Let's talk about "Boosted"

For those of you unaware, "Red Dragon's Power: Boosted" is one of my most popular stories, that story drew the attention of readers that still follow me today and writers on here that I still talk to and some I should talk to more often so needless to say that story is important to me but unfortunately it's a story that I never see myself being able to continue and I'm here to explain exactly.

Before I get into why I discontinued that story I'm going to talk about why it's connected to this current story. First of all this is not a Reboot of my reboosted story, rather it's a reboot of my notability less popular first attempt at a Dxd story title Red Dragon's Power and in that story the only deviation from canon was that Issei started off being able to use balance breaker (so I understand why it never reached the heights of its sequel series). I'm also not here to try and defend the choices I made for this story or to tell you that this new story is any better or you should like it more. If you don't like the choices I made and prefer the direction I took in Boosted I can't really be too offended cause I wrote both stories meaning you at least liked my writing to some extent so thank you.

Back to why I decided to end my most popular story, well I think fans of that story can admit while the start was strong it was losing steam by the end, especially after the confrontation with Riser and the reason for this is the very same reason for a good majority of its popularity and that's its premise. Issei not being turned into a devil or not being a part of Rias' peerage or is very intriguing because it's not one we see too often at least not presented in an overly dramatic fashion and that's what the goal for Boosted was. I wanted to be able to present Issei as like able and write a story that's light hearted where Issei can be free to do his own thing but eventually the chapters grew formulaic and the characters (especially issei's) motivations began feeling increasingly shallow and at some points nonexistent.

In that story Issei was a battle maniac with a tragic past and trust issues but could still make jokes and didn't always take himself %100 percent seriously. The point of that story was to teach issei that battle mania was bad and he was dealing with the loss of his parents in an unhealthy way. In the story he had a powered up state that is brought on by pure rage called "dominating fury" and the end goal was to evolve it to a state powered by love for his friends but I eventually realized taking him down this path was robbing him of any motivation whatsoever. And it became a chore to write him.

The reason it connects to the premise as an issue is because he quickly ran out of reasons to be in the story other than wanting to fight the likes of kokabiel or eventually Vali. He didn't have any particular connections with the rest of cast permanently placed in Kuoh other than a friendship and I guess we could say school but why would the wielder of one existences most powerful weapons he in high school?

Well if Issei doesn't need to be in Kuoh then let him go somewhere else! The issue with that is the world seems to revolve around Kuoh with heavy hitters and some of my personal favorites like Vali, Azazel, and eventually Cao Cao and Sairorg seemingly orbiting around Rias' group moving him away from them would miss us out on so many cool moments and encounters plus Asia, Koneko and Rias are characters I really enjoy writing in my stories plus without the Harem is it really Dxd?. A more talented writer can (and a few of them have, check out my old friend Nosferatu869's "lone dragon emperor" for an interesting and intriguing take on the Concept) make it so their story can incorporate all these elements and more into a cohesive narrative but I'm still improving (I hope)

I won't act like I didn't make my own terrible decisions that helped ruin the story (at least for me, if y'all still like it then I'm glad) in fact having Issei make Raynare a serious girlfriend early on in the story only to break them up three or four chapters later and then go back to being friends is some of the absolute worst writing I've ever done. But there's a reason I've been shy about revisiting this particular topic and there's a reason that unfortunately I'm not ever going to be able to finish that story.

Now I haven't given up on this premise entirely, in fact if you wanna give my "life of a free pawn" story a read you may find some similarities, though I've found myself stuck on how to continue that story as well (but it WILL continue… eventually) and don't be too surprised if a year or two from now I come out with a Red Dragon's Power (Over boosted) but for now it's an idea I struggle finding ways to move forward on and I feel like I owed all you readers explanation and I hope there's a little more closure now.

For the last little bit of this I decided to address a topic from last time, that being the characters who will be presented OOC in this story and so I compiled a small list of the confirmed ones so far along with a little description on what's up with who, so enjoy:

Issei- if you haven't figured out yet then I'm a terrible writer. Issei is a rude thug, at least on the surface, who is for what ever reason compelled to violence by an unknown force. Hidden under his tough guy layer Issei is a gifted student with a love for all different fields of academics and quite shy and slightly prudish as he gets overly flustered by almost any erotic encounter.

Rias- Rias is just herself taken a little bit further in certain regards, for an example rather than just being a japanophile she's a straight up Weeb.

Ddraig- Ddraig is more chaotic and violent in this series with an enormous sense of pride in himself and issei. He revels in the bloodshed of enemies and can occasionally act as the devil on Issei's shoulders.

(For anyone who read all the way through, thanks! Chapter 3 coming soon!)