Fanfic / Hollow with a Heart

Hollow with a Heart is a High School D×D fanfic written by ZBX6779 on Wattpad.

At the end of season 3, Rias loses her composure and tells Issei that she regrets reincarnating him all because he didn't confess like she wanted him to. As a result, he suffers a Broken Pedestal exacerbated by his trauma from being killed by Raynare and leaves the ORC, hardly speaking to anyone in his depressed funk. During a mission, he encounters something that will change his life and take it in a brand-new direction as comes to terms with his own life and his choices.

This fanfic provides examples of:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Issei ends up laughing when he finds out that Koneko invoked Too Kinky to Torture on him to get him back to his senses, with Koneko also finding it pretty hilarious
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Issei's trauma from being killed by Raynare is looked into with greater depth than canon. Suffice to say, Rias snapping at Issei reawakened those trust issues just as he was ready to progress into a relationship with her
• Adaptational Badass: Issei gains Hollow powers that make him powerful enough to fight against and kill Trihexa.
  • Gasper essentially becomes an expy of both Alucard and Kayne over the course of the story, even taking up the latter's name.
  • Asia becomes the first ever Golden Dragon Empress by accepting Fafnir as her second Sacred Gear
• Adaptational Jerkass: The ORC momentarily experiences this in the first chapter before they realize the consequences of their actions
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Hades is much closer to his mythological counterpart, being a non-malicious underworld deity who informs Issei and the leaders of the Three Factions on his status as a Hollow and the consequences it entails
  • Crom Cruach warms up to Issei and the crew after pulling a Heel–Face Turn, eventually becoming a stalwart ally of the group
  • Cao Cao is much more open-minded about the supernatural after having his previous views on the supernatural completely upended in his fight against Issei, also performing a Heel–Face Turn in the process.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Plenty to go around.
  • Issei breaks up with his canonical harem and is instead with Ahri, who helps him rediscover true love and learn to trust others once again
  • Kuroka enters a relationship with Nagumo, a fellow nekoshou, before marrying him and having twins with him
  • Kiba and Tsubaki get married in the finale while nothing of the sort ever happened in canon
  • Rossweisse and Azazel are a couple, which never happened in canon
  • Weirdly enough, Xenovia and Crom Cruach end up together in the finale
  • Saiji and Katase are a couple even though they never even interacted with each other in canon
  • Gasper forms a relationship with Evelyn, marrying her in the finale of the story
  • Akeno and Vali are married in the finale despite never even interacting with each other in canon
  • Rias marries one of the previous hosts of the Boosted Gear who was revived after the final battle in the finale instead of Issei
  • Ares and Serafall are married in the finale.
• Adaptation Name Change: Gasper renames himself Kyne in the latter half of the story as he enters his relationship with Evelyne.
• Adaptation Species Change: Rossweisse becomes half-dragon after receiving an emergency blood transfusion from Issei to save her life when an artificial vampire nearly drains her.
• Ascended Demon: Downplayed, while Issei is still a Devil, holy weapons and energy don't hurt him as much thanks to his acceptance of the light and repentance of his sins
• Back from the Dead: The past hosts of the Boosted Gear are resurrected as dragons in the finale of the story so they can enjoy the newfound peace after Trihexa's defeat
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 33 seemingly sets up events so that the heroes will adopt the apparent Sole Survivor of the artificial vampire experiments conducted by the Khaos Brigade... only for the little girl to reveal herself as a spy vampire and nearly drain Rossweisse of her blood before the others kill her
• Betrayal Fic: Like many others, Issei ends up going off on his own after getting lashed out on by Rias and the ORC undergoing Adaptational Jerkass, gets stronger on his own, finds a new love interest, while Rias is punished for her behavior. However, it also resolves the conflicts caused by said betrayal and ends on a happy note for everyone.
• Big Damn Heroes: Issei and Team Vali rescue Arthur's lover Emily Winters from her abusive arranged marriage just as her (ex)husband attempts to have his way with her
• Blade Enthusiast: Issei throws out his porn collection for a knife collection, which comes in handy when he gives his friends some new weapons for them as gifts.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Issei and the gang go their separate ways to focus on college before reuniting
• Break the Haughty: Cao Cao's fight against Issei is one specifically designed by the latter to inflict this on the former. It gets him to reconsider his ways and join the heroes
  • Rias is punished for her mistakes by her family and eventually acknowledges her errors, eventually becoming Amicable Exes with Issei.
• Clear My Name: The info on the illegal experiments conducted by the Naberius family's head hidden in Koneko's hairpins help prove Kuroka's innocence after Issei sends it to the Four Satans for appraisal
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Cao Cao gets bodied by Issei during their fight in the arena despite using Longinus' Balance Breaker
• Dark and Troubled Past: Ahri's got one by default if you're familiar with her lore in League of Legends
• Distracted by the Sexy: Coriana attempts to use this on Issei in her match against him with no success
• Does Not Like Spam: When Issei brings up Wales as one of his vacation destinations, Ddraig brings up the fact that one of his previous hosts loved to eat haggis to dissuade him from eating the food there.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Issei slams numerous shots of liquor in an attempt to get drunk enough to forget his pain at being lashed out at by Rias. It doesn't work.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Trihexa is killed by the efforts of the heroes and everyone gets to settle down and have happy lives.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Invoked by Issei when he persuades Crom Cruach to make his Heel–Face Turn, playing on his desire for worthy opponents to fight against.
• Friendly Rivalry: Issei and Vali have this going on between them, helping each other get stronger in sparring sessions
• Go and Sin No More: Michael absolves Issei after he repents for his perverted antics, telling him to enjoy life to the fullest
• Heel–Face Turn: Team Vali allies themself with Issei after the events of his vacation in Iceland
  • Crom Cruach, Cao Cao, and Euclid Lucifuge defect from the Khaos Brigade
  • Asia and Crom manage to get a small group of mass-produced Evil Dragons to defect from the Khaos Brigade and enlist themselves as Asia's bodyguards
• Helicopter Parents: Zeoticus and Venelana cut off Rias' communications with her friends so she can focus on her college studies and to also provide Issei with some much-needed personal space away from her.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Issei castigates himself for his perverted antics after Rias accidentally reveals the Awful Truth about his reincarnation as a Devil
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Invoked twice when Issei first requests that his friends kill him if he ever loses control of his inner Hollow and when he later asks Saiji to kill him when Trihexa attempts to take over his body.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Issei's reveals that his Harem Seeker tendencies stemmed from this to Rossweisse and Azazel before the horrible breakup with Rias
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Ahri and her fellow Runeterrans from League of Legends show up while the Bleach universe is connected to the DxDverse
• Intimidation Demonstration: The final chapter all but states that Issei and the gang end Runeterra's constant warfare by demonstrating their hidden power to the warriors of that world, cowing everyone else into submission and paving the way for the introduction of the Rating Game system to give the Runeterrans a more productive outlet for their aggression.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Issei uses his Balance Breaker's Welsh Bishop Blaster Armor to pull off a series of snowboarding stunts on a snowboard he made from an entire tree. Needless to say, the video he records of this feat goes viral when he uploads it onto the internet
  • Ravel's café, The Sweet Phoenix, combines good old-fashioned confectionaries with magic and phoenix tears, making it a smash hit in the underworld for the combined culinary and healing properties of its pastries
• My God, What Have I Done?: The ORC has a collective example once they realize what they had just said to Issei
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The beginning is basically this for the ORC
  • Rias jumps to the conclusion that Issei ditched her for Kuroka even though that wasn't the case, souring the relationship between her and Issei even further and getting her kicked out of his house in the process
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Issei calls out Cao Cao's Knight Templar view towards the supernatural during their fight in the arena as he subjects him to a Curb-Stomp Battle
• Official Couple: Issei and Ahri are this for the story, in part due to their spiritual bond as soulmates
• Original Character: Nagumo is a nekoshou who Kuroka befriends and eventually marries in the story with no canon counterpart
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ddraig is thunderstruck when Issei rejects powering up with the thought of breasts in his training for the Rating Game against Saiorag. Considering how much of a horndog Issei used to be, it's a sign that he's serious about changing himself from the ground-up
  • Everyone at Kuoh Academy takes note of Issei's change in personality after he rejects peeping on the Kendo Club girls with Matsuda and Motohama
  • Kuroka is noticeably surprised when Issei rejects her advances, surmising that he must have went through something to lose his perverted streak
• Passing the Torch: Issei and company pass on their roles as protectors of the human and supernatural world to their kids and descendants while occasionally helping them out in secret.
• Related in the Adaptation: Saiji is Elsha's grandson in this continuity because his grandfather, William, was her husband
• Second Love: Ahri for Issei (technically third love), Azazel for Rossweisse, Crom Cruach for Xenovia, and the unnamed former host of Ddraig for Rias
• Shipper on Deck: Yasaka and Ddraig are supportive of Issei and Ahri's romance, with Ddraig even encouraging them to have sex already despite Issei's reservations
• Shout-Out: Plenty to go around
  • Azazel makes a reference to episode 6 of Helluva Boss when he reveals to Issei that Grayfia pegs Sirzechs, earning a Death Glare from her in response
  • Gasper essentially channels DIO in his match against Mesteeta
  • Kuroka, Le Fay, and Arthur use the real names of Black Cat (Marvel Comics), Black Canary, and Charles Lance as their aliases during Issei's vacation arc
  • Gasper's new summons are referred to as the Grimm
  • Issei manages to forge the Executioner's Blade and Murasame with his new skills in alchemy
  • Thor's new axe is known as Stormbreaker
  • The four Evil Dragons that Asia and Crom convince to join the heroes are named Eric, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, and they even make a reference to the show's Running Gag of They Killed Kenny Again
    Asia: OMG! They killed Kenny!!!
    Crom: YOU BASTARDS!!!!
  • Diehauser's beatdown at the hands of Issei practically invokes Hulk thrashing Loki in The Avengers (2012)
  • Saiji manages to kill Trihexa's soul when it attempts to Grand Theft Me Issei by pure dumb luck, much like how Akame killed the Tyrant in Akame ga Kill!.
  • Issei's human body is dug out of his dragon form a la Eren in Attack on Titan
  • Arthur and Emily's daughter goes by the name Artoria Pendragon.
  • Kuroka and Nagumo's daughters are named Yoruichi and Leone and are also expies of their namesakes
  • Issei and Ahri's daughters are named Akagi and Kaga while their sons are named Naruto and Kurama.
  • Vali and Akeno's kids are named Dante, Vergil, and Tio while their grandson is named Nero.
  • Gasper/Kyne and Evelyn's daughter is named Yui
  • Warframes are created by Azazel and Ajuka combining technology from Kai'sa's symbiotic suit and the sport armors derived from the Balance Breakers of the Boosted and Dividing Gears
  • Hellsing Abridged makes an appearance as a TV show that Gasper stars in
  • Runeterra's Forever War is finally put to an end by the introduction of Rating Games as a better alternative to war. Sounds similar to a certain tournament, eh?
  • Serafall and Ares obtain the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos as their new weapons
• They Killed Kenny Again: Hilariously referenced in Chapter 36 when Kenny the dragon is killed by a stray magic blast from a Khaos Brigade devil
• Too Kinky to Torture: Invoked by Koneko when Issei chokes her when she goes into his room to check up on him so he can let go of her. It works and gets Issei back to his senses just in time.
• Took a Level in Badass: Rias' peerage manages to defeat Sairorg's peerage in the Rating Game against them thanks to Issei's help in training them
  • Rossweisse replaces Rias as the King of her peerage by taking in the King piece after Rias is stripped of her status as a high-class devil for a while, proving herself a capable leader and administrator for the peerage.
  • Emily learns about the supernatural and is taught magic by Issei and his friends, becoming a capable sorceress who can fight side by side with Arthur
  • Saiji gets strong enough to unlock Balance Breaker and hold his own in battle for longer
  • Everyone gets strong enough to help Issei and Vali fight Trihexa in the final battle
  • Trihexa transforms into a Hollow after eating Issei's mask fragment, enabling it to break free of its seals and hold its own against Issei's Hollow Drive in the final battle
• Vacation Episode: Issei has an vacation mini-arc when he goes on his trip to Iceland.
  • Issei and Ahri travel around the world with each other on a vacation of their own
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Riser and Issei enjoy this relationship, being on good terms with each other while trading barbs with each other
• What the Hell, Hero?: Rossweisse, Azazel, and Sirzechs chew out Rias for her blunder when they find out about Issei's depression from her snapping at him
  • Issei chews Rias out again and kicks her out of his house after she mistakes him bringing Kuroka into his home as a sign that he's in a relationship with her despite that not being the case
• Your Days Are Numbered: Issei's lifespan is drastically reduced from 100 years to only 8 years after he is Hollowified due to his inner Hollow consuming his remaining life force from using Juggernaut Drive. Thankfully Averted when Issei masters his Hollow abilities.

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