"Gii knows everything there is to know about this area's legends and its past, recent events included. You know how we look back on things in our lives and say certain experiences were good and regret others? That's how he has considered historical events that have taken place here. He also has a good idea of what he plans to do in future; he's set on spending the rest of his life here.
"When I suggested that at least he go to college, he shot down that idea with a scornful laugh. He has a strong conviction based on the history of his family as to the path his life should take. His father got a degree in ag- riculture from Tokyo University and started that church here that failed.
His grandfather also graduated from Tokyo University, in education, be- came a diplomat, and retired to the Hollow, where he died of cancer. The things he learned at school didn't help him reform anything in this small lo- cal society, let alone the nation. It didn't amount to anything. So Gii says that living here in this anti-Center valley in the woods he can really do something important. The legends and history of this place will be his textbook. If he needs to know anything else, he said, he'll read some books."
Kizu felt a twinge of childish jealousy, for Ikuo was full of a cheerful enthusiasm that had been missing at the meeting in the chapel.
"When I saw you last time I thought I hadn't yet met Gii," Ikuo went on. "I planned to talk to you and the church only after I'd actually met him.
But now I realize I had met him. Whenever I went to talk with the young people at the Farm there was always one young man who, though he never looked directly at me, was unforgettable. That's Gii. They start their train- ing every day while it's still dark, and after they're done the high school boys ride their bikes to the high school a half hour away. Today's a holiday, Founder's Day at school, so they could take their time practicing, and I was able to join them and finally talk to Gii.
"After we crossed the bridge and entered the woods, I could sense he was the leader, even though he wasn't obviously calling the shots. He has this very fetching way of walking. We followed a kind of animal path beaten down through the woods as we scaled the hill in a clockwise direction. Twice we crossed a river and a road, which they hurried over on tiptoe as if they didn't want to sully their feet with profane ground. As I tried to keep up with them, Gii told me more details about the group. Steadily climbing the steep slope, he told me all this in a very thoughtful, precise way. He's a splendid young man."
Kizu couldn't help smiling when he heard this. His jealousy had van- ished, replaced by a pleasant sense of how excited Ikuo was.
When he saw Kizu's reaction, Ikuo stopped speaking, and Kizu took advantage of the pause. "Let me make a suggestion," he said. "You haven't told any of this to the office staff yet, have you? Let's invite Ogi and Dancer, and we'll all have dinner together while you tell us about it. It's a shame to not share this report with the others."
Kizu called Mrs. Shigeno in the dining hall to ask about the menu for that night-ham steak sandwiches made of ham the Technicians had helped to cure, as well as vegetable soup made of the ham bones. That sort of food was simple to transport, so it was easy enough for all of them to eat together at the office. Kizu asked Mrs. Shigeno to phone the office about his plan, and then he and Ikuo left their house on the north shore.
Mrs. Shigeno enjoyed impulsive ideas, and she packed their dinners into the cardboard boxes with the logo the Church of the Flaming Green Tree used when they sold box lunches in the hotel in Matsuyama and the shops in the airport, the one Kizu had seen in the market. When Kizu and the others heard that Patron and Ms. Tachibana and her brother had received the same dinners packed the same way, they pretended that they were all on a picnic and settled down in the room next to the office, looking out over the moonlit lake. While they were waiting for their food to be brought over, Ikuo drove over to the general store and procured some cans of beer from the vending machine. Feeling he was on the same wavelength as the Fireflies now, Ikuo continued to be in a buoyant mood.
Gii had asked Ikuo whether he thought they were all free to choose their own fate. Ikuo agreed in principle, and Gii went on to tell him how he'd sur- veyed the people in Kame Village, before it merged into Maki Town, to find the different paths people had chosen in their lives. When they had their school festival in the second year of junior high, Gii had made a display presenta- tion of his findings in the social studies corner. Teachers and parents ignored it, but his display had turned out to be the impetus to forming the Fireflies.
Gii had taken a copy of his findings out of the back pocket of his jacket to give to show Ikuo, clearly having prepared in advance for their talk. His list read as follows: a. People who live in the village who have some role to play in the social system. Those who control and who are controlled. Each side views the other critically. b. People who live in the village but have fallen out of the social system.
People without any abilities: the elderly, those with severe handicaps, those who have committed crimes, children. c. People who live in the village who tried to create their own subsystem but failed. Leaders and followers in various movements. On the surface they have no influence, but behind the scenes it is a different story. a. ' People who've left the valley to live in urban areas and have found a role to play there. These people are greatly respected in the village society, but since they live in cities they have no role to play in the village. Even if they return to the village, they aren't given a role, either up front or behind the scenes. b. ' People who've left the village for urban areas and have fallen out of the social system there. Generally they've vanished, with no reports about them. Occasionally reports surface of some of them becoming criminals. c. ' People who have left the village to live in urban areas and are attempt- ing to create an independent subsystem. Though the possibility exists, no one has yet been victorious or been defeated in these endeavors. One example from the distant past of this would be Fujiwara Junyu from the lower reaches of the Maki River.
"Gii certainly has the ability to think abstractly," Ogi said, in innocent admiration, as he read Gii's notebook page. "If you took this to its logical conclusion, wouldn't there also be a classification in c and c' of people who were successful?"
"That's probably because there weren't any specific examples in c as there were in c'," Ikuo said. "When Gii was dividing these into groups, I under- stand he did have some examples in mind. It's kind of a typical junior high school way of doing things, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of abstract thought. In fact, as you say, it's quite the opposite. In this classification sys- tem, I think Gii himself wants to be a successful example of c. In other words, one of Ogi's missing pieces-someone who's created a successful subsystem.
That's why he founded the Fireflies. Pretty bold fellow, I'd say."
As Ikuo was bragging about them, Kizu thought that if it were up to him he would have called them nice kids-and he would have included Ikuo in this category.
"Gii knows that in this region there are examples in the c category who've failed. First of all there's the man said to be his father, Satchan's husband, the Brother Gii who made this lunch box." Ikuo showed them the lunch box rest- ing in his hand, the contents of which had been devoured, a box with trees painted on it with detailed green leaves. "There were still a lot of these lunch boxes left over at the farm. And Former Brother Gii, who led the so-called Base Movement. Also there are the leaders of the various insurrections and the legendary figures he's uncovered.