Nanao's Fight with Hornet

Nanao's fight with Hornet begins with a revelation that transforms an ordinary encounter aboard the train into a test of survival: the snack-trolley attendant, whose appearance gives no obvious sign of danger, is the assassin Tangerine has identified.

Discovery and Approach

Tangerine alerts Nanao that the woman pushing the snack trolley is Hornet. The news catches him off guard. When the trolley stops, the attendant looks back at him with a natural, helpful expression; wearing her staff uniform beneath a vending apron, she appears entirely plausible in her role. Nanao studies her but cannot reconcile her ordinary presentation with the warning. He ends the call and watches her as she slowly turns to face him, asking whether anything is wrong. Later, as Nanao pretends to return to the green car, he tries to detect movement behind him and raises a plastic bottle to use its liquid as a makeshift mirror. In its wavering reflection, he sees the woman silently coming closer. He turns, and the encounter becomes an open fight.

The Fight in the Gangway

Nanao turns on the approaching attendant and throws his plastic bottle at her face. She evades it, but he uses the opening to shove her into the trolley, sending paper cups and souvenir-snack boxes across the gangway. A snake that had been concealed among the boxes slips away along the wall, briefly recalling the one Nanao had seen escape its terrarium elsewhere on the train. The attendant gets back up with a needle in her hand and advances without hesitation; her uniform and apron do not hinder her movement.

Nanao opens the wheelchair-accessible toilet and tries to force Hornet inside, following her into the cramped space. She deflects his first punch and avoids the next, demonstrating that she can handle his attacks. When the automatic door begins to close, he reopens it and retreats into the gangway. His injured arm, previously stabbed by Lemon, complicates his attempt to regain his footing. The gun he took from Lemon falls from his belt, and as Nanao reaches for it, Hornet throws a needle that strikes the door. She steps out, kicks the gun beyond his reach, and presses her attack.

With the refreshments scattered around them, Nanao picks up a gift-wrapped snack box and holds it between himself and Hornet. She thrusts a needle through it, then draws back and attacks again; the box gives him a makeshift barrier while leaving him little room to recover. During the struggle, he falls. At first he treats the mishap as another instance of the bad luck he associates with himself, but when he tries to get up, he discovers that one of Hornet’s needles has caught in his hand. Its bent point has turned upward after striking the door, and he recognizes that it is poisoned.

The sudden danger briefly overwhelms Nanao, but his attention clears and he acts. He pulls the needle out and moves toward Hornet, who is still recovering and reaching for the dropped gun. Nanao takes the weapon and one of the needles from the floor, then uses Hornet’s own weapon against her. As she reaches for a pen-shaped injector in her apron, he stops her and takes the device.

Countermeasure and Concealment

Nanao takes the injector from Hornet and uses it on himself, pressing it against his exposed thigh after tearing open the fabric of his cargo pants. He does not know whether the device contains an antidote, whether he is using it correctly, or whether he has acted in time. The injection offers no immediate certainty: as he stands, his heart seems to beat unusually hard, though he cannot tell whether that is a physical effect or fear.

He then carries Hornet into the multi-purpose room and positions her against the wall so that her extended legs keep the door from opening fully. From the corridor, he sets the placard to indicate that the room is occupied. His intention is practical concealment: a passenger who finds the door difficult to open may assume that the room is in use or out of order rather than investigate.

Before moving on, Nanao restores the refreshments to the trolley and pushes it into a corner of the gangway. The scattered cups and snack boxes had marked the struggle; putting them back is an attempt to erase its visible trace. The encounter thus ends not with any assurance that the poison has been neutralized, but with Nanao hiding Hornet and restoring the ordinary appearance of the train around them.

Outcome and Reversal

The fight ends with Hornet dead and Nanao still uncertain whether the injector has countered the poison. His survival therefore remains unresolved at the moment he conceals her: he has stopped the immediate attack, but cannot know whether his improvised response has worked. The reversal is stark. The apparently ordinary attendant, whose concealed weapon had turned the train corridor into a trap, is defeated by the same poison needle she used against him; Nanao’s escape depends not on certainty, but on acting while certainty is impossible.