I love this manga so much. The fact that the mangaka KNOWS their audience, KNOWS the expectations they've built up... Almost throughout the entire story, we just get zero red. None. Isn't that odd?
The mangaka has always used the red as a way to signal danger, and here it's just nonpresent. We don't get any scary faces, we even get Daidai! Daidai is always safe—as Yume says, she smells white. How could we get a serious story with Daidai? And between all of that, we as the audience let our guard down. Did the author just forget, perhaps? And then the last panel. Not a shock panel, not a horror panel, and yet still a jumpscare. Not a jumpscare with a monster, though, no—a jumpscare with COLOR. Let me ask you! Have you EVER been jumpscared by a COLOR before??
And not even a random smearing of it, but a purposeful, incredibly well set-up use. The bloodshot eyes that Daidai commented on come back in a BIG way. The background all red like a Rothko, with a white cross streaking across it like blazing holy light. The way the panel frames this man as the horror, zoomed in on him like a slasher villain... He doesn't need to be disproportioned. He doesn't need to have pitch dark eyes and a gaping maw. He doesn't need to be holding a weapon. The framing, color, and panel design is enough for us to know: the stakes are as high as they've ever been, and this time, Daidai is in danger.
And that is why I love Ura Baito.