Prince–Yuichi Kimura hostile relationship

Prince’s relationship with Yuichi Kimura is an adversarial struggle shaped by captivity, threats against Wataru, and the withholding of information. Prince treats Kimura as both a captive and a tool for his plans; Kimura, despite being left barely able to respond, remains a threat to Prince’s control because he will not give him the answers he wants.

Captivity and Leverage

Prince’s control over Kimura depends on the danger facing Wataru. In his private reckoning, Prince identifies Kimura’s son as the key that had allowed him to put Kimura’s will on a metaphorical collar. He had also been able to exploit Kimura’s hatred of him. The image captures the imbalance in their relationship: Prince does not seek Kimura’s trust or cooperation freely, but looks for a vulnerability that will let him direct Kimura’s actions.

Prince’s conduct toward Kimura is connected to his plans beyond the immediate struggle. He had intended to take Kimura to Morioka and use him to test Minegishi. After hearing that Kimura was barely breathing, Prince considers turning instead to Nanao, whom he might also be able to control if he could discover a weakness. The change of possible instrument shows how Prince regards people around him: Kimura matters to him as a means of pursuing another objective, while his condition prompts a search for a replacement rather than concern for his recovery.

Conflicting Accounts

When Tangerine tells Prince that Kimura is alive, though in very poor condition, Prince is startled. He had believed Lemon had killed him. Kimura’s apparent survival unsettles that expectation enough for Prince to think of him as someone who might never die. The moment complicates the power balance: even incapacitated, Kimura’s persistence has become something Prince cannot confidently predict or master.

Prince responds to the news by presenting Kimura as his kidnapper. He describes being taken against his will and frightened, and says Kimura’s near-death is both disturbing and a relief. The account is fabricated, but it gives Prince a way to recast himself as the victim and Kimura as the danger. He hopes Tangerine will accept the story and shares his wish that Kimura would simply die. Tangerine does not appear persuaded into action; he remains where he is and offers no indication that he will help Prince or call authorities. Prince’s attempt to define the relationship for an adult therefore fails to produce the response he wants.

A Captive Becomes Replaceable

As the Hayate approaches Ichinoseki, Nanao prepares to leave Prince in Mr Suzuki’s care for the journey onward to Morioka. Prince immediately weighs whether to stop him, but recognizes that doing so might expose his intentions. Kimura, who had been central to the plan, is now out of action; Prince considers whether Nanao could take his place. That calculation restates the coercive logic of his relationship with Kimura. Prince wants a person he can control, but does not yet know what leverage would work on Nanao as Wataru’s life had worked on Kimura.

Prince’s imagined method is tellingly practical: he believes Nanao may have some exploitable vulnerability, but first he would have to find it. The contrast with Kimura is precise. Prince already knows which bond to threaten in order to pressure Kimura, and he has used Kimura’s hostility toward him as another instrument. With Nanao, he has no equivalent key. Kimura’s place in Prince’s plans is thus defined not just by their personal enmity but by the leverage Prince has acquired over him.

Knowledge and Defiance at Morioka

At Morioka, Nanao recognizes that the schoolboy is the person who had been with Yuichi Kimura, now lying in the train toilet. He also recalls that the boy had called Kimura’s father and warned him that Yuichi was in trouble and Wataru was in danger. Faced with that knowledge, Prince again claims that Kimura and another man forced him to say what he said. The story shifts responsibility away from Prince, just as his earlier kidnapping claim did, but his account does not alter what the other people present have learned.

Kimura refuses to answer Prince’s questions. He tells him that the message on the train display was correct: Wataru is safe and awake. Prince does not know either fact, and Kimura makes clear that he will not explain who was on the phone or how the news was confirmed. His refusal reverses their familiar arrangement. Prince had tried to control Kimura by making Wataru’s life a source of pressure; now Kimura controls what Prince can know about Wataru and about the conversation that has just taken place. He identifies Prince’s confidence in understanding other people as a failure, and chooses to leave him without the information he seeks.

Family as the Battleground

Prince makes one last attempt to injure Kimura through Wataru and the family’s fear. He tells Kimura that his son is dead and portrays him as having suffered and given in. The claim is a deliberate attack on the bond Prince had earlier exploited: if Wataru’s life could be used to control Kimura, the assertion that Wataru is safe can also be turned into a threat when Prince says the opposite. Kimura feels anxiety despite recognizing that Prince wants to provoke him.

Akiko Kimura counters the attack by insisting that Yuichi is tough and would not give up while worried about Wataru. Kimura accepts her reassurance and affirms his belief that Yuichi would survive even extreme hardship. The exchange leaves Yuichi’s actual condition unresolved in these scenes: Tangerine has described him as barely breathing, while Prince later claims he is dead, and Kimura and Akiko refuse to accept that claim as fact. Their confidence in Yuichi stands against Prince’s effort to dictate what the family knows and fears. The relationship therefore ends this stretch of the story not with reconciliation or a settled victory, but with Prince’s control contested by Kimura’s silence and his parents’ faith in him.