Akatsuki (Log Horizon)

"A shinobi should follow her master, no matter where he goes."

- Akatsuki to Shiroe Akatsuki (real name: Shizuka Hanekura) is the main female protagonist of the light novel and anime series Log Horizon. She is a 20-year-old college student and a veteran player of the MMORPG Elder Tales, and one that was pulled into the game by a mysterious phenomenon referred to as the Apocalypse. Soon after, she forms a party with fellow veteran players Shiroe and Naotsugu and later becomes one of the founding members of the titular guild Log Horzion. She is a Human Assassin-Tracker and her level is 90.

She is voiced by Emiri Katou in the Japanese version of the anime and Jad Saxton in the English version, the latter of whom also voices Haruna, Koneko Toujou and Faris Nyannyan.

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
"Akatsuki: Uh, okay, is it alright if I knee Mr. Pervy Pants in his stupid face. Naotsugu: Ask before you do it, pipsqueak! Akatsuki: Do not call me 'pipsqueak'!"

- A quote expressing Akatsuki's height sensitivity and hatred of perverts 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. As a result, she is very sensitive about her height and so takes great offence at being called 'shrimp' or 'pipsqueak'.

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 and she was now confident of liking Shiroe more.