That was right. The Kondo Group's most criticized trait was probably that they did not care in the slightest about who their opponents were—they could wipe them all out. It made them seem utterly incompatible with this country. Other organizations showed absolutely no mercy when cutting down cannon fodder, but when dealing with prominent figures with even a little influence, they would always hold back, claiming, "For the sake of negotiations..."
But in Sogo Doma's eyes, that was merely a compromise. Or rather, killing those people with considerable social influence would force the authorities to step in and negotiate. After all, many ringleaders were publicly well-known figures. If they were suddenly murdered, the public would surely demand answers, and the authorities could not play dumb even if they wanted to.
Before the Kondo Group, no organization had ever considered opposing the authorities—not even Toshiro Hijikata had. Unfortunately, the captain of their First Division was the sort who did not care about anything at all. Setting up a safe zone centered around the Kondo Group alone was fucking outrageous!
Sogo Doma's so-called safe zone had never considered cooperating with the authorities. Instead, it relied on the Kondo Group's military strength to drive out of the country any individual or organization that dared cause trouble. As for the police and such, they only needed to clean up afterward. That was why official organizations had always had little presence within Kondo Group territory.
The simplest example was the attitude of those officers when Tae Shimura sent the gorilla boss to the police station. They were a state-run armed institution, yet not only could people from the Animal Management Association barge in, they even made a huge show of trying to take away the suspect gorilla—cough, cough, Isao Kondo—without giving anyone an ounce of