Tony Lau

**Tony Lau** (トニー・ラウ, *Tony Lau*) is an executive of the international crime syndicate Shou Wang and, for a brief time, Shunsuke Saruwatari's employer. He heads the organization's operations in Fukuoka and is advancing the group's influence in Japan.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

Tony is described as having a suspicious appearance. He has a beard and wears tinted sunglasses. Despite being obviously foreign, he speaks Japanese fluently.

### Personality

As the head of an international syndicate advancing on foreign soil, Lau is intelligent, serious, and careful. He appears to value his subordinates but is wary of outsiders and has a bad reputation concerning outside hired killers. To protect the Shou Wang and himself, he gives potential assassins a test, and if they pass, offers a formal contract. He rarely cuts ties with the killers he does hire. After he hears of Saruwatari, he is interested in hiring him to compete with the rival organization the Kakyuu Association.

## Synopsis

### Shou Wang Arc

Tony and Naoya Nitta meet in Ohori Park and rent a paddle boat to discuss business in private. Tony explains the reasons for his organization's advancement into Japan and gives Nitta information on two executives within the Kakyuu Association, a syndicate opposing the Shou Wang. He offers an outrageous sum of money for the targets and a formal contract for Saruwatari after the hits are completed. Before paddling to shore, Tony asks Nitta to clarify his relationship with Saruwatari. Pleased with Nitta's proclamation that killers are only tools, Tony happily agrees to begin a partnership.

After the Shou Wang warehouse is attacked by Feilang, Tony arrives to the scene shortly after Nitta. As he surveys the bloody scene, he accuses Saruwatari, who passes on the blame for the incident to the Shou Wang subordinates who had been slow to call for help. As Tony counts the bodies, one of the missing men appears at the warehouse doorway carrying a box containing his comrade's severed head. When Tony finds Fu Jian Huang's ring in his mouth, he realizes that a powerful international syndicate is backing the Kakyuu Group and loses his will to fight, ordering Saruwatari not to engage with them.

Tony attends a meeting between executives of the Shou Wang and Kakyuu Association at Club Eve, where he discusses terms of a peace agreement with Ruixi Li and Suzuki. He is described as meek, civil, and fearful during the proceedings, worried about a potential larger organization behind the rival group. As part of the truce between the two groups and in compensation for their murdered comrades, Tony and Li each agree to hand over their hitman.

Tony again meets Nitta at Ohori Park to inform him of the truce and give him a powder sleeping drug meant for Saruwatari. The next day, Nitta brings the unconscious Saruwatari to the Shou Wang warehouse. When he awakens, Tony explains the situation and points a gun at him. Though Tony and Li had agreed to exchange killers alive, Tony worries about Saruwatari changing his loyalty while in the Kakyuu Group's possession and decides to kill him before the trade. He gives Nitta several hundred thousand yen in compensation, politely threatening Nitta and leaving him no choice but to take the money in exchange for his killer. Reminding Nitta that killers are only tools as if to reassure him, Tony raises his gun to shoot Saruwatari, and Nitta shoots him in the hand.

Tony falls to the floor in pain, yelling in shock at Nitta's betrayal at the consultant unties his killer. Nitta intends to let him go, but Saruwatari, furious at them both, takes out a kunai and slices Tony's throat without hesitation.