Tangerine and Lemon's plan to frame Nanao

Tangerine and Lemon’s plan to frame Nanao is a damage-control scheme born from two failures: Little Minegishi has been killed, and the suitcase is missing. Rather than solve either problem, Lemon proposes manufacturing a culprit aboard the Shinkansen and directing blame toward Nanao. Tangerine agrees to the proposal, but the scene presents it as a plan in formation, not a completed frame or a successful attempt to satisfy Minegishi.

Causes and Stakes

The pair begin from a practical accounting of their predicament. They understand that Minegishi expects them to find the person responsible for Little Minegishi’s death or recover the missing suitcase, and they have accomplished neither. Lemon initially describes their search as misdirected, then revises the diagnosis: the problem may be not where they are looking but how they are proceeding. His insistence that a mistake need not provoke panic opens the way to a new approach, although the approach soon proves less a correction than an evasion.

The stakes are personal as well as operational. Lemon acknowledges that they let the child be killed and lost the bag, and anticipates that Minegishi will be angry. Their proposed substitute for success is to identify a killer for him; they hope that delivering someone to blame might count for something even without recovering the suitcase. The plan therefore rests on a deliberate separation of appearance from resolution: it aims to make the chain of failures look attributable to another person, not to undo the death or locate the missing property.

The Proposed Frame

Lemon introduces the scheme through a maxim of his own devising: instead of searching for the real culprit, they can create one. He makes the proposal concrete by suggesting that they select someone—anyone—on the train and present that person as responsible. The plan converts the crowded train into a field from which to choose a convenient target, while replacing investigation with fabrication.

Tangerine immediately sees a weakness: Minegishi may not believe the story. Lemon has no assurance that the deception will work. He argues only that doing something is preferable to waiting and that a manufactured culprit could give the pair a way to redirect Minegishi’s anger. The missing suitcase remains a separate problem within the scheme. Asked about it, Lemon suggests they could claim that the supposed killer disposed of it. He does not present this as a convincing solution, but as an explanation that might help make the invented culprit appear responsible for the wider debacle.

Choosing Nanao

When Tangerine asks whom they could use, Lemon first hesitates over the implications of carrying the idea through. He is pleased that Tangerine is receptive and wants to get started, yet also balks at the prospect of actually doing what he has proposed. Tangerine rebukes this hesitation as unseriousness, and Lemon responds by naming someone he believes may know Minegishi. Tangerine recognizes the intended target as their neighborhood acquaintance; Lemon confirms that this is the person he means. The scene thus identifies Nanao as the planned scapegoat and gives the selection a limited rationale: they think Nanao may have some knowledge of Minegishi. It does not establish that Nanao killed Little Minegishi, took the suitcase, or has any connection to either failure.

Nanao’s selection also exposes the plan’s governing logic. The pair do not identify him through evidence of guilt; they choose him because they believe he can be made to fit the story they need to tell. Lemon’s proposal transfers the consequences of their own failed assignment onto an available person, while leaving the underlying facts unresolved. The intended claim about the suitcase is correspondingly provisional: blaming Nanao for having disposed of it would serve as part of their cover, not as a recovery of the bag.

Tangerine’s Warning and the Unfinished Plan

The agreement is shaped by the danger of Tangerine’s temper. Lemon knows him as someone who ordinarily prefers reading and keeps violence to a minimum, but who can become ruthless when anger takes hold. Tangerine’s outward manner does not reliably reveal whether he is close to losing control, and Lemon treats his recourse to quotations from books and films as a warning sign. In this exchange, Tangerine uses a passage from a book to make clear that he expects Lemon to take the plan seriously. Lemon raises his hands and backs down rather than continue to test him.

Tangerine’s eventual approval is therefore not evidence that he has suddenly trusted the plan’s prospects; he has already noted that Minegishi might not accept the story. It is a decision to proceed despite that uncertainty, reinforced by his impatience with Lemon’s wavering. After confirming Nanao as the intended target, Tangerine stands and says he needs to use the toilet. Lemon asks what is happening, and the excerpt stops there. The plan has gained a target and the pair’s tentative agreement, but its execution, Minegishi’s response, and Nanao’s fate remain unresolved.