Author's Note

So, this is the story I mentioned in an earlier update. But most of you readers probably didn't come from that archive, so I'll just give you the gist of this thing.

First off, no magic in this AU. It's closer to sci-fi, but not an action-y sci-fi.

Second off, yuri, in all its obvious glory. But I'm sure most of you are cool with that. There's also going to be some het, though not as a focus. More as a side element to move the plot than anything else.

Third, one of the main characters in this story used to be male. That's where the sci-fi stuff comes into play, but I'll bring you up to speed on that through narration.

Fourth, some characters might be a bit OOC. Different circumstances lead to different personalities, and I haven't read the manga or watched the anime, so I'm basing personalities off what I read on Dynasty Reader.

Fifth, this story is rated M for a reason. There are actually more than one. Obviously, there's sexual content, but here's what'll turn half the readers away: there will be attempted rape in this story. It won't be right away, but it's in the outline. Figured I'd say it flat out so I didn't get some readers pissed at me later on down the road.

If you're still reading this, then congrats! You've just made my "least prejudiced readers" list! I hope you enjoy the story!

I'd Rather Die

Chapter One: Additional Living Expenses

"In recent news, the birth rates of the countries that began implementing the countermeasure one year ago have shown notable growth, as reported by a Japanese analyst of the subject. Through the rather controversial process of—"

With a click of the remote in her hands, the stoic girl before me turned off the TV, eyes moving to meet those of the girl that just walked into the house through the open backdoor – me, that is.

Her violet eyes looked me up and down, before the turned her gaze towards her front room, making her long, ebony hair sway around a bit. Without a hint of emotion in her tone, she dismissed me.

"Did the 'no solicitors' sign on my front door give you the impression that entering the back would be any more acceptable?"

I took a swig of the soda bottle in my right hand, making a bitter face before swallowing. "Do I really look like a door-to-door saleswoman to you, Homura?"

"Your clothes stretch the thought a bit," she replied, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. The glare that met her side glance caused her to turn to me fully, a crooked half-smile growing on her face. "Of course not. I'd recognize that ratty green hoodie anywhere."

This reevaluation of my appearance and attire made me frown. "It's the only top back home that still fits me, so I just threw it on with some baggy jeans before coming over."

Her eyes widened a fraction as she stared at my chest for a moment. "So you're telling me that there's nothing on under your jacket?"

Her tone, a cross between mild shock, scolding, and slight embarrassment (only noticeable to people that knew her different versions of stoicism to be different emotions), irked me a bit. My frown evolved into a scowl as I looked towards the ground, kicking at a stray, empty soda can with my bare foot.

"At least I zipped it up," I defended my case weakly. Even I knew that it wasn't a proper defense, but it was the only thing I had. "And besides, I told you that nothing else would fit. I wore nothing but muscle shirts before I left, you know that."

"Fair enough," was her initial flat reply. But then, her eyes actually showed a bit of nervousness, a feeling that I almost never saw in the girl. "Wait… please tell me you at least have a bra on under there."

My eyes closed with a 'tsk' sound before I took another swig of the contents of my soda bottle. Once again, I forced myself to ignore the slight burning in my throat. Unfortunately, my face betrayed me yet again, making me grimace. This time, Homura took notice, and the topic changed, much to my relief.

"What are you drinking?" she asked me, her voice slightly less emotionless than usual. "It can't be a regular soda."

"Just my lifeblood," I replied casually, causing the ebony-haired girl to tilt her head in confusion. I sighed, beginning to elaborate. "I have to drink a bottle of this stuff about three times a day, otherwise I'll get sick and then kick the bucket. Unfortunately, it tastes damn nasty, and has the burn of wicked alcohol."

"You don't seem that concerned," she gave me a hard look.

"The only thing I should be concerned about is the price," came my annoyed response, followed by a great sigh. "Just a week's worth of this stuff costs as much as a fighter jet."

This bit of information gave me the satisfaction of watching my best friend choke. "Then just how are you going to pay for it?"

I could already see in her eyes that she was going to try to get her rather loaded family to pay for it. A hard feat in itself, considering that the main house all but cut her off for her preferences, only paying for her living expenses out of duty.

"Relax, it's no big deal," I casually denied her plan, waving a hand dismissively. "Well, normally, it would be. But, after taking into account my background, they decided to supply it to me for free, on one condition."

"And what would that be?" She could tell from the annoyed look on my face that it wasn't exactly one I would prefer.

"Well, I'm lucky enough to get the first month's supply for free anyway, meaning I don't have to rush in," I told her, sighing once again. "But, after that, it's do or die. Literally."

"You still haven't told me." Homura seemed quite annoyed that I had delayed my answer.

It felt like the millionth time I sighed that day. "Let me say that I would never do this if I had a choice, but—"

"Get on with it!"

In all my years of knowing her, I had never seen Homura get this mad over anything. Quite honestly, her raised voice and seething expression scared the hell out of me, given my current condition. At the same time, I felt a bit touched that she seemed to care that much about me.

Eventually, the fear won over. "R-right. Well, the thing is…" the glare on her face only served to remind me that, if I didn't tell her soon, then I would probably die long before an eventual lack of 'lifeblood' got to my system.

"In order to keep my access to the supply, I kind of have to… start going to school."

When I turned my gaze, which had gravitated to the floor on its own, up to meet hers, I found her anger diminished. We maintained eye contact for God knows how long, both of us seeming to think that all we needed to keep an intelligent conversation going was eye contact and periodic blinking.

I silently cursed myself when I broke our locked gaze, feeling like I had just lost a staring contest. But I had to look at the time on my wristwatch, to make sure I was still within the time period for drinking my 'lifeblood'. I noted that I only had a minute left, making me look to my half-full bottle with much fright.

I'm gonna have to… chug it…! The thought alone repulsed me, but I knew I had no choice in the matter; the active ingredient from last dose would stop functioning entirely in a min— no, now it was less than a minute.

With great willpower, I raised the transparent soda bottle to my lips once again, preparing to chug the absolute worst liquid I had ever tasted to date. I knew this stuff was too valuable to waste, but that didn't stop the bitter face I made when the burning liquid touched my lips.

At last, I began to drink. It took every ounce of willpower I had to not spit it right back out or even outright vomit. It felt like hours went by as I gulped the nasty substance down, making me wonder if this torturous scorching experience would ever end.

Of course it won't, I reminded myself. I have to deal with this for the rest of my life.

At last, after opening my watery eyes with much effort, I saw the last of the accursed liquid cascade from the bottle and into my mouth. With one, final gulp, I finished the bottle, doing my best to keep from shouting a string of expletives at the blazing agony currently engulfing my mouth and throat.

It was with all my vocal power that I found myself choking out a strained and raspy, "I… need… a chaser…!"

And yet, despite my desperation, the shock to my system from ingesting so much at once caused my muscles to weaken for just a moment, making me fall to my hands and knees, gasping for breath. The sudden impact caused my ponytail to come undone, sending locks of crimson hair cascading down my back and over my sides.

I briefly wondered when my hair had grown so much, but stopped when I felt a cold glass being pushed up to my cheek. "Drink," a worried and irritated voice commanded, making me tilt my head upwards to meet the unreadable gaze of Homura Akemi.

It's always bad when I can't judge her expression at all.

I parted my lips slightly, afraid that I would fall if I tried to move up even one of my hands to take the glass. She seemed to notice my plight, and she put the glass to my lips before tilting it upwards, sending cold, refreshing, soothing water down my throat.

The relief was immediate, and after a few seconds, I felt the strength return to my body. I sat up, brushing some of my unexpectedly long hair back over my shoulder while looking for the hair tie. I spotted it just out of my reach, cringing at its state.

It snapped…

I felt as if a little part of me had died now that it was gone, because this would make it considerably harder to eat without my hair getting in the way.

Speaking of hair…

"When did my/your hair get so long?"

Our eyes sought out each other once again as we wondered what just happened. Our blinking conversation never got the chance to resume, however, as we both heard the sound of someone else coming through the back door. Both of our eyes turned to the disturbance, finding…

Wait… who is this?

For the record, this girl with light blue hair that looked to be about mid-back-length, sporting a white T-shirt and dark blue denim shorts, didn't seem to recognize me, either as we, too, had a short blinking match.

It took me a minute, but I finally realized who this this girl was just as Homura confirmed it.

"Is the concept on knocking on my front door alien to you people?" she queried, sending the new intruder a hard look before turning it on me.

This, in turn, caused the blue-haired girl, whose countenance seemed unaffected by Homura's snark, to look at me as well. After a few more seconds of staring, a smirk grew on her face, and she turned to Homura with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"So, you finally got tired of waiting for an answer from Madoka, and turned to another girl for sexual release, huh?"

Suddenly, I feel like puking all over again.

Before the raven-haired girl could formulate an angry retort, I decided to make my identity known. "First off, hell no," I said, giving both of them a glare before continuing. "And second, am I really that forgettable, Sayaka?"

Said blunette looked over to me again. "I'm sorry, who are…?" and finally, a spark of recognition registered in her eyes. "Kyouya?!"

I couldn't resist the urge to smirk. I looked over to Homura, almost cracking up as I said my next words. "Hey, she figured it out! Somebody give her a medal!"

Even my violet-eyed best friend couldn't help but crack a smile at my words, especially when we both turned to Sayaka and saw her reaction.

"Shut up!" she shouted, giving me the most menacing stare she could muster. Considering what had just happened, there wasn't much impact. "How could I recognize you at this point? The only thing that looks the same as a year ago is your hair color!"

Somehow, I found myself looking over to a mirror conveniently located on the wall next to the hallway. She was right; my facial structure had changed and become more feminine, my hair was somehow down to my waist, and my figure was much less muscular and more slim, aside from the two specific reasons why my old, tight-fitting muscle shirts would no longer fit comfortably.

This is the first time I've looked in a mirror in months, but it definitely doesn't comfort me to know how different I look.

I decided to mask my surprise. "And yet I look similar enough for you to recognize me after hearing me speak, even though my voice is different, too."

Sensing that the argument would probably only degenerate from here, Homura decided to butt in. "So, back to an earlier topic," unfortunately, the topic she chose was one that I would rather not have brought up with Sayaka within a three-kilometer radius. "Please tell me you have a bra on under that jacket."

If looks could kill, she would've been dead in an instant. I knew exactly what she was doing; she was trying to get me out of her hair by way of…

"You seem to think that I never wash my clothes," I retorted, looking anywhere but at either of my two tormentors. "The one they sent me home in is in the washer, and they expected me to get more by myself."

Unfortunately, this was the last nail in the coffin. The moment I turned to fearfully analyze Sayaka's reaction, I found her excited eyes not ten centimeters from my own.

No…

"I've decided!" she exclaimed. I already knew where this was leading, but it didn't stop me from praying for anything else.

Please, please, no!

I backed away on impulse immediately after her shout, only to feel her hand take my right wrist into a death grip. It took everything I had not to cry out in pain, the lingering weakness in my body ensuring that my hand would turn blue before I gave in and shouted.

Though I knew it wasn't wise, I decided to take the bait. "D-decided what?" My stutter was not from nervousness; rather, the increasingly intense pain on my wrist had me almost in tears.

Damn, my body is weak now. The worst part of it is that it's not just from the drink.

"We're going shopping!" my unwitting blue-haired tormentor proclaimed.

I knew that this was my fate the very moment Homura brought up my current state of dress. Even so, it didn't make finally being faced head-on with the reality any less piercing. My pride as a man had just taken the fatal blow.

I turned to Homura as the blunette began dragging me out of her house. Her small, smug smile was met with a harsh glower. Said glower undoubtedly translated to exactly this: If I don't die from over-stimulation today, I'm going to kill you.

It saddened me to know that the effectiveness of such a stare had now lessened considerably. This fact was proven by her reaction, being the subtle widening of her smirk.

I thought one last thing before the vice grip on my arm dragged me out Homura's backdoor.

This is gonna be a long-ass day.

Author's Note

Any of my longtime readers from the SAO side probably saw a drop in quality here. This thing is months old, with only a few edits being made here and there to bring the grammar in check. But I finished it and never published it about four months back, so it's not really up to my current standards.

That said, I'll accept any and all non-blatant-flame critiques I get. This thing might deserve to get blasted, I'm not sure. I just figured it had been collecting dust for too long, so I decided to post it.

Anyway, I do plan to continue this… eventually. It might be a while. But when I do update it, the next few chapters will definitely be far, far better than this one.

I'll let you go for now. Hopefully, this will manage to do okay!

See you later!