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essentially no one said they didn’t know.
    All of the local citizens and self-proclaimed “well-informed” folks I asked this question, whether their answer was vague or specific, all had their own predecided mental image of who the “strongest” in Ikebukuro was.
    That’s what made it so fascinating.
    In that case, what would all of these people already identified by someone or other as the strongest in town think? I approached these folks as best I could manage in order to find out the answer.

    Testimony of Mr. Shiki, Awakusu-kai lieutenant, Medei-gumi Syndicate
    “The strongest in a fight… Hmm. You know it’s not really like that anymore, right? On the other hand, sure, you can’t let anyone disrespect you, so when it comes time to kill, we’ll still go at it until we win. If you come after us, we don’t care if you’re an amateur. We’ll bring the numbers, the knives, the guns, we’ll go after your family…anything tocrush our opponent. But that hardly ever happens nowadays. Leaves a bad aftertaste for us, too.
    “…So who’s the strongest? Well…like I said, in our line of work, it’s not really about who’s the toughest in a fight anymore. Huh? Including amateurs, you said?
    “…
    “…Hmm.
    “Don’t put what I’m about to say in your article.
    “I’m just saying, officially, we don’t mess with civilians. But like I just told you, all bets are off if they’re attacking
us
. But…I will say, there’s an amateur out there I wouldn’t want to mess with, personally.
    “Yeah, if we get a bunch of men and weapons together, we’d win. But in a brawl, like one-on-one, I don’t know if I could beat this guy even if I had a machine gun.
    “Huh? Simon? Oh, the sushi guy. He’s easy to get along with, so I can’t imagine fighting with him. I bet he would be real tough though. They say he can pick up a motorcycle like he’s lifting barbells. But I don’t see myself losing to him.
    “Your guess isn’t far off though. It’s a guy who associates with Simon a lot…
    “Shizuo Heiwajima.
    “We tell the new kids, don’t mess with him.
    “I mean, if you’ve seen Shizuo fight at all, you’d understand… He just exudes cool. It’s not elegant in the least. He’s a real wild man…like Godzilla… When you watch him fight, he looks cool the way that Godzilla looks cool to the kid watching it. I guess that sums it up. At any rate, he’s one crazy bastard.
    “The thing about those cool guys is, you can’t really pick a fight with ’em. It’s a lot more fun to stand aside and watch ’em work from a distance. That way, they’re not in your business, either.
    “Gotta admit, I’ve got some admiration for him. Wish I could tear things up the way he does…
    “But I need you to keep that part close to your chest.
    “…
    “So, Mr. Reporter, I hear your daughter’s in high school. Raira Academy, was it?
    “When you called about setting up this interview, we did some background checks on you.
    “Now, now, no need to stare holes through me. We have our own source of information.
    “Don’t worry, we’re not low enough that we’d threaten an amateur.
    “But…only if you don’t pick a fight with us first.
    “So please keep that information out of your article, pal.”

    Ultimately, most of what I had on that tape was unusable.
    He said that I could go with what was in the first half…but in any case, the stuff about Shizuo Heiwajima was off the table for me. I didn’t hear anything concrete about the guy, for one thing.
    But if anyone else brought up his name, then I’d be onto something.
    At this point, I decided to get in touch with the black man named Simon who people in town mentioned.
    “Hey, you. Sushi, good for you.”
    “Uh, er, actually, I was hoping to speak with you personally…”
    “One for dinner, boss.”
    I tried to decline his offer, but I eventually gave in to his force and found myself seated at the sushi counter.
    The interior was made out to look