User blog comment:B214/Talk About What You Want! 3/@comment-24098614-20150602052327/@comment-24098614-20150602222347

I do know that in the Light Novels the haunting of Raynare was not a curse but a mental trauma of sorts, and is quite believable and explainable since Raynare was his first love, and he was betrayed by her when she killed him it is very possible for him to develop a deep mental trauma, and he showed this in the Light Novels in a realistic way.

Issei couldn't advance in any of his relationships with any of the girls, and he couldn't confess to Rias even as much as he wanted to because he was afraid that Rias and these girls were too good for him, and they would do the same thing that Raynare did to him it took considerable effort from Akeno and the other girls to make him face his trauma because they recognized, and they saw how much in pain he was because that mental trauma he suffered is as bad as any curse anybody can have.