The following contains spoilers for The Devil is a Part-Timer! Season 2, Episode 9, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer! follows demon king Sadao Maou and the hero Emi Yusa as they both adjust to working in modern-day Japan. However, there are plenty of otherworldly supporting characters, such as Maou's right-hand man Shiro Ashiya and the mysterious former assassin Suzuno Kamazuki. In Season 2, Episode 9 of the anime, the gang learned of a plot to steal solar panels from the farm they were working at, belonging to Maou's friend and co-worker Chiho Sasaki's family.
The characters split up into groups, Maou and Suzuno waiting for the thieves to arrive in their SUV and Ashiya, Emi and the fallen angel Hanzo Urushihara waiting by the solar panels. These characters are used to facing cosmic, existential threats to the people of Japan and to their own loved ones. The stakes of this confrontation may not have been supernatural, but they were serious, as the thieves goaded bears into attacking people in order to cover their crimes. Not only that, but the solar panels played a key role in the operation of the whole farm.
In the realm of Ente Isla, Suzuno Kamazuki was a fearsome assassin, but she tends to take a supporting role in combat scenes in the anime proper. In Season 2, Episode 4, Suzuno's biggest contribution in the battle against Gabriel was throwing Maou's body toward him. In Season 2, Episode 7, she stayed behind with Chiho while Emi battled demons.
Suzuno complained about being partnered with the demon king, but it was refreshing to see Maou spend time with someone whose attitude toward him was different from either Ashiya's flattery or Emi's seething hatred. An eye-roll-inducingly cliché gag had Suzuno outraged at Maou when he accidentally grabbed her chest instead of his phone, but the characters' relationship interestingly grew closer as they were forced to communicate in silence. Suzuno used a magical "second sight" ability to see how many thieves there were, drawing on Maou's hand to convey that there were four.
One of the thieves emerged from the SUV to steal a watermelon. Suzuno stood to approach him, but Maou held her back to let the other group catch them stealing the solar panels. Even in her flashback in Season 1, Episode 11, Suzuno expressed regret for her brutal killings as a church-appointed assassin, possibly explaining her reluctance to fight at all in later episodes. However, even she may have been itching for a chance to flex her trademark war hammer once again here, perhaps to smash the SUV’s engine before the thieves could get away.
The thieves approached Emi, Urushihara and Ashiya's group and attempted to steal the farm's vital solar panels, just as Urushihara had predicted. Ashiya is clearly a capable fighter, being one of Maou's most trusted generals in the demon realm. Like Suzuno, however, he hasn't had much of a chance to fight onscreen. The most severe example may have been when he was literally too sick to fight Sariel In Season 1. Even when he got to return to his demon form as Alciel in Season 2, Episode 7, his primary role was to simply look scary and venerate King Satan.
Ashiya gave a stern warning to the thieves, but one of the men, later identified as "Mitsuru," attacked him with a wrench. Ashiya deftly dodged it before punching him and holding his arms behind his back, reminding the audience how physically capable he can be when he gets the chance. As the devil's castle's resident cook and housekeeper, Ashiya has settled into embodying a different kind of cool, but it's still good to see that his quick thinking and fighting skills haven't diminished because of it.
The other thieves tried to escape in their SUV but almost ran over Suzuno in the street, who held onto the hood of the vehicle to stop them from moving. The fact that the getaway scene was shown from the thieves' point of view made it feel like a scene from a horror movie; Suzuno became even more intimidating because, for a moment, the thieves' fear was the audience's. She also wore a vicious grin as she savored their screams -- an unexpected expression for the soft-spoken assassin. Perhaps she was happy to finally take a direct role in the operation after Maou had held her back, but it's more likely that she simply wanted to make them feel even more uncomfortable.
Ultimately, main characters Emi and Maou finished the job of scaring the thieves, who were then arrested. The Devil Is a Part-Timer! isn't just about the characters being cool or winning battles, and in fact, a lot of the humor and heartwarming moments come from how their time on Earth has humbled them. Even so, the characters' strength and tactical abilities are part of who they are, and it was uplifting to see these often ideologically opposed people come together to put a stop to a legitimate threat.
The Devil Is a Part-Timer! hits Crunchyroll in the West every Thursday.