No Time to Strike Out

Sugino attempts to eliminate Korosensei by hurling a baseball packed with anti-teacher pellets, exploiting the creature's habit of relaxing behind the school building each morning with a drink and a Hawaiian newspaper. The pitch fails completely, as Korosensei dashes into the equipment shed, straightens a crooked sign, and catches the ball before it can reach him, all in the instant it takes to close the distance. He praises the concealed pellet idea for its lack of a gunshot sound, then ushers a discouraged Sugino to class. Later Korosensei speeds off to New York for a baseball game, and in his absence Karasuma reminds the students that the military cannot touch someone at Mach 20, making this handpicked class the world's only real shot at stopping him before he destroys Earth.

The next day Korosensei seeks Sugino out, shares a coconut from Hawaii, and asks about his past in the baseball club. Nagisa, watching from inside, recalls that poor grades cost Sugino his place on the team and his motivation, landing him in class 3-E. Rushing to submit an assignment, Nagisa is alarmed to find Sugino wrapped in the teacher's tentacles, but Korosensei is only measuring his build against the pro pitcher Arita, whom he flew to New York and manhandled specifically for the comparison, complete with an angry autograph. He tells Sugino that his flexible elbow and wrist could let him surpass Arita with training, and urges him to develop his own approach to assassination. After Korosensei marks Nagisa's paper at blinding speed and adds a nonsensical bonus question, Nagisa realizes the teacher travels the globe yet still takes the class seriously because of a promise he made. Sugino soon masters a changeup that makes his slow pitches read as fast, and although Korosensei can still see it coming, both boys come to enjoy the strange classroom he runs.

Sugino's disguised-baseball assassination fails against Korosensei's speed. Karasuma reiterates that the class is humanity's only chance at killing the teacher. Korosensei physically compares Sugino to the professional Arita, whom he assaulted overseas for reference, and coaches Sugino to build on his flexible joints. Sugino develops a deceptive changeup and, with Nagisa, warms to Korosensei's teaching.

This is the second chapter of the Assassination Classroom manga, spanning twenty-three pages and first published in the thirty-second issue of 2012 on July 9 of that year. It introduces the professional baseball player Arita and follows the debut chapter, Killing Time in Homeroom.