"They're a Family of Monsters."

8: Azumi's POV

I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!

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Azumi's POV
- Small Time Skip -

It's been a few days since Coach kicked Nao off the field. Nao still won't pitch but Coach let her back on the field because we don't have a catcher, besides Nao and the occasional times Coach will catch.

Nao was extremely happy when she found this out this morning. A smile was back on her face, and it hasn't left her face since. Well, not that I know of.

- Time Skip - 

- After School -

How can such a short girl be so happy? Nao said "I get to catch!" Oh yeah, she's a catcher. I forgot. Nao said "You probably forgot, didn't you."

I said "I haven't seen you play for a long time! Of course I forgot, baka!" Nao laughed and said "Touche." Why do I feel this connection to her?

Is it just because I temporarily marked her? I hope so, dealing with her can be troublesome. I saw some of the volleyball players running around the field.

And somehow, Nao, who was next to me, was now running next to one of them, who happened to be running next to my brother, Tobio.

The boy had bright orange hair and was about the same height as Nao. I said "Nao! We have to practice!" Nao looked over to me and ran over to the team.

She said "Sorry!" I said "You don't seem sorry." Nao said "Well, I am!" Captain said "Enough, you two!" Nao went quiet and so did I. So she can be quiet. That helps me a lot.

Practice began and Nao was catching, because for some reason we didn't have a catcher. I walked over to Coach and said "Why don't we have another catcher?"

Coach said "Our last catcher was a third-year and he graduated. We've never had a lot of catchers. We've always have had a lot of pitchers."

I nodded and said "I understand." Practice continued and I learned many things about Nao, that I had forgotten or hadn't learned, yet.

1. She has an extremely short temper, 2. She's very confident on the diamond even more so then when she's off the diamond, 3. She can play anywhere but prefers to play catcher, 4. She absolutely will not play pitcher, for some reason and 5. She's a catcher with a pitcher's arm.

She's probably the only catcher I know that has the arm of a pitcher. But the question is, why won't she play pitcher? She was a good pitcher in elementary school.

I walked up to the Omega, after practice, and said "Wanna walk home together?" Nao looked up, at me, and said "Sure, but I brought a bike."

I said "That's fine." Nao stood up and we walked out of the girl's locker room. We got to the bike rack and Naomi got her bike.

We walked off of school grounds and I said "Do you want to come over to my place, my parents are out of town."

Nao said "Sure!" I said "So why don't you play pitcher anymore?" Nao said "What do you mean 'anymore'? I don't think I ever played pitcher." I said "You did." How long ago was it? 

When was it? I said "It was the second game in your second year of elementary school. I was on the other team, your team was playing against. You were a relief pitcher, top of the sixth."

To me, it looked like Nao was thinking. About five minutes later, Nao said "I remember that!" She didn't say anything for a few seconds.

Nao continued "It was the game I got to prove my pitching skills. I stopped pitching in my first-year of middle school."