Chuta Mitsui's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
This young Managing Director's methods were simply masterful to the extreme. He had achieved victory without shedding a drop of blood, using another's blade to kill. With the gentlest and most humorous tone, he had struck the most ruthless and decisive blow. This was no mere merger; it was a complete and utter annexation and reshuffling.
"Do you understand?" Takuya Nakayama asked him gently.
"Y-Yes, I understand," Chuta Mitsui nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at rice. "I will relay your words to President Yamashina verbatim."
"Go on then." Takuya Nakayama nodded in satisfaction and threw in one last reassuring word. "Tell him that Sega has no intention of changing the president's position at Bandai's headquarters after the merger. Let him focus on his work and clean up his own house; Sega will naturally welcome him with open arms."
Chuta Mitsui picked up his briefcase from the table, bowed deeply once more, and backed out of the office, his heart a mixture of awe and wild joy.
The moment Chuta Mitsui left in his state of trepidation, Takuya Nakayama's smile vanished. Without hesitation, he pressed the intercom button on his desk.
"Hoshino-san, come to my office."
A few minutes later, Hoshino pushed open the door, still holding a document he had just signed.
Takuya Nakayama tilted his chin up slightly and pushed the merger letter of intent—still warm from the printer—that Chuta Mitsui had just delivered across the desk.
"This is the first draft from Bandai. Take it to the Legal and Finance Departments and have them review it overnight." Nakayama's tone was flat, yet it carried an unquestionable authority. "Tell them to scrutinize every single word. Don't let a single punctuation mark slip through."
Hoshino stepped forward, picked up the thick folder, and weighed it in his hand, his brow arching slightly. "Chuta Mitsui delivered it personally? Bandai is moving fast this time. It seems Makoto Yamashina has really backed them into a corner."
"Fast or not, I don't trust them." Nakayama took a sip of the completely cold latte on his desk, frowning. "Those old bones never back down until they're staring at their own coffins. This document is bound to be riddled with nasty tricks."
The third morning.
Hoshino, with faint dark circles under his eyes, returned to the Executive Office carrying the draft agreement.
The once-pristine document was now covered in red and yellow sticky notes, densely packed with the furious annotations of the legal and finance teams. It looked less like a formal contract and more like a defaced dictionary.
Hoshino sank heavily into the chair before the desk, spread the document open, and let out a long sigh.
"Managing Director, your intuition was spot on. This draft is completely unsignable." Hoshino rubbed his throbbing temples, his voice thick with exasperation. "The lawyers from the Legal Department were so furious reviewing this last night they nearly flipped the conference table."
Takuya Nakayama set down his Montblanc pen and leaned back in his chair, his interest piqued.
"Tell me. What kind of landmines did they bury in there to piss off our lawyers like that?"
"On the surface, they've made concessions. They've relinquished control of the overseas channels and agreed to the spin-off and restructuring of the toy and gaming divisions. But if you dig into the fine print of the additional clauses, it's all just them securing their own exits. Their greed is absolutely shameless."
Hoshino flipped to the third page of the draft, pointing to an additional clause heavily circled in red marker.
"Personnel appointment rights. The draft has the nerve to state that the appointment and removal of all management-level executives and above in the merged Bandai subsidiary must be approved by a majority of the original Bandai Board of Directors. This is like carving out their own private fiefdom right in the middle of Sega's territory! Sega provides the funding and the effort, yet we can't even appoint a Section Chief?"
Takuya Nakayama snorted, a flicker of derision crossing his eyes.
Hoshino turned to the next page, his finger tapping the paper emphatically.
"And then there's the financial accounting. They agree to consolidated reporting but demand to retain an independent financial auditing system. That means Sega will only see the polished, summarized data they submit, without ever seeing the underlying transaction details. What kind of merger is this?"
"These people actually want to establish a state within a state right under Sega's nose?" Takuya Nakayama tapped his finger lightly on the desk, a dangerous smile curving his lips.
"The most outrageous part is the IP licensing!" Hoshino flipped to the final pages, his voice laced with palpable anger. "They're proposing that Sega HQ cannot directly intervene in the development of derivative works involving core IPs like Gundam and Dragon Ball. Instead, they must be independently reviewed by an IP Management Committee established by Bandai. And they're demanding that this committee be composed entirely of Bandai's old guard! They're blatantly trying to use Sega's resources to keep ruling their own little fiefdom!"
Hearing this, Takuya Nakayama was so furious he actually laughed.
"They're practically in the ICU, and they're still trying to pick the feng shui of their hospital room?"
Takuya snatched the thick draft, didn't even glance at it again, and stuffed it into the shredder beside him.
Whirrrr—Krrrk—
The machine instantly emitted a harsh grinding sound. The heavy paper, which carried the final delusions of Bandai's top executives, was instantly shredded into a pile of worthless scraps by the sharp blades, fluttering down into the wastebasket.
"Those conservatives... their minds are still stuck in the Showa Era. They actually think they're still some kind of industry titans," Takuya Nakayama said, leaning back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head. His gaze was icy. "They think this is a merger between two equals, and they're trying to carve out a little kingdom for themselves within Sega. They're nothing like the people at Sotsu. Sotsu knows their place—they take the money and get the job done, and they even get a better platform to grow. But these Bandai people? They want Sega's money to save their skins, yet they refuse to swallow their pride. They want to have their cake and eat it too."
Hoshino nodded in deep agreement.
"If we actually signed this draft, the internal friction would be catastrophic. Any orders Sega issued would be blocked at every level by them. Management efficiency would plummet, expenses would become a chaotic mess, and it would even drag down our healthy cash flow."
Takuya Nakayama stood up and walked to the bright floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the bustling Tokyo streetscape below.
"Since they refuse to be reasonable and are spurning the courtesy we've shown them, we don't need to save them any face."
He turned back to Hoshino, his eyes sharp with a ruthless determination.
"Contact Richard at PricewaterhouseCoopers and the team at McKinsey," Takuya Nakayama commanded, issuing his final order. "Have them immediately form a special task force for the Bandai acquisition. Get them on the ground now!"
Please Support me by becoming my Patreon member and get 30+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon