Naotsugu

Naotsugu is Shiroe's friend and another player trapped in Elder Tale. He is a lighthearted warrior and an important part of Shiroe's team along with Akatsuki. In the real world, his name is Naotsugu Hasegawa (葉瀬川直継), and he is 25 years old. He was a member of the Abyssal Shaft Raid Party.

Appearance
Naotsugu has short, grayish hair and a roguish smile. Unlike Shiroe, his height in the game (183cm or 6 feet) is approximately the same as his height in real life.

Before the Catastrophe, his character had a diagonal slice cutting through one of his eyebrows, but after Naotsugu became trapped in the game, his features changed to mirror his real face more closely, and the scar disappeared.

Personality
'The Warrior of Panties', Naotsugu is the cheerful big brother character of Shiroe's team, albeit one subjected to frequent physical abuse from Akatsuki. A good, solid person and the Debauchery Tea Party's most reliable tank, Naotsugu's greatest fault is his incessant need to crack off-color jokes, especially those pertaining to women's underwear. However, he's surprisingly shy when he's on the receiving end of such humor.

Naotsugu is a self-proclaimed "open-pervert," meaning that he freely talks about his perverted thoughts and is often proud of that fact. This often leads to Akatsuki hitting him out of irritation whenever he is about to say something perverted.

Naotsugu believes this with passion, even outright claiming that all men are either open perverts like him or closet perverts like what he accuses Shiroe of. Surprisingly, he becomes flustered whenever Maryele glomps him, hugs him, or asks him to touch her breasts.

Naotsugu is two years older than Shiroe, and they first met four years before the Apocalypse when Shiroe was already a veteran player. They are close friends and have even met offline several times. Due to his work schedule, Naotsugu has been absent from Elder Tale for two years and had the luck to be caught up in the mess on the very day he returned to the game.

Prior to the Catastrophe
Naotsugu was a member of the Debauchery Tea Party when he was in college, and became acquainted with Shiroe and Nyanta, among others, during this time. However, after four years (two years before the Homesteading the Noosphere expansion's release), Naotsugu took up a job and was unable to continue playing Elder Tale.

The Catastrophe
For the first time in two years, Naotsugu logged into Elder Tale to test out the new expansion pack and became one of the 30,000 Japanese players trapped inside it. He is contacted by Shiroe, and they meet at a large tree in Akiba.

Ragranda Forest arc
After the success of the Round Table Conference, the formation of the Round Table Alliance, and the disbandment of Hamelin, Naotsugu and Akatsuki watched over Minori and Touya, who are training in the field.

Naotsugu and Nyanta are among the trainers for the Summer Training Camp, led by Maryelle. They travel to the school, where they set up camp for a night. There, Naotsugu announces to the new players that the trainers would have minimal influence during training, mostly to oversee and make sure that they remain safe. Other than that, they would be on their own.

Gold of the Kunie arc
Naotsugu travels with Shiroe and ReGan north, despite not really knowing what Shiroe's intent was.

Along with the rest of the Abyssal Shaft raid party, he wipes out against the three-way tag-team between Raid Bosses Ruseato of Seven Prison, Tarutauruga of Fourth Prison, and Ibura Habura of Third Prison. After he revives, he wakes up before Shiroe and moves him away from the Silver Sword group. Once Shiroe wakes up, he tells Naotsugu and Tetora that he had a plan to beat the raid bosses, although there was only a 15% chance of it working. Undeterred, the two respond that it was "perfect". After a week of training, the raid party decides to take another shot at the Abyssal Shaft raid. Shiroe and Naotsugu both equip better armor for the occasion.