Patron spent quite some time preparing for his sermon on the final day.
He wasn't scheduled to appear at any other functions until then, but at that time he would be speaking in front of an expected crowd of some one thou- sand people, seven hundred registered participants plus casual visitors from Maki Town and its surroundings. Even during the heyday of the church before the Somersault, Patron had only spoken to such a large crowd a hand- ful of times.
The plan that Ikuo brought over to discuss with Patron was a proposal he'd received from Gii's mother by way of Gii. Satchan was grateful to Ikuo for taking the Fireflies under his wing and helping them expand to the point where adults in Maki Town approved of the group. She was also allowing the church to use the cypress island in the Hollow, land she owned, in their conference and had made the church a proposition.
The giant tree, half destroyed, was awful to look at, even though new leaves appeared on it every year. The cypress was the remains of what hap- pened when Brother Gii, planning to dissolve the Church of the Flaming Green Tree and leave the area with his wife, Satchan, burned down the tree in place of the chapel. The next morning, as Brother Gii set off with a small group of pilgrims, he was stoned to death by attackers.
Fifteen years later, it still pained Satchan to look at the horrible sight of this burned and mangled tree still standing. "If you cut down the tree and use the land as a small park," she said, "I'll give the island to the church."
Gii added his own idea, saying that if the tree was to be cut down they should incorporate this as a rousing end to the conference. How about burn- ing it down completely? Since it was on an island in the middle of a lake full of water, the fire department shouldn't have any objection. They were plan- ning to burn all the spirit dolls anyway, once they'd been used in the proces- sion; if they piled the dolls up at the base of the cypress and burned them together, two birds with one stone, it would be a spectacular finale.
Patron immediately approved of this proposal when Ikuo presented it to him. After they finished discussing it, Patron, Ikuo, and Morio went over to the window that looked over the lake to watch the Fireflies as they were just setting off in their procession. The three men soon moved over to the east window and followed the children with their lanterns as, the older boys accompanying them, they swiftly walked up the forest slope that, in the dark- ness, seemed all the more close. A second group was waiting for the proces- sion, and the first group lit the second's lanterns and then began to run toward the eastern bank of the Hollow in a large curve.
Ikuo had already sensed, along with Morio's being on edge, that Patron had lost his composure when all of a sudden Patron turned to them anxiously and began to speak. Weren't the Fireflies preparing to spread kerosene all over the area along the animal trail they'd been taking, he said worriedly, a lot of kerosene? Weren't they all set to light the kerosene that was running down the forest slopes, and weren't the boys running with the lanterns already set- ting fires in places you couldn't see from here and then passing the batons one after another to the next groups crossing the forest?
At first Ikuo thought this was some kind of joke. But Patron's in- sistence wasn't normal. All of a sudden Patron leaped up and yelled for Ms. Tachibana, who was downstairs. When she showed up, a worried look on her face, he ordered her to get his clothes ready so he could go outside.
"Morio's coming down with his shoes on," he yelled out, "so get the same clothes ready for him!"
Though there was no need to, he shouted at Ikuo in the same fearful voice. "If the Fireflies set fires and the whole forest surrounding the Hollow goes up in flames at once," he shouted, "there'll be a panic among the thou- sand spectators! We have to do something to stop this tragedy!"
Ikuo tried to calm him down, telling him this was just a ridiculous fan- tasy. But Morio was even more hysterical than Patron, and as Patron was being dressed by Ms. Tachibana, his vehement words pouring out unabated, Morio clung to his waist, crying. Patron upbraided him, urging him to change his own clothes as quickly as he could.
Seeing that Ikuo was still seated calmly, Patron had changed his tack, announcing that he was going down to the reviewing stand to take the micro- phone and urge the spectators to evacuate the area. "You and Ms. Tachibana take Morio, he can't walk well!" he shouted, "and run past the parking lot and escape to the bypass!"
Patron had pulled on his shoes right on top of the rug and was about to head downstairs alone. Not knowing what else to do, Ikuo physically re- strained him. If Patron's call was amplified by the microphone and rang out in the darkness, imagine how much more of a panic this would throw the spectators into, Ikuo argued. "People will be thrown into a worse panic, thinking they'll be burned alive in a forest fire," he said, trying to calm Patron down.
Although usually mild-mannered, Patron had become like a frenzied child, foaming at the mouth, his face bright red and swollen as he resisted, trying to wrench himself free of Ikuo's grasp. When he couldn't, he twisted to one side and boxed Ikuo on the ears. "Satan, Satan!" he screamed.
Likewise, Morio jabbed at Ikuo's thighs, yelling out the same thing.
With Morio wrapped around his lower half, Ikuo grasped Patron tightly so he couldn't pound him anymore and dragged him backward toward the bed in the next room, faintly visible in the gloom. The momentum sent Morio tumbling down the hallway that led to the staircase. He let out a cry, and Ms. Tachibana came running.
Ikuo had finally managed to hold Patron down in bed, but he kept on resisting, spitting out hard flecks of foam as he shouted, "You faggot Satan, you!
As Dr. Koga was leaving the chapel annex with Kizu, Ogi, who had the key with him and was waiting for them, called out. Ms. Tachibana wanted Dr. Koga to come over to Patron's place right away. Kizu watched him walk up the short slope to Patron's residence, raise a hand in greeting to the Firefly secu- rity guards, and, looking down, walk inside. As Kizu turned his gaze toward the overflowing crowds of people, Ikuo showed up, his sweatshirt and cor- duroy trousers sweaty and smelly.
"I'll take you over to the north shore," he said.
Leaving Ogi behind, Kizu and Ikuo walked off, a two-man security guard from the Fireflies clearing a path for them through the milling crowds.
As they got to the narrow place where the lunch menu was posted, the black- smith and a woman who looked as if she were fighting illness were waiting in ambush. They passed so close to Kizu and Ikuo they could smell the li- quor on the man's breath, but Ikuo ignored the man when he called out to them and put his thick arm protectively around Kizu as they strode away.
The smell of Ikuo's sweat made Kizu feel calm and protected. A fear still lingered, though, as to what the blacksmith might say to the woman- perhaps not ill herself but with a husband ill with cancer-as they stood bathed in the direct sunlight beside him.
The security guards led them from the crowded dam, along the broad road connecting to the north shore of the Hollow, to the path leading up to Kizu's house. Ikuo was in a hurry but he was careful to go in first, and as Kizu headed straight for bed to lie down, he opened up the windows from the stu- dio to the kitchen to disperse the heated, stuffy air.
Kizu laid his head back at an angle on the high part of the bed and watched. Ikuo sat down at a chair in front of an empty easel, picked up a drawing of himself and Patron on top of a box of paints, and gazed at it. The strong light shining in from outside emphasized the contrast even more, but Kizu had already noticed how haggard and beastlike Ikuo's face looked, com- pared to the sketch.