Exploding Handgun

The Exploding Handgun is a booby-trapped weapon that Tangerine offers to Prince as part of a contest that appears to give both men an equal chance to shoot. Its concealed mechanism makes the offered choice dangerous: Prince eventually realizes the gun is rigged, and later considers how that same danger might work against Nanao. The weapon shifts from a prop in a test of nerve to an object whose uncertain operation shapes the characters’ decisions.

Design and Mechanism

Two guns are visible when Tangerine confronts Prince: one is held against Prince’s chest, while Tangerine holds the other out to him. It is the offered gun that is revealed as the trap. Tangerine frames the exchange as a contest between armed opponents, then gives Prince basic instructions for operating the weapon: pull back the slide, lower the safety, aim, and fire. That practical lesson makes the offer seem usable, while concealing its central danger.

The mechanism is not described in technical detail. Its decisive feature is that pulling the trigger causes the gun to explode. Tangerine expects the blast to injure the person using it, though he does not think it would be fatal. The trap therefore turns the gun’s apparent purpose against its user: the act that should send a shot toward an opponent instead brings harm to the person who pulls the trigger. Its danger lies not in a visible difference that Prince can explain, but in an irregularity he senses before he knows how the device works.

Tangerine’s Test

Tangerine presents the weapon while telling Prince that he does not want to shoot someone who is defenseless. He offers Prince a gun so that each of them will be armed, and says he will teach him how to use it. Prince takes the weapon cautiously and retreats two steps. When it slips from his hand and falls, he expects Tangerine to seize the opening; instead, Tangerine tells him to pick it up and try again, waiting until Prince is ready.

The calm instruction and the hidden mechanism pull in opposite directions. On the surface, Tangerine is giving Prince both a weapon and a fair chance to use it. In practice, he has made that apparent fairness part of the trap. The dropped gun briefly exposes Prince’s vulnerability, but Tangerine’s refusal to attack immediately allows the test to continue. The weapon keeps the encounter suspended between instruction and threat: Prince is being taught how to fire it even as the act of firing is what makes it dangerous.

Prince Recognizes the Trap

Prince cannot identify the gun’s technical irregularity, but he becomes confident that it is a trap and refuses to treat it as an ordinary weapon. His suspicion brings relief and a sense of accomplishment; he interprets his ability to recognize the danger as evidence that his luck still protects him. Tangerine confirms the essential fact: firing the gun will cause it to explode and injure its user, though likely not kill him.

The revelation changes the balance of the exchange without removing its danger. Prince is no longer simply the inexperienced recipient of a gun and instructions. He knows enough to avoid the intended mistake, even though he cannot explain exactly how the trap works. He takes that knowledge as proof that his luck acts like a protective force, and concludes that Tangerine may now fear him. The gun has thus exposed a limit in Tangerine’s apparent control: he can rig the weapon, but Prince’s suspicion prevents the trap from functioning as intended at that moment.

Later Threat to Nanao

The weapon’s danger returns when Nanao wants to use a gun Prince received from Tangerine and carried in a backpack. Prince recognizes it as the same kind of explosive trap and understands that Nanao does not know what it is. Rather than warn him, Prince hopes Nanao will try to fire it. He reasons that the blast could hurt both Nanao and the man seated in front of him, and could slow them down even if it proved nonfatal.

In this later situation, the gun’s significance depends on who knows its secret. Tangerine first uses the concealed mechanism to make an apparently fair offer dangerous; Prince then treats knowledge of that mechanism as a possible advantage against others. The object does not guarantee a particular outcome, and Prince admits that he cannot predict exactly what would happen if it exploded. What he can anticipate is enough to shape his hope: the trap might disrupt Nanao’s actions and impede the people with him. Its concealed danger continues to govern choices even when the weapon is not being fired.