Episode 40

Outcome Time is the fortieth episode of the Assassination Classroom anime and the eighteenth episode of Season 2. It premiered in Japan on May 12, 2016.

Summary
The civil war comes down to Karma challenging Nagisa on a one-on-one melee battle. Despite Karma's advantage in terms of strength, Nagisa manages to pin him down in a chokehold with full-force determination. The match is decided with Nagisa's victory for the "blue" team, and Class E unanimously deciding to find the alternative solution to save Korosensei's life.

Plot
After Nagisa wipes out Nakamura, Terasaka, Yoshida and Muramatsu from nowhere, Karma figures out that he had camouflaged himself with Karasuma who is the only one to wear his Self-Defense uniform. Irina comments on how gutsy Nagisa is to hide beside Karasuma while Korosensei states that he waited for the perfect opportunity to strike multiple targets in one go. Maehara meanwhile tries to sneak behind Karma but is knifed in the head.

Now a one-on-one fight, Karma heads out into the open and Nagisa hides himself. The former then calls out to challenge him to a melee fight. Although Sugino cries out to shoot him down, Kayano believes that Nagisa will not do such a thing. Shooting Karma down after having already proclaiming his challenge would only harden the resolve of the kill team and cause further discord. For Nagisa to completely unite the class, but also make Karma truly understand his desire to save Korosensei, he will need to beat Karma at his own game. Nagisa puts down his gun and prepares two knives as he meets to face Karma. As some of the class head down to watch at a closer range, others speak out about their own resolve. Yada for instance admits that while she does not want to kill their teacher, eliminating Hayami gave her some sort of satisfaction. Terasaka sees how there are those who kept their strengths hidden until this battle, those who acted exactly as expected, and others that will keep trying.

Meanwhile Nagisa and Karma reminisce on their past friendship. For Nagisa, he always admired Karma’s academic abilities since their first year at Kunugigaoka and was glad that after sharing the same interests, he was able to hang out with him. But after seeing Karma violently beating up two people, he felt that Karma became bored of sharing the same stage as him. The two gradually drifted apart and reverted to being just classmates by the time of Karma’s suspension. For Karma, he saw Nagisa as a harmless person whom he can let his guard down. But after feeling as though he had been violently stabbed in the back (though it was a poke from behind) when trying to find his friend at a fast food outlet, Karma had not been able to figure out the hidden aura within Nagisa. This is when he started to hang out less with Nagisa and before he knew it the two drifted apart. Back in the present the two boys are on the same stage: assassination. Between a combative person and the most talented student to be an assassin, both declare with a sadistic face that the other is going down.

The melee duel starts and it becomes immediately clear that Nagisa lacks the strength to match Karma’s. However he is able to hold his own. Both boys soon lose their knives, though Karma goes on the offensive as Nagisa tries to unsheathe his second blade. Karma’s goal is to beat Nagisa down repeatedly, even taking Nagisa’s blows head on, as his way to unite the class. Nagisa only needs one single strike to win. Karma then catches Nagisa out by punching him on the chin with a right hook and follows up with an axe kick with his opponent still stunned. After picking up his knife and one last look at Korosensei, Karma prepares to end the duel. But Nagisa quickly rises up and uses the clap stun technique at point blank range. Although surprised, Karma negates some of the effects by biting his tongue. Nagisa grabs his knife and prepares to stab him with all his bloodlust pouring into the knife. Karma focuses his attention on the knife but at the last second sees the knife dropped. In a swift motion, Nagisa grabs hold of Karma and pins him down in another chokehold. Karma instantly knew that he would fall unconscious and desperately tries to throw Nagisa off. In his frantic attempts, he finds his own knife. But as he lifts it, he sees his friend’s genuine attempts to make Karma understand his wishes. He then drops the knife and declares his surrender. With that, Karasuma declares the blue team as the winner of the battle. Nagisa and Karma reconcile their friendship (and even agree to drop their previous formalities and honorifics). Both Irina and Karasuma believe that the battle is another lesson devised by Korosensei, as the rest of the class is amicably reunited. At the end of the day, Karasuma gives them until the end of January to find a way to save Korosensei. Regardless of the outcome, they will still complete their original goal of assassination afterwards, a condition the class unanimously accepts.

In a post-credits scene, the class discuss how they can save their teacher. Ritsu manages to hack into the global research database and Fuwa found the US research database that the scientists are formulating a way to save the planet on the International Space Station. Korosensei then asks Karasuma and Irina to leave the room, stating that the chat can prove liable to them. He then suggests to the class that they hijack a prototype space shuttle developed in Japan that will launch supplies to the ISS. The class immediately expresses their astonishment at their teacher’s plan to hijack a space shuttle and send students into space.

Differences between Anime and Manga

 * During the flashback when Karma joins Nagisa to read a movie magazine about Sonic Ninja they are at the bookstore instead of the classroom.