Episode 25

Itona Horibe's Time is the twenty-fifth episode of the Assassination Classroom anime and the third episode of Season 2. The episode premiered in Japan on January 21, 2016.

Overview
Shiro and Itona attack Korosensei for the third time. However Itona's failure to kill his target results in his guardian to abandon the boy to die from his tentacles.

Plot
Itona starts striking from above at Korosensei who is trapped within the bedsheets planned by Shiro. The latter reveals to have been inspired by the students' assassination attempt during their summer vacation. The group of students witnessing the event accuse Shiro of playing dirty. Shiro claims that he is just being an adult.

Despite being trapped, Korosensei counters Shiro's plan. He notes that he also learns and adapts to people's styles. He accumulates enough energy to blast his cage away instead of causing a huge explosion. Furthermore, Itona's attack patterns have mainly remained the same from their previous encounters, and Korosensei effortlessly defeats him despite the increasing complexity of Shiro's strategies. Korosensei once more requests that Itona be allowed to join Class E. However Itona crumples in pain, no doubt caused by his tentacles.

Shiro sees that Itona's constant losses are causing the tentacles to gnaw away on the boy's brain despite his desire for power as well as the high cost of continually maintaining Itona's tentacles. To that, Shiro cruelly leaves Itona without any care or worry for him. The pain accumulating within Itona rises, and the boy leaves Korosensei and the group of students in another direction.

Unable to control the pain, Itona starts rampaging around the town. News of the rampage reaches Class E. Fuwa however notices that only cell phone shops are attacked. Karma analyses Shiro's personality, how he uses his subordinates as pawns to be sacrificed and suggests leaving Itona alone. However, Korosensei tells the group that he made a vow not to let any of his students go.

Back with Itona, he flashes back to one of his memories which he sees as a lie. He is found however by Korosensei and the group, trying to convince the boy into joining Class E. All of a sudden smoke surrounds the area, with the target realising it is a spray designed to weaken him. Itona is then kidnapped by Shiro and his men, revealing that abandoning the boy was all part of his plan before driving away.

Korosensei chases after them but is soon ambushed by Shiro's men. Itona remembers how he first met Shiro on the streets after being abandoned by his father. His desire to win, and now that the target he tried to kill is trying to protect him. At that moment, the whole class arrive to help Korosensei save Itona. Rinka Hayami coldly iterates that they are only upset with Shiro due to him using the class as his pawns. The distraction allows Korosensei to remove the net covering Itona and Shiro's men defeated. The teacher tells Shiro to retreat as every plan he devised had been foiled by the students. He complies, knowing that his strategies need re-evaluating and that Itona will die in no more than two days.

The class discuss how to remove the tentacles which would not come off if Itona still desires winning and power. Fuwa figures out that Itona's father ran a small factory that supplied smartphone parts around the world. The business closed down two years prior due to rising debt, and Itona's parents vanished, leaving their son behind. Hence his rampage against cell phone shops and his desire to win.

Terasaka and his group decide to take responsibility for Itona's well-being. Itona meanwhile dreams how the business failed due to the staff being headhunted by various competitors leading to its eventual demise. Waking up, he finds himself wearing a bandanna fashioned from the net earlier, surrounded by Terasaka's group. They try various ways to rid Itona's lust for victory, from eating Muramatsu's ramen (which the boy reveals himself to be quite a critique), riding Yoshida's motorcycle (where a tight turn leads to Itona flying off to a shrub) and Hazama suggesting that he read The Count of Monte Cristo.

However, Itona's pain returns, forcing him to become violent. Terasaka confronts him, stating despite failing to kill Korosensei every day, he will continue to do so until he is killed. Furthermore, Muramatsu and Yoshida's talents will one day improve their respective fathers' businesses. His words get through to Itona, allowing Korosensei to safely remove the tentacles.

The next day Itona finally joins Class E, vowing to continue the assassination of Korosensei despite the loss in power but now with the help of new friends. He joins Terasaka's group but tells Muramatsu that he will not vomit when eating his ramen.