Several people around them stopped smoking at the same time, staring at one another, their faces drained of color.
"Surely it won't come to that? I remember our licensing agreement with Sotsu still has quite a few years left before it expires."
"Those are all old agreements, only good for old products! With Sega and Bandai at daggers drawn like this, do you think Sega will still license new works to Bandai? Dream on! And look at those executives upstairs—holding meetings on the top floor every day, arguing until they're red in the face and thick in the neck. And what comes of it? They can't even come up with a damn countermeasure! The economy outside is awful right now. Lifetime employment? That's all a load of lies. If the company really can't hold on, if the cash flow breaks and the business shrinks, the first ones to be laid off will be bottom-rung employees like us with no connections!"
"No, I need to get back and dig through my address book. I'll ask around and see whether other companies are hiring. I've got a wife and kids to support—I can't hang myself from this one tree!"
Panic spread like an invisible plague, swiftly reaching every corner of the Bandai building.
Only a few days earlier, most employees had still been burying their heads in the sand.
They had always felt that Bandai was an old, established giant with deep foundations. Sega's so-called threat was merely a business game played among the upper ranks. Even if the sky fell, the tall would hold it up—it would never affect the livelihoods of ordinary employees.
But now, Sega had not even had Sotsu issue a formal letter terminating authorization.
Merely a rumor of an acquisition circulating through financial circles had already shattered