Author's Notes:

Sorry for the slow story development. I'm still trying to get a handle of how the story should progress. Anyways, thank you for reading and being patient.


During our stay at Gryzmon's cave, we had developed a daily routine. In the morning, Gryzmon would cook the food and Gabumon would feed me. Although I kept insisting that I could eat by myself, Gabumon wouldn't listen to me. It was as if he actually enjoyed treating me like a baby. After breakfast, Gryzmon would help me wash up and relieve myself by a pond not far from the cave. At first, I refused to let anyone accompany me when I had to use the restroom, but Gryzmon wouldn't have any of it and "threatened" me with his mock growling. In the end, we reached a compromise: when I did my business I would make sure Gryzmon stayed far away where he couldn't see me and I would call for him when I was finished.

'I know I'm a patient and I can't move around freely, but this is getting ridiculous,' I thought with a sigh one day as Gryzmon carried me on his back and returned to the cave after I had washed up.

'It's not like my legs are broken, just hurt. Why can't he just let me walk while he supports me by the arms or something? What, is he afraid I might fall and break an arm? Both Gryzmon and Gabumon are treating me like I'm a fragile baby just born yesterday! If only I could speak Japanese, I'd give them a piece of my mind. Well…Maybe just Gabumon,' I thought as I remembered just how frightening Gryzmon could become if he chose to.

I looked at Gryzmon as he gently laid me down on the pile of leaves and muttered a thanks. He nodded and went over to Gabumon who was doodling on the ground in boredom and began to have a light conversation with him. I sighed as I looked at them, longing to join in on their talk. As I moped in silence, listening to their chat, I began to find my situation somewhat ironic.

'First, the language barrier, now, physical disability. I can't do anything at all without any help! I came to this world for a specific purpose without even knowing exactly what that purpose is and all I seem to do is become a hindrance to those around me. And I've only been here for what, three days? This is absolutely lame. It's like my training with Flint was absolutely pointless. I can hear him now, "You got ambushed by a bunch of overgrown mushrooms and got attacked by leaves?! Not even thorns or poison ivy, but leaves?! What, were you so hungry that you didn't have any strength to even fend off a bunch of harmless fungi?! They were throwing bombs at you? You call that an excuse?! What the heck do you think I trained you to do, become a world champion at dodgeball or something? You couldn't fight back because of an injured animal? Are you serious?! What, it never occurred to you to hide your friend while you lured the mushrooms away so that you could fight without hurting your friend? Did you leave your brain behind in Limbo?! So, what, in the end you were saved by a bear? Oh, that's something to boast about, isn't it? I'm surprised that the bear didn't tear you to bits in your sorry state! I don't know what's more shocking, that you're still alive or that you seemed to have completely forgotten everything I've taught you! I swear, I should just double your training regime without giving you time to even breathe!"'

I groaned to myself, hating how accurate my imagination of Flint's reaction was. I was not looking forward to seeing him again, if I made it out of this journey alive. His bark was just as bad as his bite and that man had a nasty bite. At least he had meant it all for my own good. I think.

As I continued to observe the two Digimon talk animatedly, I began to realize that if I wanted to communicate with them, I would have to learn Japanese. Unfortunately, the only way I could learn was making educated guesses from the Digimon's gestures. However, I couldn't be kept in the dark forever.

I interrupted their talk as I apologized and asked them about a few of the words they've been using. For the next couple of moments, the two Digimon made motions and gestures, trying their best to explain what each word meant. However, all three of us soon got tired when I couldn't get past the first word that I had asked about.

'Well, I was never good at charades to begin with,' I thought with a sigh as the two Digimon sat back down with weary expressions. I guessed the words I had chosen were too hard to try and explain using only body language.

Then, as if he suddenly had an idea, Gryzmon picked up a piece of pebble from the ground and showed it to me, saying, "ishi." I looked at him in confusion, so he pointed at the pebble again and repeated the word. I understood that he was telling me what pebble was in Japanese, but I wasn't sure why he was telling me that. It didn't seem to have any relation to what they were trying to tell me earlier using body language. Gabumon seemed to look confused too, so he asked Gryzmon a question, presumably asking what he was doing. When Gryzmon gave a long answer, Gabumon nodded understanding the bear Digimon's intentions. Then Gabumon picked up a stick and said, "eda." I looked at him in bewilderment, wondering what on earth the two Digimon were doing. They continued to name random objects in Japanese, including some of the medical supplies that Gryzmon had brought out. When they went over the same objects again, I began to understand what they were doing. Since I couldn't understand the difficult words, they were teaching me the more basic words first. I repeated after them as they continued to name some objects, being corrected when I made mistakes.

When it was apparent that I was losing concentration and made several mistakes, they stopped and decided to rest. Gryzmon looked outside of the cave where the light was waning and muttered something to himself. Then, he stood up and walked outside of the cave as he said something to Gabumon who nodded in reply. I assumed that he was going to fish for dinner and sure enough, when the sunlight had disappeared and darkness came, Gryzmon returned with some fish all tied up on a piece of string. Gabumon had gathered some twigs and leaves around the forest and made a fire when Gryzmon had returned. Soon, the fish were cooking and we found ourselves having a satisfactory dinner.

'Hmm…I wonder if Digimon eat any meat besides fish. Actually, is there even meat in this world? I guess they'd have to eat each other or something since there doesn't seem to be animals apart from Digimon here. That's a gruesome thing to think about. Ugh, they'd have to be cannibals to do that. I think I'll ask sometime when we're not eating and when I've learned enough Japanese to actually ask the question,' I thought as I chewed.

While we ate, Gryzmon pointed to the fish and said, "sakana." I sighed inwardly and repeated the word. It seemed like Gryzmon had taken up the role of being my personal Japanese tutor and looked for every opportunity to teach me new words. Gabumon joined in and pointed at the fire, saying "hi". I sighed again as I repeated the word several times. Gryzmon tested my memory by pointing at some objects we had gone through earlier. However, when I had made a couple of mistakes, Gryzmon frowned at me, clearly disappointed with my inferior memory. The bear Digimon sighed and said something to Gabumon who only shrugged his shoulders in reply.

After dinner, we went through a couple more objects again, but this time, when I made a mistake, Gryzmon flicked my forehead. Although I protested and tried to cover my face, the bigger Digimon easily pushed my hands away and administered the penalty. It was surprisingly effective and I found myself concentrating harder to avoid making the same mistakes. By the time we were finished, I was vigorously rubbing my forehead as I felt it throb violently.

'Unorthodox, but effective,' I thought as I looked spitefully at Gryzmon's back as he disappeared into his private space. 'Just like Flint. If words don't cut it, then force will. Jeez, and I thought I managed to get away from him. Who knew there'd be another one just like him? And Gryzmon's not even human!'

Gabumon was chuckling beside me as he said something, presumably telling me that I looked funny. I stuck my tongue out him childishly as I continued to rub my sore forehead. Then, Gryzmon returned carrying a piece of leaf as big as my hand. He said something as he squatted down and covered my forehead with the leaf. I felt something cool and wet underneath the leaf and guessed that Gryzmon must've applied some ointment to help soothe the throb. When I thanked him, he gave a small smile and returned to the deeper part of the cave, saying good night.

Lying down on the pile of leaves beside me, Gabumon spoke my name. I glanced at him with a reply. He then said thank you with a big smile. I gave him a surprised look and asked him why. He turned his face to the roof of the cave and started talking in Japanese. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but guessed that he was recalling the events that happened in the past few days as he mentioned the Mushmons, Gryzmon, my name and himself. He then seemed to move onto another topic, one that I couldn't get a handle on. It almost seemed like he had forgotten I couldn't speak Japanese and kept talking as if I was a longtime confidant. When he had finished, he turned his face toward me again and said with a smile that he and Gryzmon are happy to have met me. I gave him a look of surprise and felt myself blushing a bit as I nodded.

'I feel like a jerk,' I thought as I turned my head away from Gabumon. 'The whole time I've been here, all I've done was complain about how Gabumon and Gryzmon were patronizing me and wouldn't let me do anything alone. Why did it never occur to me that they weren't treating me like a child just for the sake of it, but just wanted to help me because they see me as a friend? We've only met a few days ago and both of them are going through a lot of trouble just to help me recover. They're even teaching me a new language! Why am I being so selfish?'

I turned to look over at Gabumon again and found him already asleep, his chest rising and falling steadily. Listening to his steady breathing in the darkness, I slowly closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come.


Around two weeks had passed since Gryzmon took us in. Each day, Gryzmon and Gabumon would furiously stuff my head with new Japanese words, sometimes taking me out of the cave to teach me names of the various things in the forest. When they weren't teaching me, they would either chat, sometimes making me join in so that I could make use of the Japanese I learned, or spar outside of the cave. I would lie on my belly at the cave entrance with the pain relieving leaf covering my forehead and watch them have their practice matches. From their fights, it was obvious that Gryzmon had a lot of experience as Gabumon always ended up on the ground and never seemed to be able to land a hit on the bear Digimon.

'It's like watching a Digimon version of me and Flint training back when I first entered Limbo,' I thought one afternoon as Gryzmon sidestepped to dodge a swing from Gabumon. 'I'd always be flailing at him while he dodged without any effort and then he'd berate me for being sloppy while he knocked me silly. I didn't have a clue how to even throw a proper punch back then. Gabumon seems to be doing way better than my past self though. It's just that Gryzmon has a lot of experience under his belt. Plus, if I remember correctly, Gryzmon's somewhat of a natural martial artist with his counter-attacking skills. He already had the upper hand when it comes to close combat.'

I couldn't help giggling when Gryzmon flicked Gabumon on the forehead after Gabumon made the same mistake for the third time in a row. It seemed like that was Gryzmon's trademark way of teaching. The two Digimon seemed to have finished their sparring match and came over to me. Gabumon sat down beside me rubbing his forehead while Gryzmon went to his private space, saying that he'd get some medicine. I chuckled at the smaller Digimon who was pouting while rubbing his forehead. In response, he stuck his tongue out at me.

'Who's laughing now? At least now he knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of Gryzmon's fiery stings,' I thought with an amused look.

Suddenly, Gabumon pointed at something in the distance, asking out loud what that was. I looked to where he was pointing and saw an unfamiliar object approaching us from afar. Gabumon stood up, prepared to take action as it came closer to us. I could feel myself tensing up, but was soon surprised to find out that the mysterious object looked like a brown paperback book. What was more surprising was that the book was floating in midair. Then, both of us jumped when we heard a voice come from the book. It appeared to ask the whereabouts of Gryzmon.

Gabumon and I looked at each other nervously, wondering what we should do. Just then, Gryzmon returned with a leaf in his paw and gave a sound of recognition when he noticed the flying book. As Gryzmon approached the flying object, the book opened and a bright light shone. Gabumon and I covered our eyes as we could barely make out a form materializing from the book. Soon, the form took on the shape of a human-like creature floating above the opened book. Its face was covered by a hood and two orbs were hovering above its outstretched hands.

"Wisemon!" Gryzmon shouted as he greeted the mysterious figure. Gabumon and I looked at each other again with the same question in our heads: this mysterious figure was a Digimon?

The two Digimon started to talk jovially with one another. It seemed like Wisemon was an acquaintance of Gryzmon's and had come to see how the bear Digimon was doing. It also seemed like Gryzmon was explaining who we were when Wisemon inquired of the two strangers behind Gryzmon.

Wisemon looked at Gabumon first and then turned his attention to me. Suddenly, he zoomed towards me with surprising speed until his face was close to mine. I flinched back with a yelp, my heart pounding as my eyes met his yellow eyes visible under his hood. Wisemon blinked as he looked at me intently and then zoomed back to Gryzmon, asking a question. Gryzmon replied, saying something about teaching me Japanese. The human-like Digimon hovered in silence for a moment, as if deep in thought and suddenly disappeared into the book. Within a few seconds, he reappeared with a flash, possessing a blue box radiating with light. When he explained what it was, both Gryzmon and Gabumon gave an exclamation of surprise, shouting "Really?" I looked at the three Digimon in curiosity, wondering what that box was to have made them react like that.

Wisemon zoomed towards me again and put the box in my hands. It was the size of a jack-in-the-box and felt cool to the touch. I looked at Wisemon with a confused look, wondering why he was handing it to me. He held my hands and directed them so that the box would touch my forehead. The blue box began to slowly break down into millions of what seemed like data pieces. I widened my eyes in shock as I felt the data pieces enter my head through my ears. All of the sudden, an unexplainable sensation flooded into my brain. It felt as though the muscles in my brain were contracting and expanding repeatedly, though I knew it was technically impossible for my brain to feel anything at all. I must've blacked out for a moment without realizing it because when I had opened my eyes, both Gryzmon and Gabumon were looking at me with concerned looks.

"Are you alright?" Gabumon asked when I had come to my senses.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel funny. It felt like something weird was going in on in my head, as though-" I replied, then stopped mid-sentence. I stared at Gabumon and then at Gryzmon, both of whom were staring back at me. I had spoken fluent Japanese without even thinking about it.

"Woah, what just happened? How am I speaking Japanese so well all of the sudden? Wait, did that box do something to my brain?" I asked in shock, looking at Wisemon who seemed amused by our reactions.

"Strictly speaking, it wasn't the box that did anything, but rather the contents of the box. Also, it wasn't your brain that was affected, but rather your mind," Wisemon replied in a manner of fact tone.

"Wisemon, just tell him what happened," Gryzmon said with a sigh as he rolled his eyes.

"Well, it's a simple concept really. In the Digital World, data can be stored and consumed depending on its type and purpose. For example, the most common type of data we come across every day is food. Food is merely stored data shaped in the form of what we perceive to be food. The way we use that data is by directly consuming it to get nourishment. Knowledge can also be stored and consumed as data, but is actually quite rare because the procedure to convert it to data is very complicated and difficult. While food merely affects the physical body, knowledge affects the mind, something that isn't as concrete as the body. Also, the receiver of the data must be compatible with the specific knowledge in order to consume it properly. Otherwise, the data will just be wasted and vanish. Very few Digimon actually know about this because it is considered impractical and unnecessary due to the time and energy it takes to convert knowledge into data," Wisemon explained as we tried to keep up with what he said.

"So, basically, you're saying that I can speak Japanese because what you gave me is knowledge of Japanese in the form of data?" I asked, making sure I understood correctly.

"Simply put, yes. Although you were probably not 100 percent compatible to the data, I decided to give it a try since there was no risk of harming you. It turns out, as always, my hypothesis was correct," replied Wisemon with a smug look.

"But why did you think he was compatible at all?" Gabumon asked, genuinely curious.

"To put it simply, the receiver must have some foundation in that area of knowledge to consume the data. For Tyson-kun here, he already knew a bit of Japanese which he learned from you two. It also helped that the grammatical structure of Korean is similar to Japanese, so his compatibility to the data was quite high," Wisemon answered.

"Wait, you know I can speak Korean? How do you even know about the Korean language at all?" I asked in amazement.

"Gryzmon told me about you," Wisemon said as he glanced at the bear Digimon. "As for the Korean language, I enjoy researching fields that no one has attempted to study. The human world fascinates me! There are so many things to discover and learn about! One day, perhaps I will travel to your world to see for myself all the exotic places that I've only read about on paper. For now, unfortunately, I am bound to my duties in helping to put our world back in order."

"Put your world back in order? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ah, well, I would give a lengthy explanation, but I must return to my research facility. It is growing late and I have lingered longer than I intended to. I have merely come to see how my old friend was doing. I'm sure these two," Wisemon gestured at Gryzmon and Gabumon "will tell you what I meant. Now, I shall take my leave. It was good to see you again Gryzmon. Oh, I almost forgot!"

He disappeared into the book and reappeared again in an instant. He held a shoe box in his hands and gave them to Gryzmon who looked at the box with a curious expression.

"It's the finished product of the medicine that I've been working on. Well, no, it would be inaccurate to say I since Sorcerymon did his part as well. I think you can make good use of it, especially since you have a patient," Wisemon explained as he nodded to me.

"Hold on, you know Sorcerymon?" Gabumon inquired excitedly.

"Gabumon, I have heard from Wizarmon through Sorcerymon about your journey, so I know what you are about to ask me, but wouldn't it be wiser to wait for Tyson-kun to be completely restored? I am sure you are very much aware that he plays an important role in helping our world come back to order," Wisemon said gently.

"Oh, right, ok…" Gabumon replied looking slightly disappointed.

"Well, I really must be going now. We shall see each other soon, I hope. Gryzmon knows where to find me. Take care now!"

Saying goodbye, Wisemon disappeared into the book and flew away, disappearing from our sight within a few seconds. We looked at the forest for a moment, still dazed from Wisemon's sudden appearance. Then, Gryzmon broke the reverie by stating that it was getting late. He bent down to stick the leaf on Gabumon's forehead, which had been forgotten with the appearance of Wisemon and went back into the deeper part of the cave with the box of medicine.

Gabumon shook his head as though he were trying to get a grip on himself and began to gather twigs and leaves to start a fire. Gryzmon returned and soon left the cave to fish while Gabumon created a fire. As he sat down beside me, I said, "There's going to be a lot of explaining to do tonight."

"Hmm," he said as he poked at the fire with a twig.

Just before the sun had completely vanished from the horizon, Gryzmon returned with his usual catch and pretty soon, the cave was filled with the scent of cooked fish once more. Although I was hungry, I found myself eating less than usual, anxious to hear their explanation. The two Digimon seemed to have lost their appetite as well as they chewed slowly, looking like they didn't want to eat. Finally, Gryzmon put down his fish with a sigh and said, "I guess it's time for some explanation."

I nodded and listened intently as Gryzmon began to talk.


Side Note:

I purposely misspelt Wizarmon because I'm sticking with the Romanized names of Digimon. Not a big deal, just something I thought to point out. Feel free to critique/comment. Thanks for reading again.