No Time to Strike Out

No Time to Strike Out (野球の時間) is the second chapter of the Assassination Classroom manga.

Short summary
Sugino attempts to throw an anti-sensei BB pellet-embedded baseball at Korosensei, but fails as Korosensei is too fast. Later that day, Korosensei leaves for New York to watch a baseball match. Meanwhile, Karasuma lectures the class on the importance of killing Korosensei. The next day, Korosensei meets Sugino to talk about his baseball skills. Nagisa then finds Korosensei strangling Sugino with his tentacles to examine his muscles. It turns out that Korosensei previously strangled Arita, a professional baseball player, to compare him with Sugino. Sugino's baseball skills eventually improve and he, along with Nagisa, learn to appreciate Korosensei's presence.

Long summary
Resting on a lawn chair outside, Korosensei is sipping a drink reading a newspaper about the moon having just been destroyed. He wishes for a more interesting front-page story. Hiding behind a tree nearby, Sugino recalls Korosensei's daily routine of relaxing behind the school building every morning before class, having bought a drink and an English-language newspaper from Hawaii. He thanks Nagisa for his information, to which Nagisa wishes him back good luck. Holding a baseball embedded with anti-sensei BB pellets, he winds up and pitches it at Korosensei's head, only to have Korosensei appear behind the two. He wishes them a good morning and tells the two to say their greetings loud. As Nagisa says his greeting, Sugino is left with his jaw-dropped, looking back and forth between Korosensei and the lawn chair. Korosensei explains that Sugino's idea of embedding the anti-sensei pellets into the baseball was a good idea as it doesn't have a discharging sound like a gun. He then reveals what he did in his free time as the ball slowly approached him: dashing into the equipment shed, fixing a slanted sign overhead saying "Guts", and catching the baseball with a glove. Korosensei laughs a little and claims the two should be able to kill him before graduation. Korosensei directs the two into the classroom, with Sugino feeling discouraged.

In class, Kayano asks Nagisa if Sugino's assassination attempt failed, to which Nagisa says it did, with Sugino still feeling disheartened, even though no one else has been able to kill him either. Karasuma appears and asks the students if they managed to figure out how to kill him yet. The students claim there's no way, then tell him he went off to New York to watch a sports match. Karasuma agrees that with Korosensei's speed, not even the military can kill him, but the class has a chance, having been chosen to be taught by him. He reminds the class that he already took out a chunk of the moon and will undoubtedly destroy the earth, then re-iterates that the class is their only chance. Nagisa is still perplexed as to why he wants to destroy the earth and then come to be their homeroom teacher.

After class, Sugino is sitting alone outside when Korosensei appears with his baseball polished. Sugino asks Korosensei what he's eating, to which Korosensei says he bought a coconut from Hawaii yesterday and offers Sugino some of it. Sugino notes that normally, coconuts are to drink from. Sitting down, Korosensei praises Sugino's pitch in his assassination attempt yesterday. Sugino disregards his praise, knowing he'd never be able to hit Korosensei with his pitching speed. Korosensei asks if he was in the baseball club, to which Sugino claims to be in the past. From inside the school building, Nagisa spots the two. He recalls that he got banned from club activities for his poor grades and was told to focus on studying instead. He points out from yesterday his slow pitch, as a reason for batters to be able to hit all his pitches, thus removing him from the lineup and demotivating him from studying to end up in class 3-E. Korosensei starts to offer Sugino some advice.

Nagisa is rushing to hand Korosensei his assignment, hoping he's not in a grudge over the assassination attempt since he was talking to Sugino. He spots the two to find something worse: Sugino getting strangled by his tentacles. Nagisa rushes over reminding him he can't harm the students. Korosensei recalls Sugino's pitching stance as resembling pitcher Arita's, who went into the major leagues. Putting Sugino down, he tells him that his shoulder's configuration is poor and that he won't be able to throw a radio ball like Arita because of that. Nagisa asks how he can be so certain. Korosensei claims he went and checked Arita himself, showing the front headlines of the newspaper now with Arita getting attacked by tentacles. Nagisa and Sugino are left shocked at Korosensei's effort. He then shows an angry autograph he obtained from Arita and cries. Sugino sulks realizing the difference in their abilities, to which Korosensei counters by pointing that his elbow and wrist are more malleable and that he can surpass Arita if he trains. Waving his tentacles, Korosensei claims they're never wrong when comparing things and prompts Sugino to find his own method of assassination. Feeling better, Sugino is left examining his own arms as Korosensei walks off. From behind him, Nagisa asks if he went to New York specifically to give Sugino advice, to which Korosensei confirms that he did, as a teacher. Nagisa points that a normal teacher wouldn't go so far, on top of destroying the earth after teaching the class. Remembering wrapping his tentacles around a certain someone, Korosensei tells Nagisa that he became their teacher to keep a promise he made, and as such will act accordingly. After instantly snatching and marking Nagisa's assignment, Korosensei hands it back to him, telling him that facing the students seriously is more important than the end of the world. Looking at Korosensei's marked assignment and flipping the page, Nagisa understands he wanted to demonstrate his grading speed. He then tells Korosensei to stop adding weird questions on the back after reading a nonsensical bonus question. Korosensei stutters and claims he thought Nagisa wanted a bonus, to which Nagisa states they're more like penalties. Twirling his pen, Korosensei proceeds to wish that everyone enjoy themselves in studying and assassination. He then eats the pen and taunts Nagisa claiming the latter part is impossible.

Later, Sugino throws a pitch in that Nagisa is unable to catch the baseball as it bounces off his glove and hits a tree. Nagisa praises Sugino and claims he couldn't even see the ball, to which Sugino proudly tells of how he practiced throwing a ball that changes speed using his elbow and wrist, making his slow pitches appear fast. He admits Korosensei would still be able to see it, but proposes to continue with baseball and assassination together. Sugino finds Korosensei in his office and asks if he could come out to be killed. Korosensei laughs and displays a striped, mocking face at Sugino's attempt. Nagisa concludes that although Korosensei has no interest of being killed, he motivates the class to the point that his assassination classroom feels fun.