Tries to distract himself!

Back in the Occult Research Club room as the sun was setting outside, Issei sat back on the couch, trying to find something to distract his mind from the blood on his hands, and turned his head towards Akeno. "...so, what was that about, earlier?"

She paused, and turned a sweet smile towards him that fooled absolutely no one. "...what was what about?" she asked, clearly already knowing what he was about to ask.

"What... Kokabiel said," Issei rubbed the back of his head. "You are the daughter of someone he knows?"

"Hardly," she snorted. "Baraquiel is my sperm donor, nothing more. I want nothing to do with him, or any other Fallen, save Raynare. Please do not ask anything more about that, as I do not wish to talk about it."

"...alright, I won't ask about this Baraquiel, but why are you fine with Raynare?" Issei questioned, scratching his head as Raynare stared at Akeno in shock.

"Wait, you are a Fallen as well?" Raynare asked, wondering how she had missed that.

Akeno turned her fake smile towards Raynare for a moment, and stated firmly, "I reject that side of my heritage. I was half Fallen, half Human before becoming a Devil. As for why I am able to... Tolerate you without issue, it's mainly because you're our bitch while you're being punished. That actually makes your presence appealing."

"...so, I guess a threesome with Issei, you and me is out of the question for the foreseeable future?" Raynare asked flatly.

"Got it in one," Akeno replied. "As I said, for the time being at least, I simply tolerate you, nothing more."

Deciding to change topics, Kiba stated, "Almost a pity that we can't claim credit for defeating Kokabiel." He missed Issei stiffening at the reminder. "But it's for the best. While it would have increased our clout, and probably fast tracked Issei's promotion to a Mid Class Devil at least, seeing as he landed the final blow, we would have gained too much attention from other factions, should it get out."

"Yes, not to mention the fact that it would have risked exposing the existence of the Lamp if you got that kind of attention," Raynare noted.

"Eh?" Issei blinked, looking at her. "I thought the reason was to keep tensions between us and the Fallen from increasing?"

"Use your head, dingus. That's just the part I could say in front of Vali, and those two Exorcists. Right now, only the top brass of Devil Society, as in the four Satans, and some of the higher up Nobles, Azazel-sama, and our group and Sona's Peerage know about the Lamp, probably Michael if Azazel-sama shared what he learned with him already," Raynare explained to Issei. "It's a potential game changer in the balance of power, so needs to be handled delicately. Letting everyone and their mother learn of it is not delicate, and increased scrutiny ups the odds of that happening. Especially since you can't keep the secret for shit," she smirked. "All it took was one accurate guess to trick a confession out of you."

"You had to bring that up, didn't you?" Issei groaned, remembering how embarrassingly easily he had fallen for Raynare's trick.

"Wait, that's how she found out?" Koneko asked, giving Issei a flat, unimpressed look. "You dumbass, that's practically the oldest trick in the book..."

"...I thought we agreed that you wouldn't tell Koneko about it?" Issei whined to Raynare, knowing Koneko wouldn't ever let him hear the end of it.

"Correction, I only promised to consider it," Raynare smirked with mirth. "Consider it more motivation to learn how to keep your mouth shut in the future, and confirm or deny nothing until you actually know what the other party knows."

Issei groaned as he slammed his head against the table. Plus side, this did in fact distract him for a bit... At least until they all went home, and he went to sleep between Rias and Asia. Once he actually drifted off though, memories of the blank, lifeless look in that one eye plagued his dreams.