Red Lady Cigarettes

Chapter 11: Red Strings With Loose Ends

Kijin was recovering from his injuries, and so Shinjo as well as the head of the family, Ashikaga was left to explain everything to Shiro.

"We can provide them other options on weaponry! Haven't you people thought of any compromise that would make us stay in their good side?" Shiro, was at the very least, devastated with the news. He has a family to take care of, and he's running Iona Industries as a company with dignity, not some product of some business grown with bloodshed. "Where even is Shinkiro?"

"She'll be back in a few days, Tartarus was cracked along with a few other prisons. Our dear smoke bomb sent criminals to justice too, and now they'll likely come after her."

Surely, Ashikaga saw this as an opportunity to resort to his own wits and ideas. "The Lanceo shot your brother, Shinkiro's reasoning behind that was, we retaliated since they started to use violence." The old man laughed. "Maybe now that we have Shinkiro, it's time to stop acting like the underdogs and grow some spine."

Shinjo added. "I know how much you want to stay in the light and protect your family, but the authorities won't help us if a threat is coming from overseas. We have to deal with this ourselves. Just stay the way you were." The lady pointed to her brother. "Shiro will manage the legal properties, Iona Industries will stay a clean company just how Kenji started it. If anybody threatens this family again, we will retaliate and protect what's ours in any way we can. Father's right, we're too good to be their lapdogs."

The old man then stood up, picking his hat from the table as he supported himself with his cane. "From now on we will respond to these people the same way they treat us. Give us respect, we'll honor the same amount towards them. Give us hell, then we'll feast on them."

[ Musutafu ]

The Lanceo family is scattered throughout the world. But their origins is actually in the Philippines." Popping up another stick from his metal case, Touza lighted it up as they sat and faced each other. "You'd think, coming from a third world country, they'd be powerless. But they're actually the toughest of them all."

Her eyes squinted. "What makes you say that?" It's true, the Philippines is a third world, and in terms of national economy, they're incomparable to other countries as it's still a developing one.

"The Lanceo isn't just a mob or a gang. They're war heroes that saved the Philippines from an attack under a villain organization from the US." Touza gave the first picture of a soldier. "This is the head of the family, Elias Lanceo. His quirk is similar to a great horned owl. Think of him as Hawks, but his wings doesn't make any noise, and instead of human feet, he has talons. He was an air force officer during the war, and had stopped several sieges. This guy's a veteran, and if I were you I wouldn't challenge him." Then the next one was placed. "Linares Lanceo, there's not much insight about his quirk, but he also has wings. Ontop of that, his quirk isn't just a mutation like Elias', he has some type of secondary emitter that's apparently still unknown."

"I want to know how they could attain such authority from just being war heroes."

"When the war ended, the surviving heroes were given privileges by the Philippine government. Basically, the survivors were treated as the country's pride and living legends. People adored them. So, it's inevitable that when someone has this outstanding control and power, they will seize anything they could possibly get their hands on." Touza explained, glancing to a distance from time to time as he continued to speak. "These war heroes has their government manipulated so their illegal activities aren't monitored. They've been using their country to produce drugs, and the Philippine government will only turn a blind eye. Because let's be honest, when the Lanceo graduated from war, they've grown exponentially. They've become richer than their country themselves."