Akatsuki

Akatsuki is one of the players trapped in the MMORPG Elder Tale. She is a Human Assassin-Tracker who joins Shiroe and Naotsugu, later becoming one of the founding members of Log Horizon. She was a member of the Akiba Raid Party and of the Shibuya Raid Team. Her Overskill is Shadow Lurk.

In the real world, her name is Shizuka Hanekura (羽倉静はねくら しずか). She is a college student attending Yamazaki Gakuen University.

Appearance
Akatsuki's original appearance in Elder Tales was that of a tall male Assassin with purple hair and eyes. His clothing consisted of a long-sleeved purple hooded shirt with dark purple cuffs and reinforced with armor on his shoulder and forehead areas, brown belted pants, knee-high boots with knee guards and a purple scarf tied around his neck.

After obtaining an appearance changing potion from Shiroe, Akatsuki changed her gender and size to be similar to that of her real world stature. She is currently a petite female Assassin but with the same purple eyes and hair that she ties up in a ponytail. Her clothing is similar to her previous ones, albeit smaller in size. She now wears a sleeveless purple top, purple arm warmers, brown pants and purple boots.

Even in the real world, she was incredibly petite. She bemoans that even as a college student, people mistook her for a middle-school student and always used her as a cute mascot, something that she despised.

Personality
Due to her short stature, Akatsuki is mistaken by everyone (Shiroe and Naotsugu included) for being much younger than she really is. In the real world, this made socializing with people her age very difficult for her, to the point that she had never once been on a date or even had a close friend. The only people who ever displayed romantic interest in her were either children or pedophiles, which damaged her self-esteem. As a result, she is very sensitive about her height and takes great offence at being called 'shrimp' or 'pipsqueak'.

She is a hard worker who does things tirelessly, just to be recognized based on her competence; in spite of that, her efforts never got proper recognition due to her cute appearance. That was the reason why she created her original character in Elder Tales to be a tall silent man, until the Catastrophe started, causing troubles in her in-game daily life.

She is described as being too serious and carrying a somewhat sullen expression. Akatsuki views herself as a ninja, or more specifically Shiroe's ninja (whom she addresses as her "Lord"), roleplaying the image with the Assassin class and Tracker subclass. Her devotion to Shiroe stems from the fact that he saved her from being stuck in a man's body, which she described as 'a cruel and disgusting fate'.

Despite her limited social skills, Akatsuki is shown to be disgusted by perverts; a running gag in the series has her kneeing Naotsugu in the face when he's about to say something perverted, and then asking Shiroe for permission to do what she just did, usually followed by Naotsugu telling her to ask before she does it. In spite of this, she and Naotsugu are shown to be good friends and frequently watch each other's backs in combat.

Akatsuki develops romantic feelings for Shiroe soon after meeting him after the Apocalypse. However, she feels insecure about her ability to help him after seeing the flawless teamwork between him, Naotsugu, and Nyanta, and how they each knew what the others would do even without communicating. This insecurity is further compounded after seeing how well Minori was able to understand Shiroe whereas she herself had been ignoring his own feelings for her own determination to protect him. Her jealousy towards Minori grows to the extent that she cannot even return home due to her restlessness and ill-will towards the younger girl. At the same time, though, she knows that Minori hasn't done anything wrong, and strives to change herself. After the Operation Capture, Akatsuki regained her confidence back.

Prior to the Catastrophe
Akatsuki was always smaller than normal, often mistaken for being much younger than she really was. She was so short, her younger sister, Hibiki, who was taller than her referred to her as the younger sister. At one point, a middle school boy in her neighborhood thought that she was his age when she was in college and confessed to her, an incident that left her bedridden for several days out of despair. It is implied that some pedophiles also targeted her at some points in time. To make up for her height, Akatsuki took up kendo to gain more self-confidence. She also raised a dog named Myojo.

At the time of the Catastrophe, Akatsuki attended Yamazaki Gakuen University and lives at home. When Akatsuki was entering college, her younger sister's advice was to become a pet groomer, since she's bad at talking and works better with her hands.

The Catastrophe arc
Akatsuki is one of the players trapped in the MMORPG Elder Tale. Realizing that her male avatar is going to be an inconvenience, she searches for Shiroe, an Enchanter whom she had played with on numerous occasions before and an owner of an appearance changing potion. She finds him in Akihabara with a Guardian named Naotsugu and is invited to travel with them. Despite preferring to be alone, Akatsuki accepts the offer, saying that it is a way to repay her debt to Shiroe for without whom she would still be stuck in the body of a man.

The next day, the trio decides to explore the town and discovers that though they can eat and drink, all of the food tastes the same and the drinks all taste like water. Shiroe is then called by Maryelle, the guild master of Crescent Moon Alliance and the trio ventures to her guild to exchange information. They are informed that most guilds are recruiting members, believing that there is safety in numbers, and are invited to join the Alliance. However, they decline and leave. (In the light novel, Akatsuki is met after Shiroe and Naotsugu already met up with Maryelle.)

The trio then decides to experiment and heads to the Archive Tower Forest, a map filled with monsters that attack on sight. They soon discover the difficulty of fighting the monsters face to face, but are able to adjust and overpower them.

Saving Serara arc
After Shiroe's Party learns that a member of the Crescent Moon Alliance, Serara, is trapped in Susukino and is under threat of being enslaved by its current ruling guild, Brigandia. At Shiroe's behest, they embark on a mission to rescue her. After fighting through the Depths of Palm, they arrive in the city and quickly take note of the city's atmosphere. While Shiroe went to the designated meeting spot with Naotsugu guarding the entrance, Akatsuki is ordered to keep an eye on the city. She reports that Brigandia's men were on the lookout for them, causing Shiroe and Serara's guardian, Nyanta, to decide to face the guild in a one-on-one match.

During this time, Akatsuki remains hidden, biding her time until the enemy dropped their guard so she could take out their healers. However, witnessing Nyanta, Shiroe, and Naotsugu's cohesive teamwork, without even having to speak to each other, causes Akatsuki to doubt her own abilities.

Round Table Alliance arc
Upon the group's return to Akiba, Shiroe finds the resolve to throw away his history with guilds so that he could start his own, which he calls Log Horizon. Akatsuki, Naotsugu, and Nyanta are its first three members, and they launch their "campaign" to revitalize Akiba in conjunction with the Crescent Moon Alliance. For the most part, Akatsuki spends her time in reconnaissance, keeping tabs on the Hamelin members and capturing their names so that Shiroe could later blacklist them on the day of the Round Table Conference.

On the day of the conference itself, Akatsuki is kept on guard to make sure that the kids in Hamelin were successfully retrieved. However, she misses Shredder, so he is able to access the main guild hall while the rest of his compatriots could not. When Minori and Tohya are attacked by the furious man, Akatsuki comes to their rescue, gracefully kneeing the man and freeing Tohya. When he grabs her by the collar and demands to know where she is, she simply calls Shiroe and asks him to blacklist him, adding insult to injury by saying that Shredder's face matched his name. With that, he is kicked out of the building and lands outside, where Naotsugu and several other companions were waiting for him.

Summer Training arc
Akatsuki is present when Maryelle throws a fit over going to the beach. After Shiroe finds a resolution, she is seen cowering from Henrietta inside Log Horizon's guild house, as the latter had prepared a summer dress for her to wear. When Serara talks to Nyanta, both she and Naotsugu listen intently for Serara's reaction. When a messenger from Eastal arrives, however, and Shiroe is selected as one of the representatives to go to the Ancient Palace of Eternal Ice, Akatsuki decides to accompany him there. Much to both of their distaste, Henrietta tags along to "observe, "definitely not" to force Akatsuki into the aforementioned dress. Akatsuki ends up wearing said dress at the ball held by the Lander nobles, and shyly asks Shiroe if she looked strange.

Fallen Guardian arc
Akatsuki, now level 91, visits the guild Amenoma in search of a better sword. Much to her shock, she learns from guild master Tatara that the sword which she wanted, on top of being too expensive for her, was already sold to someone else. Faced with the reality that she was still only a second-class Assassin, she goes off to a forest and observes members of the Black Sword Knights train together, wallowing in her misery over her own incompetence. She wishes to acquire an Overskill, which she overheard several members talking about, but thinks that it is beyond her because she rarely participated in Raid Battles that would give Secret scrolls that would improve her skills.

On Shiroe's request, she accompanies Maryelle, Henrietta, Serara, and Rieze in accompanying Rayneshia and guarding her. She is mostly silent throughout the engagement as Maryelle throws clothes on Raynesia and forces her to dress up, empathizing with the Princess. Occasionally she speaks, but usually only to reprimand her companions. As she watches, though, she feels a pang of jealousy towards Raynesia and Rieze, both of whom she deems to be more beautiful than she is. After they leave, Henrietta and Rieze are shopping for food together when Rieze mentions that Akatsuki had been watching D.D.D's training sessions as well. Despite having only known the Assassin for half a month, Rieze could tell that Akatsuki was feeling depressed, while Henrietta, whom Akatsuki had confided in, understands that she had a lack of confidence in her skills. In the early hours before dawn, Akatsuki patrols the city, having decided not to return to her guild house in order to track down the murderer who had been killing several Adventurers over the past week. Hoping to learn more about Overskills and perhaps witness some major battle guilds fighting him, Akatsuki wanders about, thinking about her relationship with Shiroe. Her jealousy towards Minori becomes eminent as she starts criticizing the younger girl in her mind, but she catches herself and feels guilty for thinking about her that way. In the end, she decides to stay at the inn rather than return to the guild house.

After Rayneshia hears the truth about the murderer being a Royal Guard from the Kunie clan, it turns out that Akatsuki, who had been sitting in the waiting room, heard everything as well by using her Tracker skills. Now with a hint regarding the murderer's capabilities, she goes off to find and combat him, unaware that Soujiro and the West Wind Brigade had already entered in combat with him. However, while leaping from branch to branch, she overhears the battle and decides to join the fray. Her attacks are futile against the murderer, oftentimes missing or dealing little to no damage, but Soujiro's attacks keep the murderer from focusing on her. Even with Nazuna's help, both fighters were aware that it would do little to nothing against an opponent of such caliber. Despite this, Akatsuki yells at Soujiro to run, but he refuses. He performs several movements and radiates an air that Akatsuki doesn't quite understand, before she realizes what he was doing -- he was showing her his Overskill. While deflecting some of the murderer's attacks, he teaches her the secret of Overskill, which was to practice endlessly and to never give up. Soon, the barrier that Nazuna had erected before escaping collapses, and even with Soujiro's Overskill, the two Adventurers are killed.

She ends up on Mare Tranquillitatis, where she runs through the streets of Tokyo from her memories until she reaches the sandy beach. There, she sees Shiroe, who had himself died in the Abyssal Shaft raid. After a small conversation with him, she vows to make up for her previous lapses and revives in the Akiba Cathedral. She requests the others to help her, and after receiving a stern lecture, takes a step forward to become stronger and stop the murderer. As part of Rieze's strategy, Akatsuki and Maryelle were the focus of the raid, luring Enbart Nelles through the city, with the other members providing support at certain milestones to counter one of Nelles' raid boss abilities. During the battle with the murderer, Akatsuki accidentally developed the Overskill, Shadow Lurk, which combined her Assassin and Tracker skills to create clones of herself as long as she held her breath; however, near the end of the raid, her blade is broken during an attack. In response, Tatara handed to her Haganemushi-Tatara, the other powerful kodachi Akatsuki had been eyeing, which she reforged to aid the Assassin. With it, and with Nelles frozen by Rieze's aerial attack, Akatsuki destroys Byakamaru and defeats Nelles, putting an end to the fiasco in Akiba. Afterwards, she joins the others for a slumber-pajama party in the Watermaple Consulate. She goes outside, alone, and thinks about how she misses Shiroe when he calls her, about to return to the Abyssal Shaft raid himself.

Chain Chronicle
Akatsuki was an acquirable character in the mobile game Chain Chronicle during the limited-time collaboration.

Log Horizon SNG
Like her appearance in Chain Chronicle, Akatsuki is a SR (Super Rare) obtainable character in Log Horizon: New Adventure Land. She can be acquired by preregistering for the game.

Another version of Akatsuki was released, this time as a LR (Legendary Rare) character.

Avabel Online
Along with several other Log Horizon characters, Akatsuki has a skin on the Japanese version of the mobile RPG Avabel Online, seen in her first season outfit and Round Table uniform.

Notably, her height does not change to match her stature in Log Horizon, making it possible to finally have a tall Akatsuki.

Volume 6:
Haganemushi-Tatara: A reforged version of Meito-Haganemushi. Tatara specially customized this dagger to fit Akatsuki. The flavor text reads: "A legendary short sword that causes any armor it strikes to instantly rust away, earning it the name Haganemushi, or ‘metal-eating bug’. Any blade it clashes against grows duller with each blow." Tatara reforged the sword and added to the flavor text: "May this serious and righteous girl never fall to the wrong path; May both the sword and the girl support each other; to fight against evil curses and the suffering of the world."

Trivia

 * Akatsuki means 'Dawn' or 'Daybreak' in Japanese.
 * In Chinese, her name is 曉 (Xiǎo). While it retains the original Japanese meaning, it also doubles as a pun because it is pronounced the same way as the Chinese word for small (小).
 * Akatsuki shares a birthday (July 7) with Elias Hackblade.