Episode 01

**Assignment** (アサイン, *Asain*) is the first episode of the *Ryman's Club* anime.

## Summary

Child prodigy badminton player, Mikoto Shiratori, is dismissed from Mitsuhoshi Bank's Badminton Team and is offered a position at the Sunlight Beverage Badminton Team. In his first day of work, he stumbles upon some of his new teammates and unveils the true reason as to why he was offered a position at the Sunlight Beverage Badminton Team.

## Plot

### December 12th, Kyoto

Mitsuhoshi Bank's Coach (tentative) is watching the match between Koji Ito and Mikoto Shiratori. Ito is in the lead with 20 points while Mikoto has 19 points. Mikoto is reminded of his ultimatum with Mitsuhoshi Bank's Coach (tentative) and gets a chance to shoot back but he remembers his previously injured teammate (tentative) and fails to shoot back, earning Ito his 21th point and, subsequently, the victory.

### March 3rd, Kyoto Station

With his contract concluded, Mikoto decides to take a train back home to Nagoya, Tokyo. In the train, he thinks of how one of his Mitsuhoshi Bank teammates called him a loser when he gave him a goodbye bouquet, which he threw in the station's litter.

Mikoto gets a call from his mother, who is surprised at her son losing his job, and explains that he can't be coming back home as she recently had gotten a pet iguana. She follows the conversation by advising him to go back to doubles, agitating Mikoto who, quickly, dispatches her opinion and declares that he would be still coming back home.

Thereafter, he sits on the train's floor, asking himself whether he should continue playing badminton or not when he, suddenly, gets a call from an unknown number. He picks it up and the unknown caller offers him a position in Sunlight Beverage's Badminton Team, which he accepts.

### April 4th, Urawa

Mikoto is checking his phone for a shortcut to get to Sunlight Beverage but is interrupted by some of his mother's messages asking if he was ready for his job or not, which he is apathetic about.

Afterwards, he gets into a Familiar Mart and buys a necktie, struggling to put it on. Once he gets out of the Familiar Mart, he goes through a park and, to his right, he spots a suited stanger sleeping in a pink hippo's mouth. He tries to ignore him and calls him a drunk but the suited stranger notices him and asks for water. Mikoto gives him a bottle of water and, as a symbol of gratitude, the suited stranger ties his necktie properly. Amidst this, Mikoto looks at the time and realizes that he is a bit late for his first day and runs off.

He arrives just in time at Sunlight Beverage and is presented to his Sales Department coworkers, who, oddly, look at him. One of the female coworkers points at his necktie and one of them starts taking pictures of this, making Mikoto highly embarassed. Shortly, the suited stranger walks in, greets Sunlight Beverage's workers and asks Mikoto if he liked his necktie, annoying Mikoto. He is revealed to be a Sales Department worker there named Tatsuru Miyazumi.

Tatsu gives Mikoto a small tour through the company and telling about its story although Mikoto was barely listening to as he shifted his attention to Natto Cola. Tatsu admits he has no clue as to how Natto Cola is popular, leaving Mikoto disappointed.

Next, they head to the Planning Department Room and there, Toya Saeki recognises Mikoto, causing everyone to be taken by surprise, and clarifies that they were former badminton teammates until he, unexpectedly, left to Kyoto. Mikoto apologizes for his past behaviour but Toya doesn't believe him and questions him if he was already over about what had happened at Inter-High. Mikoto has a brief pause before brushing it off. To ease the tension, Tatsu checks his watch and Mikoto asks if it was time for badminton practise but Tatsu, asks him to be patient. Mikoto confronts him by saying that he had told him that they were already done, which Tatsu counters that they were already done with looking through the company, irritating Mikoto and making Toya chuckle. Tatsu informs him that practise only starts at 4pm and they go outside to resume the remainder of their activities.

As soon as they were done resuming the remainder of their activities, they are on their way to badminton practise in one of the company's cars. Tatsu reminds and laughs at Mikoto due to his novice mistakes such as forgetting about his business cards and mistaking the client's name. Mikoto, bothered by this, asks Tatsu what were the intentions in making him have a job outside of being a badminton player, which Tatsu retaliates that's how things are at Sunlight Beverage. Mikoto blames this mindset as the reason that Sunlight Beverage will always stay in the Second Division League but Tatsu disproves of this as Sunlight Beverage made a comeback in the S/J League. Mikoto points out that they were in the last place of the S/J League but Tatsu affirms this but adding that they are working hard to climb to the top to reach the same level as Mitsuhoshi Bank. Mikoto asserts that he loves badminton and would give his all on practise but that he had no intentions on being all buddy buddy with them. Tatsu responds that he needed to get rid of this mindset since it would lower his results in both work and badminton. Mikoto reacts in a dull way and claims that he wouldn't know this as he doesn't play doubles, which Tatsu expresses that it's a shame.

Arriving at Matsugishi Elementary School, Mikoto is dismayed that they will be practising there. At that moment, Toya appears, slightly shocking Mikoto. One of the Elementary School kids notices them and questions what the big bags were for and called them weirdos for being there, making them feel a bit awkward. In the Gymnasium Lockers, Mikoto asks Toya if it was truly weird for them to be playing there, giving Toya the opportunity to mention his earlier necktie. Mikoto is rattled and asks how did he know of it. Koki Takeda makes his debut and, diffusely, affirms it was him. Takeda and Toya advertise their pair name, TakeTo respectively.

Once they were done changing, they step onto the court and Sota Saeki is seen tying the net. Toya introduces his older brother to Mikoto, who also plays singles. Sota, quickly, checks his phone and compares Mikoto with one of Takeda's pictures of him and asked if he was the necktie guy, irking Mikoto and making Toya and Takeda snicker. Their Coach, Yasuomi Ono, comes to the court and tells them to be quiet. He greets Mikoto and asks him where his doubles pair was, which Mikoto is confused by. Tatsu, then, arrives on the court and announces that he was his doubles pair. Frustrated, Mikoto tries to leave but Ono stops him. Mikoto, angrily, retorts that he had never been told he was going to be playing doubles. Ono confirms this by saying that he had, purposefully, never told him this but that he regrets tricking Mikoto, aggravating him even more, causing him to bluster that he would have likely never joined a weak team if he knew they wanted him for doubles. Takeda is disturbed by his comment and Toya tries to calm Takeda down. Tatsu, rapidly, suggests playing a singles match with Mikoto to see his abilities and Ono puts the condition that he would let Mikoto play singles if he won. Mikoto accepts Tatsu's challenge as he was sure Tatsu won't win.

#### Mikoto versus Tatsu

The match starts with Tatsu's swing. Tatsu displays his physical abilities, making easy work of Mikoto's idling and getting the 1st point of the match. He gets another 5 points and Takeda attributes that Tatsu's physical abilities were going to be the winning factor of this match. Sota asks Toya if Mikoto's play style was defensive, which Toya denies and that he was observing the opponent.

After Tatsu got his 7th point, Mikoto stops idling by and fights back, scoring his 1st point. Ono denotes Mikoto's weapon, attesting it feels as if he is predicting all of the opponent's moves. Mikoto scores 10 points and, as he was about to use his usual strategy, Tatsu goes for a cross-court shot instead of a straight shot, earning him his 9th point. Ono takes this moment and indicates that this was the flaw of Mikoto's weapon, which would be, easily, covered in doubles.

The match moves on and, as he was bout to shot back Tatsu's shot, he remembers his previously injured teammate and fails to shoot back, earning Tatsu his 10th point. Baffled, Sota asks the others if Mikoto could have even shot it back, making Toya apprehensive about him.

In a series of shots, Mikoto ends up with 17 points and Tatsu with 16 points. Mikoto declares that Tatsu should give up but Tatsu, fervently, quips he would never let the shuttlecock fall again in order to win, declaring that Mikoto should be the one giving up.

After that, the game advances and Mikoto has 19 points while Tatsu has 20 points. In the midst of the decisive point, Mikoto starts to wonder what it would be like if Tatsu were to be his doubles pair. He, hastily, tries to reject this idea, giving Tatsu an advantage to score the final point and, thus, winning the match with a score of 19-21.

#### April 4rth, nighttime

After the match ended, Tatsu is, yet again, trying to convince Mikoto that doubles is indeed suited for him as he could tell by the way he played.

Once they were done changing, Mikoto and Tatsu walk together and Tatsu starts thinking of pair names like Takeda and Toya's, throwing the following suggestions MiyaShiro, TatsuMiko and MikoTatsu until Mikoto delineates he doesn't want one and that he has yet to accepted Tatsu as his doubles pair. Tatsu says for him not to worry as he's certain they'll be a good doubles pair and teach him the way of a "Badryman", a self proclaimed superhero who makes his way to the future with suits and shuttlecocks. Mikoto deems it as lame and gives Tatsu a good night.

Tatsu, however, is heading to same place that Mikoto's heading, making him question Tatsu if he was a stalker. Tatsu is confused and states that he is just heading to their dorm, leaving Mikoto in disbelief.

### Mikoto's childhood

In an unspecified event of Mikoto's childhood, young Mitoko meets a younger Tatsu in the same park they met years later.

Tatsu notices Mikoto and tells him he should be home but Mikoto requests him to pay no attention to him and asks what his bag was for. Tatsu takes this opportunity to show off his racket and shuttlecock and explain what badminton is, which Mikoto is amazed by and wants to try it out. Mikoto, then, asks who he was and Tatsu, confidently, said he was a Badryman.

## Characters

* Mikoto Shiratori
* Mitsuhoshi Bank's Coach (tentative)
* Koji Ito
* Takuma Kirishima
* Mikoto's mother (tentative)
* Micchan
* Tatsuru Miyazumi
* Koki Takeda
* Toya Saeki
* Sota Saeki
* Yasuomi Ono