Nanao–Prince protector–manipulator relationship

Nanao and the Prince occupy opposite sides of a relationship formed in a crisis: Nanao protects a child he believes is in danger, while the Prince privately studies that protection as a possible means of gaining influence. The gap between Nanao’s unplanned sense of duty and the Prince’s deliberate strategy defines their early bond. Nanao stays with the Prince toward Morioka despite wanting to leave the train; the Prince, in turn, hopes to keep Nanao within reach and eventually make him a pawn.

An Encounter Shaped by Protection

The relationship takes shape when Nanao returns from retrieving the suitcase and finds Tangerine pointing a gun at the Prince. The child’s expression and faltering appeal for help bring back to Nanao the memory of a kidnapped boy he had abandoned long ago. Rather than weighing his options, Nanao acts immediately. His response is bodily and instinctive: he intervenes with lethal force because he senses that stopping Tangerine without finishing the confrontation could leave him in danger. The event establishes the relationship’s central asymmetry. Nanao’s protection is real, but it begins before he knows what the Prince wants or what dangers may follow from helping him.

The Prince’s fear also appears to Nanao as a genuine request for care. After Tangerine and Lemon are gone, Nanao tries to calculate whether he can simply leave the train with the suitcase and avoid further trouble. The next stop, Ichinoseki Station, offers that exit. Instead, the Prince asks him to stay with him as far as Morioka because he is scared, then explains that a little boy will be in danger if he does not reach his destination. Nanao anticipates that this disclosure will entangle him in something he wants to avoid. His reluctance is not absent; it is precisely the conflict between that reluctance and his emerging responsibility that makes the request consequential.

Nanao’s Duty and the Prince’s Reading of It

The Prince treats Nanao’s response not simply as gratitude-worthy help but as evidence about how Nanao might be influenced. He recognizes that Nanao has already acted decisively on behalf of a child and reasons that he may be able to bring Nanao under his control by learning what makes him vulnerable. At this point, the Prince does not know that vulnerability. He considers stopping Nanao from getting off the train, then judges that doing so might expose his intentions. Instead, he decides to continue to Morioka, inspect Minegishi’s compound, and return to deal with Minegishi when better prepared. Nanao’s departure is therefore allowed, but not treated by the Prince as the end of the relationship: he wants a way to contact him and leaves open the possibility of recruiting him later.

The Prince’s thinking is explicitly shaped by his previous use of Kimura. Kimura had been controlled through the danger to his son and through his hatred of the Prince. With Kimura now out of action, the Prince considers Nanao as a possible replacement, while acknowledging that he has not yet found the equivalent leverage. He infers that Nanao is outside the law from his conduct toward Tangerine and believes that further investigation might uncover something to exploit. This is a plan, not an established capacity: the Prince sees a potential target, but has not yet found the key to make Nanao obey.

A Performance of Trust

As Nanao prepares to leave at Ichinoseki Station, he places the Prince in Mr Suzuki’s care for the onward journey to Morioka. The Prince calls after him and asks for his phone number, presenting continued contact as a way to check that the boy is safe. Mr Suzuki supports the request by saying he would also like to be able to report that everything is all right. The exchange gives the Prince a plausible route to keep Nanao accessible, even as Nanao is attempting to hand over responsibility and depart.

The Prince’s later conversation with Nanao makes the performance behind that appeal plain. He tries to present himself as defenseless and to cast Nanao as the only person he can count on. His aim is to awaken Nanao’s protective impulse. The Prince assesses Nanao as unlucky and low in self-esteem, and therefore, in his view, easy to influence. Nanao does not share that interpretation of the encounter: he tells the Prince that he is not a good person and that his work involves killing people. This disclosure complicates the reassuring image the Prince is trying to draw from him. Nanao neither claims innocence nor presents himself as a hero; nevertheless, his admission does not cancel the care he has already shown.

An Unsettled Bond

The Prince answers Nanao’s warning by emphasizing that he feels safer with him than alone. Nanao responds softly, looking put out but blushing. The Prince privately reads this reaction as proof that Nanao’s sense of duty has switched on and that his thinking has switched off. His contemptuous interpretation reveals how little he regards the protection he has received as a relationship between equals. For him, Nanao’s kindness is a lever; for Nanao, the Prince’s fear and the prospect of a child in danger have created an obligation he struggles to refuse.

Nanao’s decision to continue toward Morioka does not resolve this difference. He had wanted to leave at the next stop and knows that remaining on the train may bring further trouble, yet he stays after learning that a little boy’s safety may depend on the journey. The Prince notices that Nanao does not try to get off again as the train approaches Mizusawa-Esashi Station, but cannot tell whether this reflects a settled decision or reluctance to make another attempt. Their relationship thus remains unstable: Nanao has moved from rescue to continued accompaniment, while the Prince has moved from observing that act to planning how he might use it. The same protective response that keeps Nanao beside the child also gives the Prince an opening to pursue influence, though the Prince has not yet secured it.