Krusty

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

- Krusty, Volume 2 Annex

Krusty (Crusty in Crunchyroll's translation), also known as Berserker Krusty, is a Human Guardian-Berserker and the guild master of D.D.D, the largest battle guild in Akiba. After the formation of the Round Table Alliance, he served as its spokesperson due to his experience in handling social affairs.

However, following an incident at Seven Falls, he finds himself in the Zhongyuan server. Eventually, a chance encounter with Kanami's Party leads him to join them in hopes of eventually making his way back to Yamato.

He has two Overskills, Hyperion Eye and Mnemosyne Taboo.

Krusty's real name is Kounoike Haruaki (晴秋鴻池). He hails from a wealthy and prestigious family, which is how he came to become good at navigating social circles and dealing with Elder Tale Nobility.

Appearance
In both the anime and light novels, Krusty is a handsome and muscular fair-skinned man who is quite tall with light brown hair that has bangs hanging on the right, dark brown eyes and square-rimmed glasses.

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

Like Shiroe, Krusty 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).

Earthling nobles see him as a noble because of his actions. During the Eastal Ball, Shiroe said his bearing was indistinguishable from the genuine nobles. On the other hand, Raynesia sees him for who he really is - a crafty and battle-hungry Blood Knight. 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. Raynesia 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.

When Kanami meets him for the first time in several years in the Zhongyuan server, she notes that he seems more relaxed than he did during the game-era, when he seemed to be going out of his way to not cause trouble for others. From Krusty's point of view, this is an accurate appraisal, as to the extent that he's been more relaxed since coming to Theldesia, it's because he no longer has to deal with the Kounoike family now that he has come to this world.

Before the Catastrophe
Born Kounoike Haruaki, Krusty comes from a large, wealthy family in rural Japan. He was an illegitimate child, born from a mistress of his Kounoike father. His father acknowledged him yet 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, who intended for him to be involved with the family business. Aside from his brothers, he also had a younger step-sister, Sayaka, who acted much like Raynesia does. Because of his family situation, Krusty got into gaming to avoid trouble. He had hoped that dedicating himself to Elder Tales would get his overbearing family to give up on him.

He went abroad to study at Yale University under his grandfather's blessings, but lived an extravagant and hedonistic lifestyle there. After graduating, he returned to Japan and now lives alone in an apartment. On occasion, Sayaka will visit under pretense of cleaning, even though Krusty generally stays on top of housework. He claims to have a cat named Nobody, except he actually made it up so he could use it as an excuse to get away from social events.

In Elder Tale, Krusty established D.D.D as an experiment to see how large and how efficient he could make it become. According to other members of the guild, its name stems from Krusty mashing "D" until the game would accept it as a name. He 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.

He is a longtime veteran of the game, having played long enough to complete the Mofur sisters' Amardole Scale Search quest, which the likes of Shiroe, Nyanta and Tetora have also completed. He and Kanami seem to have been acquainted before the Tea Party disbanded, as they recognized each other when they met in the Sirius Grotto dungeon on the Zhongyuan server roughly a year after the Catastrophe.

Round Table Conference arc
Krusty is mentioned by Marielle 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 was seen in a cutaway rallying his guild.

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

He receives the invitation from Marielle 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 Court of Eternal Ice. It is here that he meets Princess Raynesia 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 Raynesia 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-largest battle guild.

Tycoon Lord arc
After disappearing from the Yamato server, Krusty was first transported to the moon, where he met Bucaphi, a high-ranking Genius. After Krusty refuses to become her vassal, she inflicts Krusty with a level 180 curse called the Dark Soul Curse. This high-level curse confers multiple unusual ailments on him: 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 select memories. Krusty is then sent to the Zhongyuan server, where he is found by Zhu Huan, guild master of the Lelang Wolf Cavalry. Zhu Huan takes him to Fairyland, a secluded mountain residence, where he is served by Hua Diao and the martenfolk who maintain the temple and believe him to be an Ancient.

When Elias Hackblade learns of an "evil entity" in the mountains from Youren, one of the Ancients, he goes to engage this person in battle. Said "evil entity" turns out to be Krusty, who is more than happy to goad Elias into attacking if it means he gets a fun fight. Their battle is cut short when Krusty destroys the cliff they are on; Krusty falls into the dungeon where Kanami is and is awakened by her.

Together, they wander to a room deeper in the grotto, where Kanami's Party and Krusty have a showdown against Elias, Youren, and a half-raid-ranked Nue. Krusty takes on Youren and prevails, killing her true form, Papus, for good, while bypassing the fine print of his curse to regain his memories after the death of Gumon and healing himself by using the Demon-Axe of Fresh Blood to steal HP from the Genius. He is able to do this due to the fact that his Mnemosyne Taboo Overskill had given his enough MP to match that of the Level 150 Genius that had given him the Soul Darkness Curse to which he had never consented. During the battle, Eternal Moths summoned by Taliktan make their way over to Zhongyuan, and the party is only saved by the arrival of the Lelang Wolf Cavalry.

After the Zhongyuan side and the Shibuya Raid Team defeat their respective opponents, the two sides coincidentally activate their radio towers at the same time and contact each other. Right after the Shibuya Team learns that Krusty is alive and well, the communication link is severed (partially thanks to Kanami destroying hers in an attempt to fix it), preventing them from conversing with him directly. Unperturbed, Krusty simply wonders whether Misa or Rieze would be the first to reach him; he knows that so long as the Soul Darkness Curse is active, he cannot cross the server boundary to return to Yamato.

After Kanami's brief chat with Shiroe, Bucaphi briefly appears for the Ritual of Coronation, acknowledging Krusty, the Lelang Wolf Cavalry members present, and Kanami's party and "promoting" them from "lost sheep" to "shepherd". They all attack Bucaphi, but she retreats.

Nightingale's Song arc
Although Krusty is still in Zhongyuan during this arc, he is seen in the memories of the Mofur sisters, having completed their Amardole Scale Search quest when he was much younger.

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

 * In the light novels, Krusty is described as a quite tall man as he is over 6 feet in height.
 * 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 Touno's previous work, Maoyu. Thematically, they are also similar:
 * Both are blonde-haired tacticians with a reputation for their skills
 * Both are shrewd politicians
 * Krusty has much in common with Raynesia, but there are a few main differences:
 * Both are lazy
 * Both dislike politics and try to stay out of it as much as possible.
 * However, Raynesia would rather prefer a lazy lifestyle while Krusty prefers battles and raids.
 * Both are excellent at manipulating people to act the way they want to.
 * Krusty is much better at manipulating people than Raynesia is.
 * In Yen On's initial translation of the light novels, Krusty's 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.
 * In Yen On's initial translation of the light novels, Krusty's 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.