"I was more worried that those boys would get in a quarrel after you and the TV reporter clashed," Ms. Asuka said to Ikuo. "Seems all those marches through the woods have made them respect your physical prowess."
"Was all that something to do with me?" Kizu asked.
"The TV and newspaper reporters have been trying to get near you since last night, and the Fireflies have been standing guard."
"Ikuo's role in the summer conference is crucial," Ms. Asuka said, "so we can't have him getting detained for disturbing the peace."
"It's not the weekend, and summer vacation hasn't begun yet, so is it really okay to have the Fireflies helping out like this?" Kizu asked.
"The boys in Gii's van are new members, older than the others," Ikuo said, "young men who are going to take over their families' businesses in shops along the river in the Old Town. One of them has a job in Matsuyama and took time off from work. Once the Fireflies started getting noticed more they asked if they could join. At first Gii hesitated, but since one was the older brother of a guy who was already a Firefly he gave in."
"The Fireflies is an association with a plan for the future, correct?" Kizu asked. "Which should make it especially meaningful to include boys in this age group, I would think."
"They'll all work together," Ikuo said, "to help prepare for the summer conference. I imagine Gii will consider afterward whether or not to reorga- nize them… First the news got out about Patron's Sacred Wound, plus a sense that the Church of the New Man was finally organized. And now come reports that your cancer, Professor, has disappeared. People way beyond our little valley are starting to show an interest in our church."
Their car headed up the increasingly treacherous and windy slope, the foliage on the hillside across the deep valley now a luxuriant dark hazy green.
The large greenhouses on the slope, as well as the remains of the local con- struction projects, all had a calm, antique look to them. Kizu felt he was re- turning to an imposing and stable land.
"The news that my cancer, or what all the doctors thought was cancer, has disappeared was in a weekly magazine, apparently. Have people also been talking about it in the Hollow and in Maki Town?"
"There's nothing we can do about that," Ikuo said.
"While we were checking you out of the hospital, Ikuo went over to a large stationery store to have a copy of the magazine article faxed from a friend in Tokyo," Ms. Asuka said, turning around in the passenger seat. She'd put a pillow and blanket on the backseat and told Kizu to lie down if he felt tired.
"I ate alone in the hospital cafeteria," she went on. "At the next table was a group from one of the afternoon talk shows who'd come to do a story on you, Professor. I couldn't believe some of the things they were saying. They were even talking about how Ikuo had hit Gii."
Ikuo shifted in the driver's seat, his body language sending out a mes- sage to cease and desist, but strong-willed Ms. Asuka, not about to be deterred by any man trying to restrain her, brushed this aside.
"When Dr. Koga called us," she said, "to tell us that after your gallblad- der operation they had started to think you didn't have cancer after all-they'd be running some tests, but it didn't look like cancer-Ikuo and Gii were both in the office. Everybody was overjoyed, until Gii made some flippant remark about how he found it disappointing. 'Why's that?' Ikuo shot back, the situ- ation already getting tense because Gii is still, after all, a child. 'When some- one who's dying from cancer shortens his life even further to work for our upcoming conference,' Gii remarked, 'it's a much more interesting story.' Ikuo walloped him but good on the back of his neck; the poor boy got quite a bruise.
That's why Mayumi didn't even say hello to Ikuo today.
"The TV people must have heard about this from somewhere. One man suggested that if they got on the good side of this boy he might give them a tasty interview. Another man, a real hardliner with this affected made-for- TV voice, said that considering all the families in the country who have rela- tives with cancer they could really crank up the ratings. A guy from another group, a cameraman, said he wished he could get a shot of the toilet with that lump of cancer in it, and a woman reporter, a sort of geisha-with-a-brain type, knit her brow and laughed."
"We got rid of them once, but I'll bet they'll be back, this time at the Hollow."
Kizu looked concerned when Ikuo said this, so Ikuo continued.
"We're setting up tents we borrowed from the farm down below the dam that we'll use to register people during the summer conference. I found out from the town office that Satchan owns that land. Someday Gii will inherit it. We've arranged to park our car and the minivan not in the parking lot but on land that's already been cleared. So if those reporters follow us and try to corner you, Professor, we'll have the right to get them to leave since it's pri- vate property. Gii came up with this strategy."
"So you have a faxed copy of the magazine article?" Kizu asked.
"Shall I read it? I'll skip the boring first part," Ms. Asuka said, wasting no time.
"The doctor who performed the gallbladder operation on Professor Kizu stated that this is nothing short of a miracle, if the patient indeed had had terminal cancer as his personal physician said. He went on to say he ex- pects to receive faxes of the CT scan and X-rays of the affected parts from the doctor who made the original diagnosis of cancer, after which he plans to make a presentation at a medical conference.
"The church leader who performed the miracle refused to make any comment. This leader, who now goes by the name of Patron, is one of the men who did a Somersault eleven years ago in the face of violence on the part of a radical faction within their church. His confidant, known as Guide, was subjected to a kangaroo trial earlier this year and ended up dead, news still fresh in our minds.
"The way a politicized radical faction planned indiscriminate terror- ist acts foreshadowed what happened with Aum Shinrikyo. And now with the founder apparently able to cure terminal cancer, are we again seeing a harbinger of things to come?
"The local authorities declared that there were many opinions regard- ing this group of believers moving in, but from the standpoint of pro- tecting religious freedom they had no fundamental opposition to the church… Just as many former radicals have turned to running natural foods cooperatives and leading local environmental groups, several of these radical religious groups have switched to emphasizing healing."
Ms. Asuka stopped reading and returned the sheaf of faxes to her lap.
"It's better than what I expected from the headlines," Kizu said. "Though I know you've only read the choicest parts. But I can't see that Patron has changed his doctrine to emphasize healing. As he builds his Church of the New Man, I imagine that along the way he'll heal some incurable diseases, but that's not central to what he's doing."
Kizu suddenly felt exhausted, so he placed Ms. Asuka's pillow in one corner, pulled the blanket up over his stomach, and lay down. His cancer might be gone, but his energy level was still low.
Kizu closed his eyes. Instead of relief at having avoided death, a pal- pable unease rolled over him as to what he was supposed to do once he re- turned to the Hollow. All sorts of movements were afoot now that they were moving toward the launch of the Church of the New Man. Was there a role for him to play?