The Prince takes the debit cards and returns the suitcase

The Prince’s decision to take the debit cards and plan to return the suitcase turns a theft into a calculated provocation. He keeps the cards but intends to put the case back aboard the Shinkansen, where its presence can draw other people into conflict. The plan is announced, not completed in the scene: the Prince leaves with the suitcase, and the account does not confirm where he ultimately places it.

Background and Setting

The action takes place amid the struggle over a black suitcase moving through the Shinkansen. Earlier, Nanao had taken the wheeled case from the luggage storage area and concealed it in a panel over a garbage bin. With the train approaching Ueno Station, he had worried that he would have little time to steal it; after finding it, he carried it through cars four and five toward the gangway between cars five and six. The case’s route through storage spaces and connected carriages makes its whereabouts a practical problem as well as the object of competing intentions.

The train is a particularly exposed setting for that uncertainty. At a station, passengers pour down the stairs and re-form into lines without speaking or looking at one another; aboard, people can move from carriage to carriage while the train continues toward its next stop. Tangerine and Lemon, watching a platform for anyone leaving, see no one get off. These movements and brief windows of opportunity form part of the wider struggle surrounding the suitcase, though the Prince’s decision unfolds in a separate confrontation with Kimura.

Kimura’s presence gives the exchange its immediate emotional pressure. The Prince has just described what happened to Kimura’s comatose son, Wataru, as part of a test. Kimura understands this as the Prince making light of his son’s condition; his anger rises, then his confidence ebbs. The Prince’s handling of the suitcase follows this effort to unsettle him, but the scene also reveals that the Prince’s aims cannot be reduced to simply taking money.

Opening the Suitcase

The Prince lifts the bag onto his seat and dials the combination back to 0600 before opening it. He reaches inside and removes the debit cards, placing them in his pocket. Then he closes and locks the suitcase and grips its handle. This is a selective taking: he keeps the cards while retaining the case, which he can still carry elsewhere or leave for someone else to discover.

Kimura taunts him as though he has taken the money because his parents do not give him enough allowance. The Prince ignores the jibe. His silence matters because the taunt assumes a familiar motive—personal need or greed—while his explanation soon points elsewhere. The cards are something he can use to cause difficulty later, but the wider contents of the case no longer interest him once he knows what is inside.

A Return Meant to Create Trouble

The Prince tells Kimura that he intends to put the suitcase back. He names two possible places: the panel over the garbage bin where it had been hidden, or somewhere easier to find, such as the luggage rack. The alternatives make the plan less a restoration of the original concealment than a decision about who should encounter the case next. Returning it to the panel would restore its former hiding place; leaving it on the rack would make discovery easier.

He explains that he wants to watch the other people who want the suitcase fight over it. In his calculation, the case has become more entertaining as bait than valuable as property. Keeping the debit cards adds another complication: he expects their absence to cause problems for someone later, even as the suitcase itself returns to circulation. The two parts of the plan pull in different directions—one item is removed, the other deliberately made available—and together they extend the conflict rather than resolve it.

Consequences and Significance

Kimura stares at him, unable to understand what motivates him. The scene presents that incomprehension against Kimura’s own assumptions about money and status: he reaches for the explanation that the Prince wants cash or bragging rights, while the Prince describes an interest in seeing how people behave. That explanation does not make the plan harmless. It shows the Prince treating other people’s pursuit of the suitcase, and the trouble caused by the missing cards, as part of the entertainment.

The scene ends with intention rather than confirmation. The Prince says he will return and steps toward the door, wheeling the locked suitcase behind him. He has removed the cards, but he has not yet been shown placing the case in either proposed location. That unresolved movement preserves the suitcase as a live source of uncertainty: the Prince’s decision changes what has been taken without settling who will find the bag, or what they will do when they do.