Issei Hyoudou

**Issei Hyoudou** is a second-year high school student at Kuoh Academy in Class 2-B and a member of the school's "Perverted Trio", a trio of the most perverted men in the entire student body.

Issei is the Pawn of Rias Gremory's Peerage and a member of the Occult Research Club. He is possessor of the Longinus; **Incinerate Anthem**.

## **Appearance**

Issei is a high school student of average height with short spiky brown hair, with two short locks of hair behind his head, and light brown eyes. Following his training with Tannin, he gained a more muscular and toned build.[3]

While he has worn various outfits throughout the series, his most commonly worn outfit is the Kuoh Academy boys' school uniform, which consists of a blazer (more commonly black, although in other media is shown with a tinge of purple or grey, with white accents) over a white, long-sleeved dress shirt with black highlights with a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. However, Issei's uniform differs in the fact that he wears a red T-shirt underneath his open dress shirt and blazer, and wears blue and white sneakers in place of dress shoes.

Before fighting Riser in a rematch, Issei's left arm was transformed into a Dragon's arm,[4] which needed a ritual performed regularly by Rias and Akeno to appear human. After his "death" he gained a new body through the efforts of Great Red and Ophis, now being able to transform parts of himself into a Dragon.[5]

He has been said to show manly expressions by his paternal grandmother. Issei's height is 170 cm (5 feet 7 inches) and body weight is 62→65 kg (137→140 lbs.).

## **Personality**

Issei is shown to be notably unintelligent, at least academically, with an ongoing perverted nature, often being prone to indulging in lecherous fantasies, and being utterly obsessed with women's breasts and having his own harem. This has caused him to be instantly labeled as a pervert among the girls of Kuoh Academy and has gained him notoriety for being one of the members of Kuoh Academy's Perverted Trio.

Despite his pervertedness, Issei is courageous, selfless and unwaveringly determined to protect those who are important to him, despite almost dying by the hands of his opponents. Having great kindness, Issei is also very caring, "putting his nose into other people's business" as he helped Yuuto Kiba, Koneko Toujou, and Akeno Himejima overcome their fears and hatred of their difficult pasts. Due to this, he gained strong friendships with his comrades and affection from most girls of the Occult Research Club, as well as a strong sense of friendship with higher-up Devils like Rias' family; they have told him to use the same titles for them as Rias (Father, Mother, Brother, etc.), yet he still remains the same.

He has a habit (as mentioned by his mother) of not forgiving himself if he does something wrong: always saying sorry on instinct if said thing is mentioned, and showing an expression of pain and regret. He is also fiercely loyal to his comrades and is always willing to stand up for them. Issei's kindness also have a positive influence on others including former enemies. When Issei suggested to Cao Cao to use his True Longinus to help and protect people, Cao Cao acknowledged had he and Siegfried met and befriend Issei earlier, they would not have ended up becoming terrorists in the Khaos Brigade. Another sign of his kind nature is that despite wanting to lose his virginity, Issei refuses to take advantage of women when they are upset, even if they themselves are willing to. This happened when Akeno Himejima appeared in front of him naked and wanted to have sex to forget about her sad past and her father. However, Issei refused, knowing it will just hurt her more, and put her clothes back on and hugged her to comfort her.

After his murder by Raynare, Issei had developed a fear of admitting his feelings to the girls in his life, as he thought it would cause them to reject him. This would also cause him to become oblivious to the feelings of the girls around him (save for Rias after his confession), often believing they are simply teasing him or even leading him on as Raynare did. He acknowledged that this would never happen, but it was still an intense fear. It is also why he was so insistent on trying to lose his virginity, as he believed that no woman would ever want to be in a true, committed relationship with him and that him having sex was the best he could hope to achieve as a semblance of satisfaction.

Despite that, even when the girls of the Occult Research Club such as Akeno or Xenovia Quarta propositioned him into making love to them, Issei would always initially hold himself back, as he would sometimes look at them with a frightened gaze, a fact which Akeno, Asia Argento and Koneko Toujou later noticed. His fears were finally brought to attention when Akeno, Asia, and Koneko confronted him alone and helped him by getting him to admit his feelings and assuring him that they would always love him and so would Rias.[6] This inspired him to finally confesses his love for her which she reciprocated, effectively helping Issei move past his fears.[7] Even with the knowledge that the girls do have romantic affection for him, he still has problems acknowledging some of their ongoing rivalries, an example being who gets to sit on his lap.

In reality, Issei has an innocent side; he is a boy who yearns for love and a true relationship, a side which he only shows to women who can see past his perverted exterior and love him for who he is and who he, in turn, has affections for. He shows this side to the girls of the Occult Research Club, for instance on his date with Akeno or when Rias takes him out on dates.

Initially, after reincarnating as a Devil, he set about his desire for a harem as his initial goal, by having his peerage become his harem. After the Rating Game against Sona Sitri and Genshirou Saji, he slightly changed the goal to having a harem Peerage that wouldn't lose to anyone. Among his other goals include competing in Rating Games and making Rias the Champion of the Rating Games by becoming the *"Ultimate Pawn"* alongside Yuuto Kiba, who promised to become the *"Ultimate Knight"* with him and his desire to become the Champion of the Rating Games himself after he obtains his own Peerage. He is also deeply invested in his rivalry with Vali Lucifer, his Heavenly Dragon counterpart, as Issei promised to get stronger and defeat him, with the both of them reaffirming their promise to fight each other some day multiple times during the series and Vali suggesting that Issei create his own team like Vali which is different from his peerage. Their rivalry would heat up after the both of them enter the Azazel Cup, with Issei creating his own team, Team Red Dragon Emperor of the Blazing Truth, to try to win the Azazel Cup and defeat Vali during the tournament. After the two of them passed the preliminary rounds, the two expressed their desire to continue their initial fight as the both of them promised not to lose until they meet each other in the Cup.

As revealed by Shiva, Issei has a deep desire for peace which is further strengthened by him being the "child" of Great Red and Ophis, as Issei seems incapable of realizing his dream of becoming a Harem King until he obtains peace with his own hands. Due to experiencing intense fights in which he nearly died, Issei affirms his desire to create a world without war and protect his companions even if his enemy is a God.

While initially shown to be unable to understand the appeal of fighting, Shiva reveals that Issei has developed fondness of fighting strong opponents with strong beliefs, with Issei himself confirming that he has come to like defeating strong opponents as equally as groping female breasts. While Issei is shown to like battling strong opponents, at first he was unable to truly "enjoy" a fight (except his match with Sairaorg Bael) due them mostly being life-threatening fights. This began to change after his match with Dulio, as he realized that competing in the Azazel Cup is mostly sport rather than a serious fight.

Issei is shown to admire strong individuals who have strong beliefs and convictions, seeing them as targets for him to catch up to. He is shown to admire Sairaorg, after witnessing his strength and noble splendor and that respect intensified after learning that Sairaorg was talentless like him, as he noted their similar fighting styles. Due to his interest in Rating Games, he has developed a admiration towards Diehauser Belial and Rudiger Rosenkreutz, due to them being the Top 10 Rating Game players, with Issei especially admiring Rudiger Rosenkreutz; as he was a Reincarnated Devil like Issei himself. As Dragon, he is shown to admire Tannin, admiring his strength and his desire to help other Dragon as Issei considers him the true Dragon King due to his splendor, and Crom Cruach, due to his overwhelming power and his pride as Dragon. While he was initially exasperated and annoyed by Fafnir and his panties fetish, Issei is shown to have developed a respect for him after he witnessed Fafnir's willpower and determination to protect Asia from Rizevim Livan Lucifer.

Issei is noted be be a very friendly person, able to become friends with anyone. Azazel stated that he has the ability to win over the trust of others easily and doesn't discriminate against anyone as others can feel at ease with him due to him not resenting anyone, with Azazel calling that ability a talent of Issei's. Issei's ability to attract companions, allies and enemies is further enhanced by him being the Red Dragon Emperor. According to Cao Cao, despite Issei's lack of natural talent and demonic power, Issei's ability to attract others by holding dragon powers is top notch compared to previous Red Dragon Emperors, as Cao Cao believes that Issei will become the most dangerous Red Dragon Emperor. His ability to obtain the trust of other is so great that the residual memories of the past Red Dragon Emperors sacrificed themselves to protect him from Samael's curse. After coming back from the dead with by using Great Red and Ophis' power, Cao Cao commented that Issei's power to attract the strong is scary due to it attracting powerful beings like the Dragon Gods to aid him. According to Azazel, Issei makes a lot of irregular phenomena occur, for instance; a lot of Sacred Gear possessors near Issei were able to awaken irregular Balance Breakers (such as Yuuto, Gasper Vladi and Saji). Ophis stated that Issei is as strong as the number of companions he has. According to Azazel, Issei has the natural ability to make supernatural girls fall in love with him, while Millarca Vordenburg stated that most of the men who meet Issei become fascinated with him.

While initially being confused by his popularity among the Devil children due to Oppai Dragon, Issei eventually embraced the role of being the Oppai Dragon and began acting as a hero for the children as was demonstrated in Volume 10, where he carried the wishes of child fans during his match with Sairaorg Bael, promising to defeat him for the sake of Rias and the children who believed in him. Issei has placed the his desire to protect the children of the Underworld and of the other factions as one of his goals as seen when he defeated various foes who threatened the children and their dreams such as Shalba Beelzebub, Grendel, and Erebus. In fact, due to Shalba's insanity and him promising to kill the children of the Underworld for rejecting him as a Satan, Issei killed him to stop his malice from reaching the children.

In battle, Issei is sometimes very stubborn, and due to his emotions, he often charges ahead towards his enemies without a second thought whenever his comrades are insulted, treated badly, or easily defeated. Azazel has stated that it is one of Issei's bad habits. Lately, he has started to become more tactical in his battles, using technique-type strategies to defeat opponents, as shown when he used the abilities of the Wyverns in a unique way to defeat Euclid Lucifuge.

Issei also displays strong moral principles, as seen when he initially refused to actually kill his enemies. Even after killing Shalba Beelzebub, Issei still rarely ever kills his enemies and prefers to either let others do so or simply let them face arrest. While Issei can carry grudges, he is not above forgiving his enemies and becoming friends with them due to his kindness, as seen with Riser Phenex, Kuroka, Vali and Cao Cao.

Although Issei is a person with a genuinely kind, selfless and optimistic heart, he can also be quite cruel and merciless when enraged, something that happens when those he loves are hurt. When Raynare murdered Asia, the rage Issei was feeling made him overcome the pain of being pierced with a Spear of Light and knock out Raynare. Upon seeing the extreme cruelty and sadism of Diodora Astaroth and the cruel torment he caused Asia, Issei brutally beat him and almost killed him. When Asia apparently "died", Issei's grief and hatred caused him to activate his Juggernaut Drive and brutally almost kill Shallba Beelzebub. During the Rating Game against Sairaorg, after seeing his teammates brutally defeated, Sairaorg was forced to withdraw his Queen from the match to prevent Issei from killing her for being unable to contain the anger.

## **History**

Before Issei's birth, his mother became pregnant twice, but the pregnancies ended in miscarriages. So when Issei's mother got pregnant for the third time, his father had paced back and forth in front of a Shinto shrine honestly wishing that this time they would succeed. When the newborn was finally born he was named Issei, meaning "honesty", for his father's honest prayers.

He is a childhood friend of Irina Shidou and they would always play together back when she still lived in the neighborhood, although he thought she was a boy at the time as he vaguely remembers her. A few times Issei was invited to go to church with her family. On occasions they would stay over at each other's houses, one of these visits when Issei slept over at Irina's, she kissed him while he was sleeping. Eventually, Irina moved to England due to her father's job.

Sometime during his childhood, Issei met an old man who told him and other children stories about breasts, which eventually led to Issei's fascination with them and his perverted tendencies.

He attended the same middle school with Matsuda and Motohama and the three of them started attending Kuoh Academy one year before the story, and have come to be known as the Perverted Trio to just about the entire school.

## **Powers & Abilities**

**Demonic Power:** Issei has all the powers common to Devils, but his was even lower than Devil children, leaving him unable to travel using magic circles. It can be enhanced through promotion to Bishop or Queen. However, his training with Riki afforded him sufficient Demonic Power that he can casually release Dragon shots powerful enough to "erase" a mountain. Due to continously training his Demonic Power and his accumulated experience in intensively using it in combat, Issei's overall base Demonic Power has increased to the point being at a level of a High-Class Devil. In his Crimson Armor his Demonic Power is Satan-Class, and in his Diabolos Dragon God form, it was stated to be Transcendental-Class.

**Immense Strength:** At first, he was the weakest member of the Gremory Peerage, but training in the mountains and powered up using Boosted Gear lets him rival High-Class Devils, able to combat Riser's servants. Tannin's training made it possible for him to disperse Kuroka's poison mist with the shockwave of a stopped punch after donning Scale Mail; (while enraged) outclassing Diodora empowered from Ophis' snake.[30] Having awoken Illegal Move Triaina, and Crimson Armor, Azazel stated no one among the Young Devils aside from Sairaorg can fight him,[31] equaling an Ultimate-Class Devil. After losing his original body to Samael’s curse and being given a new Dragon body from Great Red, Issei’s base physical potential has been significantly increased to the point when dragonified, he can break past Defense Magic with one punch. From Sun Wukong's training, then upon awakening Diabolos Dragon, he overpowered Rizevim,[32] then managed to defeat Apophis.[33] Issei grew strong enough to the point that Baraqiel couldn't defeat him without it,[34] then fight against Dulio and Thanatos, the strongest among their particular groups, defeating the latter.[35] Drinking Amrita, in Pseudo D×D God, he fought and bested Vidar, donned in his dragon armor.[36] Ddraig noted the Crimson Armor reaches Satan-Class, while Pseudo D×D God reaches Super Devils,[37] defeating Rias using Balor Princess.[38] He defeated Erebus, deflecting a blast that could have defeated 100 Devils, then Tartarus, while using A×A, which could destroy the world.[39][40] He overpowers Angra Mainyu by using True D×D, then Hades after teaming up Vali and Team D×D, now being recognized as a Super Devil.[41][42]

**Immense Durability:** At first, weak and vulnerable to strong attacks, but endured being pierced from light-based weapons, albeit needed to be healed afterward. From promoting into either Rook or Queen, his defenses can be increased through their traits. After Tannin's training, where he was forced to survive continuous assault from the former Dragon King, Issei's damage resistance allowed him to withstand continuing to use Boosted Gear, which he couldn't do for more than a couple minutes. His defenses is most aided from Promotion and different armors, all of which allowed him to withstand facing opponents, such as Sairaorg, Cao Cao, Grendel, and several others, as without it Issei couldn't last long. Issei can endure Baraqiel's Holy Lightning and continuing to fight despite the intense pain.[43] Issei can withstand Vidar's attacks even when he is wearing his Ragnarok Aesir Berserk armor and even his *Fimbulvetr Shot*, the impact of which sent Issei crashing onto artificial Yggdrasil.[44]

* **Flame Resistance:** Because of his training, Issei has also developed a high degree of resistance to fire attacks, so that only the most powerful flames, such as those of a Dragon or the Phenex Clan, can injure him.

**Immense Speed:** Through the use of Promotion, Issei can increase his speed. In his Balance Breaker state, he can use the booster to further increase his speed. In his DxD Form, he was able to appear in front of Rizevim before he can react.[45] He was able to keep up with Vidar in his Ragnarök Earth Berserk. In his Pseudo-Diabolos Dragon form, he was easily able to keep up with Yuuto Kiba, who is famous for his exceptional speed, until Kiba revealed his Drag Knight Boosters.

**Immense Stamina:** Issei originally possesses average stamina. After being reincarnated into a Devil along with his daily training with Rias, Issei obtains more stamina to use the Boosted Gear. Following his training with Tannin in the Underworld, Issei obtains even more stamina, that he could use when in Balance Breaker. He eventually obtains enough stamina to activate his Scale Mail without a countdown. In Volume 23, he was able to keep fighting at his best throughout the whole two-hour Rampage Ball Rating Game.

**Dragonization** (龍化, *Ryū-ka*): Having sacrificed his left arm to Ddraig, it transformed into a dragon's arm, becoming immune to blessed items.[4] In becoming a Humanoid Dragon, having his new body made from Great Red's flesh,[5] Issei can now transform any part of himself into a dragon, fighting against three Magicians and broke their defensive magic using one punch;[46] and can grow dragon wings on his back for flight.[47] However, once the transformation happens, he needs the dragon power to be drained to appear human from the transformed section by Rias or Akeno.

**Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:** More than a martial artist, Issei is a brawler, most notably improved from his training with Kiba and Koneko. Combined with Boosted Gear, he could hold his own against Riser's three Pawns and Rook. Prior, his tactics involved head-on clashed, proving, barely effective against Riser and Vali; however, Tannin's intense training, honed his combat skills, letting Issei face far stronger enemies, through donning Scale Mail; cornering Kuroka, then overpowered a snake-enhanced Diodora, and handled fighting Loki. Usual training, then donning Triaina and Crimson Armor allowed him to go toe-to-toe with Sairaorg, an extremely powerful Devil and master martial artist in a fistfight, while he'd donned the Lion's Armor. He improved most from Sun Wukong's training, to where he fought Rizevim, a Super Devil, activating DxD. He fought Baraqiel with Crimson Armor, who infused his strikes with Holy Lightning.[43] In Pseudo-DxD, enhanced from Amrtia, lets him fight Vidar, who excels in a kick-based martial art, enhanced through Ragnarök Earth Berserk.[44] His experience and combat skill allows him to overpower Gressil, until he started using Resistance to make him more resilient to attacks.[48]

**Expert Swordsman:** Though Issei isn't as skilled as Kiba, Xenovia or Irina in swordmanship, he has learned the basics from Kiba, which has continuously been improved from regular training sessions. As such, he can wield Ascalon as an arm blade extension of his Boosted Gear allow him to cut off Cao Cao's arm during their first fight in Kyoto. Issei could deflect strikes from the strongest Grim Reaper Thanatos' scythe using Ascalon, then fought Vidar using both it and Ascalon II. Issei develops a technique to shoot out his swords at his opponent enhanced by using both *Boost* and *Penetrate*. Issei could fiercely clashed with Kiba's superior swordsmanship with Gram, blocking its strikes with Ascalon. His skills has allowed him to wield all three Ascalon against Angra Mainyu, even using feints against him before stabbing him with his Tail Blade.

**Skilled Tactician:** Though outsmarted and considered an idiot, Issei has basic tactical knowledge, focused on surprising opponents. He carried holy water and a cross to counter Riser's Immortality; then overcharged Vali's wings after transferring power to them, breaking his armor using Ascalon. Issei acted as the Kyoto Team's leader, letting them face the Hero Faction; Kiba mentioned despite being simple, his orders let their group properly fight and defend themselves. He could also plan ahead of time, using a bullet with Samael's blood to defeat Cao Cao, who had Medusa's Eye, making him vulnerable to it. Issei used Dividing Wyvern Faeries to in a unique manner to combat Euclid, who'd outmatched him in Crimson Armor. Against Kiba, he transferred power to him, thus making him lose control of his armored boosters; then taking advantage of the fact Rias wasn't familiar with his Nyuutron Beam Cannon, surprising and defeating her. Issei is currently learning Rating Game tactics from Ravel. Noted by himself that unexpectedness and explosiveness are his and his team strength.

**Survival Skills:** Because of his training under Tannin, Issei has developed survival skills.

**Stealth:** Issei has also learned how to mask his presence from people.

**Master Artisan:** Issei is a very talented sculptor, able to create a perfect statue of Rias Gremory with his eyes closed from memory which impressed his teacher and his friends in classroom.

**Skilled Dancer:** Due to being taught by Venelana Gremory, Issei became skilled in social dancing, able to coordinate with Rias in dancing well enough to pass the dancing trial in the ruins of connection

**Flight:** While Issei still lacks the ability to fly using his Devil wings, Issei being a former Dragon can fly using his Dragon wings.

## **Equipment**

**Boosted Gear** (, *Būsuteddo Gia*): Issei's Sacred Gear and main weapon, among all the original 13 Longinus, which holds the Welsh Dragon, Ddraig's soul, making it a Mid-Tier Longinus. A left-handed red gauntlet that doubles his powers every 10 seconds until he reach his limit, letting him rival High-Class Devils, holding the potential to kill god if mastered. He later gained the ability to **Transfer** the multiplied power into a person or item, even parts like his eyes for enhanced vision. Issei later awakened **Penetrate**, letting him bypass all defenses like Rizevim's Sacred Gear Canceler, letting his attacks make contact; transferred into his eyes lets him see through anything, even woman's clothing.