Luca turned the lights off and pretended to go to bed. Once she was sure their parents were fooled, she reached down under their bed. She felt around until their fingers brushed past a small metal object. she gripped it tight and pulled it up and under their covers.

She'd found the little thing a month ago. It was right outside their window, wrapped in burgundy cloth, their favorite color. She thought it must have been a gift, and she still wasn't sure if she was wrong or not.

Either way, the object had completely absorbed the girl for the last month. She'd fiddled with it for a while, but it never seemed to do anything. No matter what she did, all it said was something about not having enough processing, whatever that was.

But every so often, usually in the middle of the night, it would begin to glow. The screen would change to static and if she squinted, she could just barely make out a round object moving around. And no matter how many times it did so, the battery of the object never seemed to run out.

And then a week ago, she had the worst day ever. May had made fun of her, called her 'zombie girl' again in front of the class. She'd even thrown some dirt at her, telling her she needed to be buried. Yeah she got in trouble for it, but not before the rest of the class joined in on making fun of her.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't her fault her skin was bone white and she was so skinny and she lived next to the graveyard and her grandpa was the gravekeeper and…

The point was that she didn't like to be called a zombie, even if she did look the part. She'd cried home, but her mom didn't care, like always. She was too busy with something going on at work which she didn't explain.

She went to bed, wondering if it was too much to ask for a single friend. Someone who would stay with her, play with her, who wouldn't make fun of her for how she looked.

That night the device lit up again, brighter than ever before. Luca had to cover her eyes as light burst forth from the device before she dove forward. She brought the device close to her chest to keep the light from waking anyone up until it died down.

Once the light calmed down, she took it back out. On the screen was an open circle with something inside. It kind of looked like a grave under a moon. After a second, a bat went flying past. It was almost like she was looking out a little hole into somewhere else. A familiar somewhere else.

She ran to the window and threw it open. She put the device up and compared it to the graveyard her window overlooked. It was almost a perfect match. Part of her wanted to reach out, and find something out there, but something didn't feel right yet.

She waited a few more nights and she spotted what she'd been waiting for. Out in the distance, among the hills and graves her grandfather tended, was a soft blue glow. She stood there at her window and stayed up all night, trying her best to trace it as it made its way around the graveyard.

It didn't take long for her to realize the light was playing a game with her grandfather. Everytime he got too close, the blue light would move away. She giggled when one time, he got a bit closer than usual and the blue light had to hurry away as fast as possible.

She got into a lot of trouble the next day when her teacher had called her mom. They'd been able to figure out she'd stayed up all night pretty quick. She had to be driven back home the third time she'd fallen asleep in class.

But even as Luca got yelled at by her mom on the way home, she thought it was worth it. The blue light was fun, the funnest thing she had to do. If she had to stay up late to see it, she didn't care. Not when she had a solution.

As soon as she made it back home and her mom left to go to her job, Luca went to bed. Her eyes closed as soon as her head hit the pillow, and when she woke up, she was ready to stay up all night to watch the blue light from the window.

That night, she watched it again, but something was different this time. The light actually left the graveyard and went out into the city. At first she was worried the light had left for good, but it was gone by the end of the night.

She fell into routine, waking up late to watch the light, staying up late to go to school, and then going to sleep as soon as she made it back home. The light was usually there when she first woke up, then headed out into the city, and then came back. Luca wondered what it was doing out there, but since it always came back, she never worried for too long.

And then her grandpa came over. She always liked his visits. He was lively and kind, despite his job surrounding him with corpses. But he was getting older, and let slip he was planning on taking the night off tomorrow.

Luca went to bed, satisfied he'd managed to keep her new sleeping habits hidden from her mom and grandpa, when lightning struck. He would be gone from the graveyard for the whole night. Which meant if she snuck out to get a closer look at the blue light, he wouldn't catch her.

She put on her shoes and jacket before sneaking out of the house into the graveyard beyond.

"And then I found Ghostmon," the small human said as she hugged Ghostmon. "I was a little scared at first, but once she started playing with me, I wasn't scared anymore."

Ghostmon giggled as I took a second look at the human who'd found them. She was small, younger than any other human I'd interacted with, even hope. She was also paler and skinner than any other human I'd ever seen.

Those last two bits were hard to catch at first though. The only thing she wore was a massive jacket which went down to her knees. The sleeves were so long, they draped over her hands. I had to guess everything off her legs and face, which was topped with a messy head of black hair. It looked like it hadn't been combed in years.

I wanted to say something. To scold Ghostmon for being so careless. But with how happy they looked next to the little girl, I hesitated. Maybe this was for the best. And if she really did have a digivice…

"That device you told me about, can I see it?" I reached my paw out, trying to angle it so she wouldn't see my claw. Last thing I wanted was to scare the girl by accident.

The girl reached into a pocket above her stomach and pulled out what I was worried about. She placed it in my paw and I brought it in for a closer look, just in case I was wrong.

No, no I wasn't. And not only was it a digivice, it seemed to be up and running. WHich meant the device had a digimon paired to it.

"This is a digivice. Don't lose it, it connects you to Ghostmon and it's super important," I explained as I handed it back into her hands. She flinched a bit when she saw my claws, but calmed down once I pulled back.

Thank you miss… are you a cat or a rabbit?" Luca explained as I let out a chuckle.

"Well some of my friends have called me a cat-rabbit, but you can just call me Gazimon. I'm a digimon, just like Ghostmon here."

"Digimon?" She tilted her head to the side as Ghostmon giggled. Looked like I had a lot more to explain then I expected.

I sat her down near a tree and got to work. I was a little afraid she'd nod off at some point, but true to her story, she stayed wide awake. She paid careful attention as I told her about what Digimon were, where we came from, and how we ended up in the material world.

There were a couple of points I think I lost her at, but she seemed to have it down. When I asked her to explain it back to me, she was able to do so with only a slight amount of correction.

"So Ghostmon isn't a real ghost then, Miss Gazimon?" She asked as she looked up to Ghostmon who had taken to hoving around in the tree branches. I wanted to tell them to come back down, but the leaves were probably enough to block out the light.

"That's… a good question," I looked back up to Ghostmon again. "Like I said before, digimon are made from data. But how that data chooses what digimon to turn into… that one one knows. Maybe the data from a horror movie or ghost story became Ghostmon, or maybe it was normal data which ended up in a graveyard."

"So he could be a ghost, or a ghost story, but there's no way to be sure?" I nodded as Ghostmon floated back down and hugged the girl from her behind. They must have sensed the lesson coming to an end, because I could see the playful look in their eyes.

I sighed, knowing where this was going. Might as well deal with this now.

"Okay so…" My brain blanked as I looked back at the little human. "What was your name again?"

"It's Luca Miss Gazimon," she beamed as Ghostmon opened their mouth.

"Lu…ca…" They whispered as the girl in question giggled. The two of them looked happy, like they were made for each other. If they really were planning on sticking with each other, then it was almost a matter of time until Luca got wrapped up into trouble.

A memory flashed in my head of Gabi's injuries and I forced myself to not flex my claws.

"Well Luca, want to know what happened whenever Ghostmon left the graveyard?" Her eyes widened as she furiously nodded. "Well you see there's this game the two of us play. It helps both of us practice our tracking, chasing, and running. Or in Ghostmon's case, Floating. I call it, hide, seek, and chase."

Ghostmon giggled as their blue glow died down and they entered what I would call stealth mode. They looked ready to go.

"But now that you're here, we can change the game a little. Ghostmon, how about this? Instead of one of us hiding and then the other tracking them down, you go out with Luca and I try to track you two down. You lose if I manage to touch Luca."

"So it's Ghostmon's job to protect me?" Luca started to sound excited. I nodded and pointed towards the town.

"Ghostmon, that's going to change a lot about how you play. You can't just float around anymore. You need to keep track of where and how Luca can keep up with you. Do you understand?" Ghostmon nodded as they started dragging Luca away.

"Don't worry you two. What happened to Gabi won't happen to Luca," I promised once they were out of earshot. Now that I had a moment to myself, I had a choice to make. I could either stay quiet about all of this, or tell Gabi everything.

My going out at night, my encounter with Ghostmon, and now Luca. On one hand, it was going to be a tricky conversation to have. On the other, I was pretty sure I was in over my head now that another human was involved. Gabi probably had his own advice for a human who'd just ended up with a digimon partner, plus there was something about Luca that rubbed me the wrong way.

Not anything having to do with the girl herself, but something around her. I didn't have any clue what it could be, but I bet between Gabi, Roxie, and Frances, one of them would be able to figure it out.

Once enough time had gone by, I went into the city looking for the pair. While they weren't perfect, I ended the night pretty sure Luca and Ghostmon would be alright if something ever happened. I went home satisfied and with a decision made. Now all I had to do was meet with Gabi in the morning and hoping he wouldn't be too mad.