When they woke up the next day, Tohka didn't show anything unusual.
Toma, completely unaware of what was happening to her, simply washed up and set off with Tohka once again.
And so, their journey through the forest continued—slaughtering magical beasts, collecting Magic Crystals, and converting them into Exchange Points.
Compared to when she had first been summoned, however, Tohka's movements had already become much, much slower.
Even her reaction speed had fallen by at least thirty percent.
Yet Toma couldn't tell at all.
The difference between Toma and Tohka was simply too enormous.
To an ordinary person like Toma, Tohka's speed at full strength and her speed while exhausted looked exactly the same.
Both were unbelievably fast.
So fast that his eyes couldn't even keep up with her movements, much less properly track her.
Naturally, Toma had no chance of noticing that something was wrong with Tohka.
And so, Toma and Tohka spent another entire day in the forest.
Then, the following morning...
Toma finally accumulated enough Exchange Points to obtain the item he had been desperately saving for.
Tohka also took advantage of the opportunity to get some rest.
...
[Exchange complete. Item acquired: Duel Disk.]
As the System's voice sounded inside his mind, the Duel Disk appeared within Toma's Personal Space.
The moment he saw it, Toma's entire face lit up with joy.
"Ohhh! Yes! I finally got it!"
Every bit of Toma's excitement was clearly visible to Tohka.
After finishing up at the battlefield, Tohka flew over and immediately began pestering Toma to show her the Duel Disk.
At the same time, the faint exhaustion that had appeared on her face while cleaning up the battlefield disappeared as she carefully concealed it.
"Toma-kun, where's your Duel Disk? Hurry up and show me!"
At least at this moment, Toma couldn't see anything unusual in Tohka's expression.
Besides, he wasn't paying particularly close attention to her anyway.
He was far too excited about finally obtaining his Duel Disk.
Hearing the curiosity in Tohka's voice, Toma immediately pulled the Duel Disk out of his Personal Space.
Only after holding the real thing in his hands did Toma realize that it was the Duel Disk design from the original 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' series.
But after remembering the information he had read earlier, Toma immediately understood and didn't bother complaining about it again.
After all...
He had already complained enough before.
Besides, the System hadn't shamelessly added something like "Exclusive Model for Yugi Muto" or "Exclusive Model for Seto Kaiba" to its description.
Without something ridiculous like that, Toma didn't even have an excuse to start another rant.
Still overflowing with excitement, Toma slipped the Duel Disk onto his left arm according to what he remembered from the anime.
Immediately afterward, the Duel Disk automatically unfolded exactly like it did in the series.
Toma swung his left arm around a few times.
"Huh?"
There was no weight at all.
'As expected of something produced by the System!'
The Duel Disk wasn't exactly small.
Judging from its size alone, the thing definitely shouldn't have been light.
Yet Toma couldn't feel any weight whatsoever.
Obviously, the System had modified it somehow.
Realizing this, Toma silently gave the System a thumbs-up in his heart.
'Five stars!'
'Definitely five freaking stars!'
"Ohhh?! So this is Toma-kun's Duel Disk? Then how do you use it to summon monsters?"
After completely hiding her exhaustion, Tohka stared curiously at the Duel Disk attached to Toma's arm.
She had never seen anything like it before.
Toma had told her about the item while they were eating and explained that he planned to exchange for it.
But no matter how much Tohka thought about it, she couldn't understand how this strange, hard object was supposed to summon monsters.
After all, Toma had specifically told her that the Duel Disk could summon incredibly imposing monsters!
Naturally, her curiosity was completely genuine.
Perhaps it was precisely because she was so genuinely interested that Tohka managed to conceal her exhaustion so perfectly.
Toma didn't know about Tohka's exhaustion.
Nor did he know that her Spirit Power was rapidly approaching its limit.
However, he did know one thing.
The only reason he had managed to gather enough Exchange Points for the Duel Disk was because of Tohka.
Toma gently rubbed her head and smiled warmly.
"All right, don't rush. Let me open the card pack first and see what cards I get. And... thanks for all your hard work, Tohka."
"Hehehe~"
Tohka comfortably narrowed her eyes.
It was almost as though she hadn't even heard the second half of his sentence.
She simply stood there enjoying his touch while giggling foolishly.
Seeing this, Toma couldn't help feeling fortunate.
Fortunate about what?
His height, of course!
'Thank goodness.'
'I'm only 170 centimeters tall, but that's still pretty decent compared to people in Japan.'
'And Tohka is only 155 centimeters.'
'At least patting her head doesn't feel awkward.'
'Still, who would've thought the legendary anime head-pat would actually work?!'
Yes.
Toma was genuinely feeling grateful for his height.
Although 170 centimeters couldn't exactly be considered tall back in his homeland, in Japan it was at least reasonably tall.
Tohka herself was only 155 centimeters.
As for the protagonist of the original series...
Heh.
Toma could definitely look down on Shido Itsuka.
Literally.
At least when it came to height.
Therefore, with Tohka standing at only 155 centimeters, Toma didn't need to make any special effort to rub her head.
Simply standing normally was enough.
Watching Tohka's comfortable expression, Toma suddenly began wondering...
'Could it be that the legendary head-pat only works on anime girls?'
After all, Toma had once tried doing the same thing to his younger sister.
The result?
A tragedy.
Better left forgotten.