Ogi couldn't catch all of what Ikuo replied in English, not because he spoke too quickly but because of the content. Still, he could tell that Ikuo, very patiently and meticulously, was responding to Fred's provocative questions.

But what really remained with Ogi was the change in Ikuo since they'd last met. He'd swept away the dangerous instability of old, the rebelliousness and negativism, the violence that even he himself couldn't control. Very clearly Ikuo was Yonah no more.

Since the summer conference finale ended as it did, Ikuo said, Gii and the Fireflies, who were deeply involved, were naturally shaken. Especially Gii, who showed his own unique reaction to events. He was furious that the per- formance with which the Fireflies had planned to wrap up the summer con- ference was upstaged by Patron's and Ikuo's plans. The reconciliation began only when Ikuo explained to the Fireflies how at the very last minute Patron had turned the tables on him.

After this, nestling up close to where Gii's thoughts took him, Ikuo opened up an even deeper dialogue with the boys. The first thing Gii said was this: His principle for living was to deny defeatism. In this point he evaluated Patron's church more highly than Former Brother Gii's Base Movement or the Church of the Flaming Green Tree. But in the end wasn't Patron the most defeatist of all? He didn't seriously ever plan to set up and run a church here in the Hollow. Instead, didn't he just use this whole thing as a public spec- tacle to finally do what he couldn't at the time of the Somersault-commit suicide? "I find it hard to forgive him for using our legend of the Spirit Fes- tival the way he did," Gii said.

But Ikuo patiently went on explaining things and finally Gii and the others admitted that, yes, before Patron had the idea of committing suicide at the finale of the summer conference, they'd been able to carry out the Spirit Festival, with Guide's spirit included, and that performing this Spirit Festi- val in front of so many people from all over the country was the plan they themselves had so strenuously pushed forward. And it was true that Patron, when he felt he had no other way out and reluctantly made use of the Spirit Festival, did it in a way that showed great respect for the Spirits.

As for defeatism, since Patron actually did commit suicide I can't de- fend him, Ikuo went on, but can't you young people be a little more gener- ous? Consider this: When people who've passed a certain age think about how they can wind up their affairs as best they can-and you could see in Patron's final sermon the effort he made to do this-and then commit suicide, this suicide may be just like the heroic but miserable and comic suicide of the African Cato that Patron spoke of, a variation of an honest and real effort at life.

It was Patron's fervent hope to build his Church of the New Man here, in this land. And hasn't that been accomplished? The Quiet Women were bent on their own plan to take the cyanide, but look at them now-they've accepted Patron's final request and are doing their utmost to help run things at the Hollow. There's no hint now of something happening like with Ameri- can cultists who all want to make a beeline to heaven en masse. These women have an experienced, healthy, realistic view of things and have developed a good relationship with the local women. Right now they're so close they go off together to the Mountain Stream Where Twenty-five Refined Ladies Shat and have a good time together picking butterbur.

It's true the Technicians split in half, and one faction left. But the other faction stayed, abandoned the agreements made by the leaders of the Tech- nicians before the summer conference, and formulated a new policy of full cooperation with the church. Aren't the Technicians friendlier and nicer to us and to each other than ever before? Look at the way we're working to- gether to teach you and the other Fireflies.

After listening to these details, Fred asked a question. "With the Church of the New Man starting off as it did, the position of leader, Patron's replace- ment, is vacant. And everyone-the office staff, the Quiet Women, and, more strongly than anyone else, according to Dr. Koga, the Technicians-agrees that Gii will assume that responsibility. How did this happen?"

Ikuo fielded this one. What Patron built is the Church of the New Man, so doesn't it make the most sense for those who lead to be the ones who have, in many senses of the word, the greatest possibility of becoming New Men?

After hesitating to ask again the reason why Ikuo didn't see himself as that kind of person, Fred asked, "Do you really believe young Gii is the right person to be the leader of the church?" And for the first time, Fred revealed his trump card.

In their little tête-à-tête in the corner it was obvious that Gii had been pestering Fred about something, which turned out to be whether Fred knew of any GI group in Okinawa or on the mainland that sold contraband machine guns out of the bases. Once he got hold of these high-powered weapons, Gii said, he'd have some Americans who fought in Vietnam train the Fireflies in their use. If they reinforced the ceiling of this chapel with steel sheets and the armed Fireflies holed up inside, they should be able, for a while at least, to hold off an attack by the riot police and military helicopters.

As if he were re-creating a battle scene from a Coppola movie, Gii de- scribed the Fireflies battling it out from their chapel stronghold-all the while making sure that everything he was saying was off the record. "I just want you to understand," Gii went on, "when you talk with those groups I men- tioned earlier, the level of resolve the Fireflies have as a part of the Church of the New Man. We're ready to take on Japan and the world!"

Gii was very much drawn to the same concept of a postinsurrection millennial reign of repentance that the lzu radical faction had had before the Somersault, something that people now knew was clearly different from the Aum concept of a self-centered Armageddon. Having an insurrection lead straight to the end of the world, to nothing but death, was a defeatist attitude.

"Through an insurrection based on using the Church of the New Man as our foundation," Gii told Fred, "I want to make the millennial reign of repen- tance a reality. Even in the European idea of the millennium, a millennial reign isn't seen as such an impossibly long time. If we turn the chapel into a for- tress with the weapons that spill out of the American military bases-even if we only hold out for ten days-our call for repentance will reach the ends of the earth. We've already started our own Web page. And the memory of what we do, like that of He Who Destroys and Meisuke-san's uprising, will remain forever in the realm of myth. The next New Men who arise will carry on where we left off. In other words, through the Church of the New Man we will become one with the legends of this land."

"What do you think about these ideas of Gii's?" Fred asked Ikuo. "You still plan to hand the church over to him?"

"Since more than anything else Gii hates a defeatist attitude," Ikuo re- sponded, "he won't rashly start an insurrection. For the longest time I've been mulling over Patron's final words in his sermon-the call of Long live Karamazov! When Dancer was going through Patron's effects, she found a dog-eared copy of the novel with the following commentary circled in red pencil. I read this over so many times I can quote it verbatim: "Not just Aloysha, who thirteen years hence is supposed to be crucified for being an assassin of the Tsar, but the lustful Dimitri, who carries the burden of a crime he didn't commit, as well as the Grand Inquisitor Ivan, who cries out in his thirst for life-all of them make a complete change from their positions and reach the sublime at the chorus of shouts from the boys of Long live Karamazov!' "