Tom and Tamamo were up late as he instructed her in the use of his computer. To his surprise, Tamamo picked it up quickly.

"Not bad for an old lady," Tom joked. "I would think this would be a bit difficult for you."

"It probably would be for the others, but we kitsunes are very comfortable with tech," Tamamo replied. "My race is always at the cutting edge of technology and it's always been a passion of mine. But this…. This is incredible! A worldwide network of information at my fingertips! If there's an answer to be found, it's got to be here!"

Tamamo searched for "interdimensional travel" and clicked on a link that looked interesting.

"Oh my goodness, we've hit paydirt already!" Tamamo chortled. "It turns out this happens on your world all the time!"

"Um…." Tom wasn't sure how to say it, but tried to explain anyway. "You can't believe everything you read on the internet. These are conspiracy websites."

"I don't follow. Didn't you say this internet thingie had all the information in the world?"

"Well, first off, not all," Tom explained. "And what is there isn't always reliable. All those stories about people meeting aliens and interdimensional beings, they aren't true."

Tamamo gave him a dubious look.

"Well, okay, I guess you're proof that some of them might be true," Tom admitted. "But how do we determine which people are telling the truth and which aren't?"

"Maybe I should try a new approach," Tamamo mused. "I'll search for scientific research. Can I rely on those websites?"

Tom was impressed at how quickly Tamamo was picking up the lingo. Even the keyboard and mouse were becoming second nature to her. She'd start out hunting and pecking and was already clattering away after only a few minutes of using his computer. Just how smart was this girl?

"Ah, that looks more promising!" Tamamo said in triumph. She cracked her knuckles. "Thomas, if you're comfortable with me staying here all night and using your stuff, I'd really like to work on this. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something that can help us get back home really soon!"

Tom wasn't comfortable at all with Tamamo playing around on his main computer without him to supervise, but he was tired and he recognized the necessity. The sooner these troublesome ladies left his house, the better. He briefly thought about sending her to her room with a tablet he could afford to lose, but decided against it. A tablet simply was not as fast or efficient to work on as a PC.

"Oh, before you go to bed, could you zap me something?" Tamamo asked. "I'll need the energy."

Tom didn't even grumble. He was already used to doing his guests' bidding when they desired food. But what would happen tomorrow when they'd start wanting that other…. Food? They were all super attractive, sure, but they seemed dangerous as well. And with Tamamo admitting that they had killed people…. But could he safely refuse them?

Tom went to the kitchen and pulled out a rice and noodle frozen dinner. He zapped it and brought it back to the office for Tamamo. He felt he could trust Tamamo, so perhaps he should ask her advice on how to handle… tomorrow?

Tom entered his office to find Tamamo's face on the keyboard, snoring. So much for the all nighter, he thought. He'd been gone all of five minutes. But she was physically a child and it was well past the average child's bedtime. Gently he lifted her light form off of the chair. She wrapped her arms and a couple of tails around him without fully awakening, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder. He carried her upstairs and deposited her onto the bed of a vacant room, taking care to carefully tuck her in. Would she be upset that he hadn't awakened her and gotten her back to work? He decided that in her physical state she would probably benefit from a good eight to twelve hours of sleep. She wouldn't have been effective anyway if she had stayed up. When she awakened, they'd resume looking for answers.

Yawning himself, Tom went downstairs and crawled into his bed. What a day! He wondered what surprises were in store for him tomorrow.

What happened that morning really shouldn't have been a surprise, technically. Tom had awakened fairly early, unable to sleep very well due to all the stress he was under. He guessed that he'd gotten perhaps four good hours, and maybe a couple more in fragmented sleep. Blearily, he decided that the best way to perk himself up was a nice morning swim.

He stared down at the blue water. Something about it looked different. Tom was quite good at noticing when something in his house was out of place. The couches slightly moved. Tufts of fur. And now his pool was a slightly different shade of blue.

Tom stepped into the pool using the stairs. The water definitely felt different. It was still fairly warm, although even the temperature felt off. He always set the heater to 75 degrees and never changed it. It felt closer to 72, maybe 73. He went in up to his neck. The water smelled different as well. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, but it was definitely different. Almost fruity, rather than chlorinated.

He dipped his head down slightly and grabbed a mouthful of the water and spit it out. That was it! There was no chlorine in the water! But he'd just had it treated!

The water rippled in front of him and he heard a slight giggle.

"Who's there?!" he yelled. He couldn't see anyone, and yet there was no place to hide. All that was in the room was the pool and two patio chairs, neither of which were suitable for hiding. Did any of his guests have the ability to become invisible?

He received his answer when a head popped up out of the water. The head seemed to have no body. Below the head was nothing but water!

"Erubetie?!" Tom exclaimed. "Where… Where's the rest of you?! And what did you to do my pool?!"

"You gave me permission to reside in this room, did you not?" Erubetie countered.

Tom had to admit that he had. He'd simply forgotten and had been so tired that it took her appearance in his pool to remind him. He was grateful he hadn't chosen to swim naked as he sometimes did. It was an indoor pool after all, he could do that if he wanted to!

"As for your pool," Erubetie continued. "It contained a chemical that I could not tolerate, so I have spread my body evenly throughout and filtered it out. Otherwise, your pool is remarkably pure."

"That's what the chlorine is for!" Tom yelled. "To keep the bacteria out! Now I have to pay to get it done again from scratch!"

"When you gave your consent to let me use this room, I assumed I could rearrange things so that I could be comfortable here. My assumption was mistaken and for that I do apologize."

"No, I'm sorry, Erubetie," Tom said, feeling bad about his outburst, and also a little afraid that she might react badly to him yelling at her. "I was just surprised, that's all. It's really no big deal. You can have this pool the way you like it until we get you home. But I won't be able to swim in it after today."

"You most certainly can swim, anytime you desire!" Erubetie said. "I can remove any impurities in this body of water with ease. I actually can feed on the microorganisms that attempt to take root here. This water will be perfectly safe for my entire stay with you."

"Oh. Well if that's the case. Thank you, Erubetie! I get a clean, natural pool, and I get it for free! No chemical smell!"

"Of course!" Erubetie agreed. "The pool is pure because the pool is me!"

"Wait, what?"

"You are swimming in me," Erubetie explained. "Or more accurately, a solution made up of my body and the water. I am thoroughly and evenly mixed into your pool. When you tasted the water, you were tasting me. It felt good, actually."

Tom's face flushed with embarrassment. He'd had Erubetie in his mouth!? And he was swimming… inside of her?!

"Please allow me to return the favor," she said, the disembodied head drawing closer to him.

"Wait!" Tom protested. "I don't know if I can do this so suddenly and so…. So….."

"Unusually?" Erubetie asked. "I understand. You humans like to get to know women before giving them your semen."

"Yeah, exactly! You know, go out on a few dates or something, talk for awhile!"

"The solution is obvious," Erubetie said. "I will extract your semen in a less personal manner."

"Extract… huh?!"

Erubetie's head remained where it was, but Tom could feel something strange in the water. The water around him began to swirl, especially around his waist. The water flowed up his legs, gaining access to his groin through the legs of his bathing suit. The cool water inside his trunks was moving as if controlled by Erubetie. Remembering what she had said about the nature of the pool he was now in, and the thin smile on her face, told him that she was indeed directly controlling the movement of the water. The pool itself was stimulating him, alternating stroking movements with spinning, then waves that rippled up and down his penis and scrotum. Then the pressure of the water increased, as if only his groin was diving into the depths, until the pressure almost became crushing.

Just as he was about to ejaculate, his pants slipped down a few inches to allow him to expel his seed into the open water. In seconds the semen dissolved, joining the solution made up of Erubetie's body and the pool water.

"The meal was greatly appreciated," Erubetie said gratefully. "If you want me to pleasure you again, come and swim in me any time you wish. Perhaps next time we can talk, so that I may show you the true power of a slime. You cannot even imagine the things I can do to you."

He hadn't imagined what she actually did to do him, which got him to wondering just what else she had in mind that could be more intimate than swimming in…. her.

He slowly made his way out of the pool, climbing the three steps to get to dry land and something that wasn't Erubetie.

Erubetie's head remained above the surface of the pool, her head cocked, a quizzical look on her face.

"Is everything okay?" he called to her as he began to dry himself with a towel.

"All is well," Erubetie replied. "Too well. I have never pleasured a man and seen him walk away under his own power seconds later. Even strong men, I must keep their heads above the water to prevent them from drowning."

"To be honest, I feel little weak in the knees," Tom admitted. "But I always feel like that after good sex."

"With human women?"

"Would there be anyone else I'd have had sex with before today? Did we just have sex?"

"After a fashion," Erubetie answered. "Such a thing can be hard to define for a being such as myself. But I did consume your semen. Only one shot, to be sure, but even that should have debilitated you. Are you truly that powerful?"

"I'm… not sure how to answer that. I'm just Tom. I don't have powers or anything."

"Confusing," Erubetie said. "I shall consult with Tamamo. She may understand why you are so resistant to critical ecstasy. In the meantime, I shall resume my rest."

Tom smiled at her and watched as her head disappeared into the water. Now that's something you don't see every day, Tom thought.

To Tom's relief, Tamamo wasn't upset at all about Tom taking her to bed instead of waking her up. In fact, she didn't even speak of it, as if she didn't even remember that she had fallen asleep.

Tom made everyone breakfast(was cooking for them going to be something he had to do three times a day?) and they all, except for Erubetie, sat down to eat. Someone must have spoken to Alice, as she made a valiant attempt to not shovel food and then spray it all over the table while speaking with her mouth full. Tamamo briefed her companions on what Tom had showed her. While she hadn't found anything useful the previous night, she was hopeful that searching this "internet" would give her clues.

"There's just one problem," Tamamo said. "In this body I need a lot of sleep. So we need to work in shifts. Who wants to volunteer for tonight?"

"I'll do it," Alma Elma volunteered. "Whatever 'it' is."

"It's technical, but all of us are smart enough to learn how to use it," Tamamo assured her. "Well, maybe. Granberia doesn't do technical stuff all that well."

"I will focus on training hard, since I cannot rely on my mastery of the element of fire here," Granberia announced. "I will spend most of the day in the gym."

"As if you wouldn't train super hard anyway, Granberry!" Alma Elma laughed. "But you make a good point. We are weak here, relatively speaking. I'll train with you when I have the opportunity."

"We should probably all train," Alice agreed. "Tom, please feed me foods that build muscle! I'll eat as much as I have to in order to get stronger! Lots and lots of protein! In fact…. I could use some protein right now."

"Alice, behave yourself," Tamamo cautioned.

"Excuse me? Monster Lord here? Is it okay if I be the Monster Lord today?"

Tamamo sighed and turned to Tom. "Tom, after breakfast would you mind feeding Alice?"

"Of course…. You mean….?"

Tamamo nodded gravely. Alice licked her lips. She was staring at him as if he was the most succulent piece of meat she'd ever seen. Okay, Tom thought. Remember that she's the only one here who is NOT a killer. This is perfectly safe!

Tamamo sighed to herself. She'd been trying to keep Alice away from humans, for this reason among many. But she had to admit that if there was ever a time for Alice to taste a real human, this was the ideal opportunity. Bereft of her natural magic, she'd be less likely to accidentally kill him with her gluttony. But she didn't worry solely about Tom. She also worried for Alice. Alice had never touched a man before. She knew what to do, sure enough. Strong sexual training had supplemented her already formidable predatory instincts. But every monster remembered their first true feeding. And lamias especially had a habit of getting attached if they liked the taste of a man.

"I'm going to back to your office and work," Tamamo said. "You and Alice have fun. And don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

"What wouldn't you do, exactly?" Alice countered. "Come on, let's go to my room! I'm so excited!"

Tom was led up the stairs at a gallop by Alice. She was excited? He found that excitement flattering and endearing. After Erubetie, he was also curious as to how she would do it.

Tamamo peered into the computer screen, a frown on her face. What the hell is wrong with humans? She thought to herself. The internet had a wealth of information, but sifting through it to find things that were actually useful was a challenge. And sometimes her searches led her down rabbit holes of perversion and perfidy.

She quickly hit the X button to close the scene of the man getting blown by a horse. And it wasn't even the most insane thing she'd seen in the last hour. And imagine, not even a centaur girl, but an actual… horse! Were humans here that desperate for good head?!

Her sharp hearing picked up the sounds from upstairs. Alice was giggling, lewd fapping sounds coming from her room. Tom was moaning appreciatively. Good. She was keeping it basic for her first time with a real man, and was doing a pretty good job of it.

"Hora Hora Hora," she heard Alice faintly say. "Do you like my hand that much?"

Tom didn't respond, continuing to simply moan. Much like the guy in that video…. Argh, I'll never get that abomination out of my head now! Tamamo thought bitterly. How do people maintain their sanity using this internet thingie!?

Tamamo was actually grateful when Erubetie entered the office, breaking her concentration.

"Tamamo, I have something odd to report," Erubetie said. "And the Monster Lord… seems to have her hands full at the moment."

Tamamo giggled. No one but her knew how subtly hilarious Erubetie could be. For all of her outward severity, she had a healthy and often obscene sense of humor.

"Well, we warned him that today would be feeding day," Tamamo replied. "He seems to be taking it well enough so far."

"That's what I wished to report," Erubetie said uncomfortably. "I drained him this morning. Not too much, I was being careful since I wasn't certain how much he could endure."

"When did this happen?"

"I assume you were still asleep, given your usual waking time," Erubetie answered. "It was just after daybreak."

"Just after daybreak?" Tamamo asked, mildly surprised. "I woke up and Tom was serving breakfast. But if you played with him right around daybreak…."

"Exactly," Erubetie confirmed. "When I finished with him, he simply left the pool and walked away under his own power. Highly unusual."

"Hmmm….." Tamamo mused, tapping a pen on the keyboard. "I should have expected this. Critical ecstasy is a function of our dark magic. We apparently have none here. That means we're only as good as human women here."

"I am far better than some mere human!" Erubetie exclaimed, quite offended.

"Of course you are!" Tamamo agreed quickly. "But critical ecstasy isn't just about your skills. Magic is involved as well."

"It also took longer than it normally does. I thought him to be stronger than average, but perhaps it is just this world…."

Tamamo listened again for the sounds from upstairs. Alice was still horaing and Tom was still moaning. She'd had yet to hear the sounds of Tom reaching climax and it had been several minutes.

"Hmmm…. That will make feeding more time consuming and we need to work on getting home, not just filling our stomachs. It's bad enough that I need so much sleep."

"I will use this internet when you need to rest, fellow Knight," Erubetie offered.

"Thank you," Tamamo said gratefully. "That will be a big help. Apparently most of this world's knowledge is here. There's got to be a clue somewhere. I'm printing out the promising leads for Tom to look at. Unfortunately, I can't discern what's legit and what's bogus on this thing. I've got reports of other monster girls, mythical creatures, aliens, time travelers…. I wish he was helping me now, but with five of us needing him for sustenance and his job…."

"I do not like this," Erubetie declared.

"I don't either," Tamamo grumbled. "Trust me, Erubetie, if you see anything revolting, back out immediately. This thing seems to want to show you even more heinous garbage if you actually stick around out of morbid curiosity."

"I am not referring to the internet. I am referring to Tom's resistance to us. We are depending on him to keep us safe, yet we cannot control him. He should have been groveling at my feet after I pleasured him. Instead, he simply…. Thanked me and left. I feel…inadequate."

"To be honest, I'm worried about that as well," Tamamo admitted. "My instincts tell me we can trust him, but I hate not being sure."

Alice entered the room, looking pensive.

"Are you okay, Alice?" Tamamo asked. "Did you eat?"

"Yeah, I ate," Alice said listlessly. "But it wasn't what I expected."

"Does he taste bad? He smells delicious."

"No, no," Alice replied. "He tasted fine. Amazing, even, although that could be simply because he was my first time eating semen directly from the source. I just expected him to like it better."

"He didn't like it? I mean, it was just a hand job, right?"

"Yeah, just like you told me Tamamo, and I did it good, or I thought I did. He came. You didn't hear?"

"Sorry," Tamamo apologized. "I was having a discussion with Erubetie. Erubetie, tell Alice what you told me."

Erubetie relayed her own experience with Tom. Alice visibly sagged in relief.

"Oh, thank the Dark God!" Alice sighed. "I thought it was me. I was so nervous, although I tried to hide it. I was excited too. Maybe too excited. I think I jerked him too hard. He was wincing when he got out of bed."

"The fact that he got out of bed is the part that's concerning," Tamamo said, tapping her pen again. "How soon after you finished him did he rise?"

"Right away," Alice said. "I mean… right away, not three seconds after I licked his semen off my hands. From what I've been told, that's not supposed to happen."

"What's not supposed to happen?" Alma Elma asked, Granberia entering the room behind her.

"There's no critical ecstasy on this world," Tamamo said gravely. "I assumed Thomas would be putty in our hands once we began playing with him for real."

"Well we can't simply trust this human, however nice he seems, to keep us safe!" Granberia said firmly. "If we can't enslave him with our bodies, we'll have to use blunt force. Which I am an expert at."

Granberia hit her open hand with her fist with a loud smack.

"No!" Alice exclaimed. "He doesn't deserve that! I think he's a nice guy."

"You haven't known any guys," Tamamo countered. "But for what it's worth, I agree. No beatings, no intimidation. That could backfire on us in any case. The man can summon other humans with that phone of his, and he probably has other ways we don't even know about."

"Don't worry, Granberry," Alma Elma said, placing an arm around her best friend. "Remember how he reacted to a little finger sucking and a kiss? I've never had to rely on my magic to enthrall men. In fact, I might be better suited to make him my obedient pet without my powers."

"How does that work?!" Granberia asked, a challenge in her voice.

"It means I can go all out. No holding back. He'll do anything to get more. Probably fall in love with me."

"Well, let's not go that far…." Alice mumbled.

"Did you say something, Alice?" Tamamo prompted, even though she had heard Alice quite clearly.

"Nothing," Alice muttered. "Do what you have to do, Alma Elma. Whatever it takes to get us home safely. He's still upstairs. Do your thing."

"No, as famished as I am, for this to work I'll need to give his balls at least a full day of rest," Alma Elma explained. "But tomorrow night….. I'm going to make that cock sing any tune I want it to."