"Well, I'll come straight to the point. How's it going, Tohsaka? Have you found a reliable partner yet?"
So.
As there's no one else around, Ayako comes straight out and asks me a ridiculous question.
"…Huh, that's a really direct way of asking.
Judging from your tone of voice, you've already found yours?"
"No comment. I'm going to keep it a secret until you tell me. So what's going on? Looking at your tired face, I feel like I'm right."
Another no comment… but, you'd probably see through my lies. Unfortunately, not yet on my part.
How about you? I assume you don't have time to take it easy either."
"True, but things aren't looking good for me. I could get one right away, but it's not that kind of matter, you know? Our future depends on this, so I can't just compromise."
"I see. So you don't want to choose hastily and lose to me?"
"Of course not. The important part is making you lose. What I get comes second."
She laughs boldly.
"
Geez. We really are alike."
"Yeah. When we first met, I warned you we'd have this kind of relationship."
Yes, she did indeed.
I was certainly surprised when at our first meeting, she said "We'll probably end up with a 'kill or be killed' relationship".
Or in other words, "Unless we go all out against each other, we'll never really be friends".
I agreed with her on that, and that's why we've had a friend-or-foe relationship for two years.
"By the way, why are we talking about this?"
"Why? You're the one who started it, Tohsaka.
You said there's something wrong with a woman never having a boyfriend, so we decided to see which of us could get a boyfriend before the third year."
"…Oh yeah. Just tit for tat, I suppose. And did we say the loser would obey the winner for a day?"
"Right. Even kids don't make promises like that nowadays, but it's not like we're sore losers.
Whatever the result, the loser will obediently follow the winner's orders. Just thinking about it gets me excited."