessly in a straightforward fight.

This early clash illustrates the gap between raw talent and polished mastery.

Hakushi’s combat philosophy emphasizes structure, discipline, and growth over time, rather than relying solely on innate gifts.

Yuki Sorimachi regards Hakushi with profound trust and respect.

Hakushi is not just Yuki’s teacher, but also the emotional foundation for her decision to make a living through death games.

When Kyara later taunts Yuki with the claim that Hakushi was “weak” and “no match at all” in their fight, Yuki reacts with intense anger.

This rage comes from deep loyalty and from how strongly she believes in Hakushi’s strength and dignity.

Even after Hakushi’s retirement, she continues to support Yuki in more subtle ways.

For instance, when Yuki eventually takes on a disciple of her own, she consults Hakushi about how to teach and guide a student.

The story also later shows the origins of their teacher–student relationship.

At the time they met, Yuki was still a beginner but was already easily defeating other players on sheer talent.

Hakushi steps in and crushes Yuki one-sidedly, proving that talent alone is not enough.

After defeating her, Hakushi tells Yuki that she has potential but will hit a hard ceiling without a proper mentor.

Yuki’s first reaction is to bristle and push back, essentially saying that Hakushi is acting like her mother.

However, after cooling down and thinking it through, Yuki approaches Hakushi again and formally asks to become her disciple.

From this point on, their long-lasting master–disciple relationship begins.

Hakushi, while not especially warm in her words, provides the structure and discipline that allow Yuki to channel her talent into real, battle-hardened skill.

The story hints at several acquaintances and former allies who have known Hakushi since long before the Candlewoods incident.

Many of these are veteran players of roughly the same generation as she is, who share a sense of being “old-timers” in a deadly industry.

At least one of her former disciples, predating Yuki, appears in the narrative.

This underlines that Yuki is not the first person Hakushi has trained, though she is arguably the most important.

Hakushi’s record of 95 straight wins gives her a reputation as a living legend among death game participants.

Within circles of long-term players, her name carries enormous weight and respect.

However, the Candlewoods game becomes a turning point.

Not only does Hakushi fall there and decide to retire, but many of the veterans who knew her personally are also killed in the same game.

Because of this, after Candlewoods, the community of active players changes dramatically.

Most of the new generation entering the games afterward have never heard of Hakushi, and her once-famous name begins to fade into obscurity.

This contrast between immense historical fame and near-anonymity among newcomers adds a bittersweet note to her character.

She exists as a legend from a bygone era, recognized fully only by those who survived long enough to remember.

Hakushi’s survival is one of her defining features and a crucial part of her mythos.

Throughout her career, she continually replaced damaged parts of her body with high-grade prosthetics and artificial organs.

These modifications were not conducted or supervised by the game’s organizers.

Instead, they are described as independent, black-box procedures, undertaken solely to keep her functional enough to keep playing and chasing her goal.

Over 95 grueling matches, the accumulation of damage was extreme.

Each time she sustained severe injuries, she would substitute the destroyed flesh with mechanical or artificial components rather than retire.

By the time of Candlewoods, the proportion of artificial parts in her body is so high that she is effectively impossible to kill by conventional means.

This is why even being dismembered and having all her organs removed does not end her life.

However, these modifications come with a steep price.

Her “repaired” body cannot fully replicate the strength, endurance, and responsiveness of a healthy human physique.

As a result, while she can cling to life, she can no longer maintain her former peak combat performance.

Her defeat by Kyara is a brutal demonstration that mere survival is not the same as retaining true fighting power.

Recognizing these limits, Hakushi chooses to step away from the arena.

Her retirement is both an acceptance of her physical decline and a passing of the torch to Yuki, who will attempt to accomplish the 99-win dream in her place.