Silenced handgun

The Silenced handgun changes hands aboard the Shinkansen and turns a concealed possibility into the instrument of two killings. Kimura brings it with him, but the Prince’s possession of the backpack containing it gives Lemon access first: Lemon shoots Kimura, and the Prince later shoots Lemon with the gun. Its silencer makes the weapon useful in the noisy train environment, yet does not make it disappear from the story. The gun’s presence, transfer, and eventual abandonment expose how quickly the balance of power shifts between the men who handle it.

Concealment and discovery

Kimura has brought the gun with him, and it is inside the backpack the Prince is wearing. When the Prince takes the backpack off to offer Kimura a handkerchief, Kimura remembers the weapon and imagines unzipping the bag to retrieve it. His thoughts turn immediately to what he would do next: threaten someone or shoot, and whether to aim at Lemon or the Prince. He wants to shoot the Prince, but Wataru’s life remains at stake. Kimura checks himself rather than reaching for the gun, even as the train’s jolts seem to wear down his restraint. At this point the handgun is both a possible means of resistance and a temptation Kimura recognizes as dangerous.

Lemon takes the backpack before Kimura acts. He notices Kimura looking at it, guesses there may be something inside that could improve their situation, and opens it. The gun is exposed; Lemon finds it with a silencer attached. Its discovery reverses the immediate advantage Kimura had privately imagined: instead of using the weapon, he watches Lemon take possession of it. The Prince is also caught off guard, and his attention fixes on the gun as the situation deteriorates. The object’s concealment in the backpack had made it available to Kimura in theory, but its actual location gives Lemon control.

A weapon suited to the train

The silencer matters because firing a gun inside a train would ordinarily attract notice. Lemon recognizes that the attachment solves a practical problem: a firearm can be used aboard the Shinkansen without the conspicuous report he fears. The silencer does not make the gun wholly inaudible, but it changes how its use registers amid the train’s noise. The object is therefore not simply a concealed weapon; its added device is what makes it seem usable in this confined, public setting.

Lemon switches off the safety and aims at Kimura. The decisive sound is not a loud blast. In the curtained-off sink area, a hand dryer is running; Kimura hears a small, lock-like ka-cha sound and does not initially understand that the silenced gun has fired. He only gradually registers the warmth in his chest and fluid leaking from his body, while his vision blurs. The interval between the shot and recognition gives the silencer a direct bodily consequence: Kimura does not immediately know that he has been hit. Lemon’s casual manner after firing contrasts with Kimura’s delayed comprehension, while the ordinary noise of the train and dryer helps mask the violence.

The Prince turns the gun on Lemon

After Lemon is unconscious, the Prince finds Kimura on the bathroom floor, surrounded by a dark bloodstain. He shuts and locks the door before lifting Lemon onto the toilet. He then takes the gun from his backpack and presses its barrel to Lemon’s forehead, but backs away to the door because he does not want blood and other matter to splatter on him. He sets his stance, aims, and fires. The silencer and the rattling Shinkansen conceal the shot from anyone outside; Lemon’s head falls, and blood seeps from the wound.

The Prince’s use of the same concealed weapon reverses Lemon’s earlier control of it. Lemon had taken the gun from the Prince’s backpack and used it against Kimura; now the Prince has it and kills Lemon while he is unconscious. The gun thus passes through successive hands without changing its basic function, but the circumstances of its use change sharply: Kimura considers using it and refrains, Lemon uses it to shoot Kimura, and the Prince deliberately uses it to kill Lemon. The handgun is no longer an unrealized option or a weapon held by someone else. It becomes the means by which the Prince removes Lemon from the scene.

Abandonment and significance

The Prince considers keeping the gun but decides the risk is too great. He believes he can describe his stun device as a means of self-defence, but that explanation will not serve for a real firearm. Instead, he leaves the gun in the bathroom. His reasoning is tied to the visible circumstances: both Kimura and Lemon have been shot dead, so he considers it plausible for a gun to be found there. He then locks the bathroom door from outside with wire and moves toward car eight.

The handgun’s final placement is part of the Prince’s attempt to manage the evidence, not an incidental disposal. A weapon that first offered Kimura an imagined escape becomes evidence of the killings, and the Prince decides that leaving it beside the two dead men may fit what others will see. Across these turns, its silencer serves both immediate violence and concealment: it allows two shots to go unheard over the train’s sounds, while the gun itself remains a tangible fact the Prince must account for. Its trajectory makes the train’s apparent background noise part of the action and shows how possession, rather than intention alone, determines who can use the weapon.