Krusty

"Live until you die: That's the same in every world."

- Krusty, Volume 2 Annex

Krusty, also known as Berserker Krusty (Crusty in Crunchyroll's translation), is the guild leader of D.D.D, the largest battle guild in Akihabara. He is a Guardian-Berserker and is the spokesperson of the Round Table Alliance. He has two Overskills, Hyperion Eye and Mnemosyne Taboo.

His real name is Kounoike Haruaki (鴻池晴秋).

Appearance
In both the anime and light novels, Krusty is a handsome man who is quite tall. He has fair skin with light brown hair and eyes. In the light novels, Krusty is described as being over 6 feet in height and rather muscular.

Personality
Krusty is a natural leader, having led his guild to many victories. This makes him well-suited for leading the Round Table Alliance and its expeditionary force. Krusty acts like a noble when he speaks to Duke Sergead with a very gentleman-like manner.

Like Shiroe, he has a habit of pushing his glasses when thinking of something, he's capable of reading his opponents and manipulate them into moving exactly the way he wants. The difference between the two is that Shiroe excels at long term planning, whereas Krusty excels in the short term. He's also a brilliant commander and one of twenty Japanese players with any experience commanding legion-level raids (4x raids of 24x people each).

Lander nobles see him as a noble because of his actions. During the Eastal Ball, Shiroe said his bearing was indistinguishable from the genuine nobles. Rayneshia, on the other hand, sees him for who he really is - a crafty, battle-hungry Blood Knight. He has much in common with Rayneshia: both are lazy, dislike politics, and try to stay out of it as much as possible. Both are excellent at manipulating people to act the way they want to. The main differences between the two are that first, Rayneshia would rather prefer a lazy lifestyle while Krusty prefers battles and raids, and second, Krusty is much better at manipulating people than she is. He spends so much time with her (to avoid interacting with boring nobles and merchants) that a rumor begins that there might be something going on between them.

Krusty's personality on the battlefield is a stark contrast to his normal self. During battle, he goes into a frenzy befitting of his Berserker subclass. Rayneshia noted that he looked like he greatly enjoyed battle, further proved by the murderous expression and killing intent on his face. His speech changes during battle as well, losing his calm tone and gentle words for the voice of a kill-crazed murderer. However, terrifying the changes are, they make Krusty an exceptional Berserker well-suited for the front-lines.

Prior to the Catastrophe
Born Kounoike Haruaki, Krusty is from a large family and was born from one of his father's remarriages. Although his father acknowledged him, his father completely neglected him, and so his childhood years were spent alone with his mother.

He was constantly watched by his brothers and bore the expectations of his grandfather. Aside from his brothers, he also had a younger step-sister, Sayaka, who was much like Rayneshia, as well as a pet cat named Nobody. He went abroad to study at Yale University under his grandfather's blessings, but lived an extravagant and hedonistic lifestyle there.

Because of his family situation, Krusty got into gaming to avoid trouble. Before the Catastrophe, Krusty led his guild to victory in clearing the Oracle's Tower, a legion-class raid on the European server, which other players thought was impossible.

Round Table Conference arc
Krusty is mentioned by Maryelle and Shiroe as they discuss the situation in Akiba. They note his fame for completing legion raids that people of other servers believed would be impossible for the Japanese to defeat. Soon after the catastrophe He can be seen in a cutaway rallying his guild.

Krusty was enjoying a Crescent Burger when the food product became popular.

He receives the invitation from Maryelle and Shiroe to attend the Round Table Conference and decides to postpone D.D.D's next raid in favor of attending the conference due to Shiroe's influence in it.

Krusty is one of the guild masters who is invited to attend the Round Table Conference.

Conference of Lords arc
As he is the representative for the Round table Alliance and the leader of the largest Combat Guild, he was elected along with Shiroe and Michitaka to go to the Conference of Lords at the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice. It is here that he meets Princess Rayneshia and uses her presence to avoid dealing with politicians and other bothersome nobles.

Return of the Goblin King arc
After the invasion of the goblin hordes begins, Krusty and the other members of the Round Table Alliance discuss the matter and whether to get involved. At this point, he learns of the dangers of losing his memories every time he is re-spawned at the Cathedral and admits that he no longer remembers the name of his pet cat or what it looked like.

After Rayneshia pleads with him to help her people fight off the goblins, Krusty takes the newly-constructed Ocypete to bring his forces to the battlefield and leads them in a blitzkrieg-style assault against the monsters. They easily slaughter the monsters facing them before taking a break. During their break, they hear Dire Wolves in the distance, bringing Krusty back into his battle-frenzy personality. After his forces decimate the hordes of Goblin Tamers, Krusty finishes off the  main Goblin General with a single blow.

Gold of the Kunie arc
Krusty, Isaac, and their guilds leave Akiba to finish the Return of the Goblin King event. However, during the expedition, the flavor text of items and equipment begin turning into reality. Misa's scythe, which causes calamities, starts glowing ominously. Just as he grabs it away from her, the light engulfs both him and her right arm before disappearing with them.

Route 43 arc
Three months after Krusty's disappearance, he still has not been found. Without his presence, many of D.D.D's members have left the guild, much to the Round Table Alliance's concern. Honesty's growing problems with leechers suggests that many of those who left have gone for the next large battle guild.

Typhoon Lord/Homesteading the Noosphere arc
After disappearing from the Yamato server, Krusty reappears in the Chinese server with Misa's arm. He was found by the Lelang Wolf Cavalry's leader, Zhu Huan, and now lives in a secluded place while being served by a girl named Huā Diāo. Cursed by a level 180 curse called the Dark Soul Curse, he is afflicted by multiple unusual ailments: he is unable to regenerate HP, whether naturally or with spells or items; he cannot use telepathy; he cannot cross servers; and he has lost his memory.

Despite his memory loss, the only person whom we know he has forgotten of is Rayneshia; he remembers things like the formation of the Round Table Alliance, Kanami and the Debauchery Tea Party, and his family. When Elias Hackblade comes to learn of an "evil entity" in the mountains, he goes to engage this person in battle, who turns out to be Krusty. Their battle ends without a conclusion, as Krusty falls off a cliff and into a dungeon where Kanami is. Together, they battle their way to the boss room, where Elias attacks them once again.

At this time, Eternal Moths begin attacking them as well, indicating that this takes place at the same time as the Shibuya Raid. Soon after the Shibuya Raid Team defeated the Genius spawning all those monsters, the leaders of both parties, Shiroe and Kanami, end up conversing. While the Shibuya Team learns that Krusty is alive and well, the communication link in Shibuya is severed, preventing them from conversing with him. Unperturbed, he then wonders whether Misa or Rieze would be the first to reach him.

Chain Chronicle
Krusty was one of ten Log Horizon characters to appear in the mobile game Chain Chronicle.

Volume 11

 * Cat Motif Pocket Watch: Created by Akaneya, there is a mouse on the hour hand and a cat on the minute hand. Unusually for a pocket watch, there is an alarm clock function in it that sounds like a cat's meow, which will gradually become louder and louder. Because of that, Krusty loves using it to play pranks on Faa Diu by pretending to be a cat in hiding, then scaring her.
 * Mink Long Robe: A comfortable wide-sleeved robe with wolf embroidery on the sleeves. It was kept in the White Peach Shrine and seems to have been made of Phantasmal material, giving it a luxurious feel. It has become a bit frayed over the years and has lost most of its magical effect, but it's perfect for everyday wear.
 * Red Ginseng Tea: A blend of herbal medicines and red ginseng tea leaves. It's a kind of recovery item and bolsters blood formation. Krusty drinks it to mitigate the effects of Bleeding from his wounds. Curiously, the taste is different every time. If Faa Diu brews it, she adds a ton of honey.

Trivia

 * Krusty is named after the Simpsons character; according to Mamare, Kounoike (Krusty's real-life self) liked that character.
 * Krusty shares his Japanese voice actor with Royal Prince Marshal from Mamare's previous work, Maoyu. Thematically, they are also similar: both are blonde-haired tacticians with a reputation for their skills, and are also shrewd politicians.
 * In Yen On's initial translation of the light novels, his name was spelled Crusty. However, it later changed to Krusty to match the spelling seen in the Japanese version of volume 5's character introduction page.