Author's Notes: Hey, this is potentially the final chapter for Endeavors! Sho and Osaka, both surprisingly absent from the other chapters, have their starring roles here! What are they up to? Who knows? Let's find out.

As always, reviews are appreciated. A lot.

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The wind whipped through the streets of Tokyo, careless and free. This was a kind, benevolent wind, not a frightening, mighty wind. The breeze was gentle, soothing, and it would only make mild suggestions to the world around it, and while the environs would bend and sway in response, very few of them actually were carried off by the breeze.

Sho watched as a gust whipped its way around the trees, which steadfastly ignored it. He watched a single leaf flow away with the wind, and for a moment Sho imagined himself as the leaf, free from the rest of the world.

No, that's not right, thought Sho. The leaf isn't free, the wind is forcing it to come alo-

"Hey, Sho, y'there?" asked Ken, pulling Sho back in to the real world.

Sho glanced down at his friend… No, friends. They were all there. The sight of them reminded him of what they were meant to do today.

That's right, today we're gonna try to get girlfriends.

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry about that."

"Nevermind, nevermind," said Ken. "Who'd you get?"

"Kasuga."

Silence hung in the air for a moment that felt like a millennium. Sho glanced around at his friends. "Ayumu Kasuga." Still no response. "Osaka."

"Oh," said Genji. "Ohhhh."

"What do you mean, 'Oh.'?"

"Well, what I mean is that she's… very… Osaka. I don't know how to describe it, but she's very… er… She's in Chiyo-chan's group."

"So? That's not necessarily a bad thing," said Sho.

I don't even really know her. Why am I defending her?

"No, no, it's not just that," said Ryu. "She's kind of… out there, you know? Very much… airy. It's as though she simply didn't belong in our universe, or our dimension. She's just not all there."

"I don't think that's necessarily bad, Ryu. I mean, she's kind of childlike in that manner, yeah? It gives her the air of innocence. Very cute."

Marion grinned deviously. "I got it!" he shouted. "Childlike appearance, childlike demeanor, Sho's satisfied with this because he's a pedo! Remember that whole stint with Chiyo yesterday?"

"Hey, Marion, shut up. It's not like that!"

"Minoru, damnit!"

"Heh, pedo," muttered Ryu to nobody in particular.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," muttered Sho. "Let's just… So, who'd you get?" he said, to none of his friends in particular.

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The five boys arrived in Yukari's classroom at around the time they usually arrived, which was a few minutes before the bell normally rang. This gave them a fairly large buffer between the time of arrival and the time when Yukari actually arrived. Tardiness has never been a problem for the students in Yukari's homeroom, although that was more or less a direct result of it being a significant problem for Yukari herself. Still, this meant that the boys had some time to talk to their girls before the class actually started.

Sho glanced around the classroom and saw Osaka sitting and chatting with Kagura. The two girls were chatting about something or the other, but they seemed to be fully engaged in the art of conversation.

Well… damn. I'll just wait for a pause in the conversation and ask to speak to Kasuga. Yeah, that'll be easy enough, conversations die all the time.

Sho stood there for a minute, trying to look inconspicuous, waiting for the conversation to pause so that he could slip a word in edgewise.

What am I doing, exactly? I'm about to try to start up a relationship with a girl, yeah, that's obvious, but why am I doing it? Because Genji told me to? That's not… right at all. You can't just start a relationship on a whim like that, they don't work that way! They shouldn't work that way!

But if I just quit on this right now it'll be like abandoning my friends. They'll be mad at me. Can't do that either. Still, it's not fair to Ayumu if I do it this way, either. There's got to be a way that I can be fair to both her and my friends, it's just… Hmm…

Sho thought carefully about this problem. He tried to focus on it, but something else nagged at him.

Rather, nothing nagged at him. Silence hung in the air, and Sho realized his opportunity. He stepped forward, turned to Kagura, and asked, "Excuse me, but do you mind if I speak with Miss Kasuga a bit?"

"Ka…su…ga?"

She forgot her friend's real name?

"Oh! Ah, you mean Osaka! Sure, go right ahead!" said the tanned girl, grinning.

I wonder if she'll even manage to remember Marion's name. Forgetting your friend's real name? That's kind of…

"Oh, you mean me, don'tcha?" said Osaka. "Sure, sure, why not?"

Kasuga… forgot that she was Kasuga?

"Oh, wonderful. Ah, let's just go over there," said Sho, motioning towards a pair of desks a shot distance away from Kagura and Marion. "Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, sure," she said. "No problem, chief!"

With that, Osaka started walking towards the aforementioned location. Sho walked after her, but stopped when he was struck by an idea.

What if I just have her turn me down? She doesn't get stuck with a relationship that shouldn't be, and I don't have to feel like I let down my friends! That'll… that'll work!

"So, mon capitane, are you gonna have a seat or what?" The girl grinned at him as he sat down.

"Ah, sorry about that, Miss Kasuga. I space out a little bit sometimes, you know?"

Osaka's only response was to stare straight at Sho as he took his seat. After a short while, it became apparent that she wasn't really staring at Sho, that she was more staring through Sho. She simply gazed through him, as though she was watching something else entirely.

"Uh… Miss Kasuga?"

"Mmh? Ka…su…ga? Call me Osaka, please. Names are important to get right, you know."

"Er, right. Miss Osaka. Anyway, I just wanted to ask yo-"

"Names are important to get right, you know?"

"Yeah… you said that."

"So what's yours?"

"Sho. I'm Sho, Osaka."

"Oh," she replied. "Oh. Ohhhh. You sho', Sho?"

"Y…yes."

Joking in english? She's not a prodigy, is she?

Sho glanced over and couldn't help but notice Marion and Kagura trying to creep closer into their conversation Even better. If Marion hears her reject me, then I can simply act distraught about it when they try to taunt me. They won't suspect a thing.

"Miss Osaka! I have to ask you something!" Sho shouted, as soon as he was sure that Marion and Kagura were close enough to hear.

"Is it about Chiyo's pigtails?"

"N..no."

"Oh."

"So, would you like to be my girlfriend?" he asked, staring into her eyes.

"Hmm…"

Why are you thinking about it? Just say "no," Marion will hear, and then I won't have to do this at all. I've even got witnesses and such!

"Sure, alrigh', why not?" she replied, grinning all the while.

Sho, shocked, gulped at her like a goldfish. This wasn't supposed to happen. Eventually, Sho realized that gulping at her like a goldfish was rather rude, and so he instead gaped at her like Kimura. He quickly realized that that was probably much worse, and returned to gulping at her like a goldfish.

This continued for some time, with Osaka simply grinning at him and scrutinizing him as though he were some insect.

"STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! CLASS STARTS NOW!" cried Yukari. Sho stared for a few seconds more before taking his seat in front of Osaka.

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Yukari's class was merely background noise. Sho wasn't exactly sure how to deal with the situation with Osaka, and he considered that quite a bit more important than learning a secondary language at the moment.

Okay, well, she said yes. It'd be a total jerk move to dump her now, so I can't do that, and besides, my friends would be miffed over me not taking it seriously. I can't hope to manipulate her into doing what I want. I tried that already, and it got me stuck in… this situation.

The only thing I can do is make the best of it.

Sho glanced around the class and noticed Marion staring at him. He sighed and gave Marion a thumbs-up.

Might as well give the impression that I'm happy with this.

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"So, Osaka, this guy here's your boyfriend?" asked Tomo.

"Yeah, s'pose he is."

S'pose?

"So what's his name?"

"Sho. My name's Sho."

"Oh, heyo, Sho. What's up?"

"Nothing really, just avoiding the heat."

"Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. P.E. is too hot, and it's all because of that hateful orb up there!" shouted Tomo, gesturing madly at the sky.

"Actually, I think it's more all those greenhouse gasses and whatnot. You know, all that hullabaloo they complained about in Kyoto, yeah?"

Tomo stared at Sho, scrutinizing him for a while.

Is… is she mad at me? What's she doing?

Tomo then spun around swiftly, surprising Sho. She turned to Osaka."So Osaka, you know, I was thinking, and I decided on something."

"Oh, that's good, Tomo. Decisions are important, yeah? You've gotta be firm in choosin' things, or else you'll run into trouble somewhere down the line."

"Er... yes Osaka, they are important... Anyway, I've decided that I need... a haircut!" said Tomo, wandering away from the couple. Osaka got up and followed her. Sho got up and followed Osaka.

"A haircut?"

"Yes, yes. I can't really be like Fujiko, yeah? So I should just go and cut it down a tad. Besides, it's kind of getting a bit long. Too cumbersome, you know? Not fitting for a lithe little girl like me."

"Lithe?" asked Sho.

Either ignoring him or simply not hearing him, Osaka spoke back to Tomo. "No, no, that's not right! You can't just decide to cut your hair like that! Imagine, Tomo, how long it takes for those little hairs to muster up the courage to grow that long! How much work they've been doing, yeah? And now, now you're gonna just chop 'em up on a whim! That's not right, Tomo!"

"Not... right?"

"Yeah, it's not right! You can't just up and do things on a whim for no good reason, right Sho?"

"Y-yeah... You're right, Osaka." replied Sho, looking more than a little bit flustered.

Well… you shouldn't. It didn't stop my friends from trying it.

"So you're saying I need a reason to cut my hair?"

"I'm sayin' it wouldn't be fair to your hair if you didn't have a good reason."

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't have a good reason.

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Sho, Tomo and Osaka stood together in the hallway, watching Genji move. Sho hesitated to call it dancing. Tomo watched Genji move warily, and Osaka watched Genji with the same seemingly vacant grin that she watched everything with.

"Hey, what song is this?" she asked Sho.

"It's Aerodynamic, by Daft Punk," he answered.

"And Genji is…"

"Dancing."

"Dancing…"

"Dancing."

With that said, Tomo wandered off. Sho wasn't entirely positive, but she seemed to be wearing a fairly mischievous grin.

"So, why's he dancin' to Aerodynamic?" asked Osaka.

"He did it for a school project some time ago. Some people liked it, and he's been fairly egotistical about it since."

The song stopped, and church bells rang out again. "Is it over?" she asked.

"No, 'fraid not."

Eventually, though, Genji did finish. When the only thing he saw after finishing was Osaka applauding him and Sho standing with her, he frowned and wandered off down the hallway, headed for destinations unknown.

"So, why was he dancin' to Aerodynamic?"

"Osaka, I think I already explained that."

"No, I mean, why dance to Aerodynamic at all? I mean, sure, it's a nice song and everything, but I don't think it's nice enough to warrant a spontaneous exhibition in the middle of the school."

Should I tell her about our plan? "It's… not."

"So why?"

I guess I might as well. Better she learns now than finds out some time later.

"Osaka, ah, have you noticed that boys seem to have become a bit more common in your everyday occurrences lately?"

"Boys? No. A boy? Yes. Just you, Sho."

"Oh. Erm, well, anyway, Genji was dancing because he was trying to impress Tomo."

"Well, that wouldn't have worked out."

"Does she not like Daft Punk?"

"No, no, it's the names. Genji? Tomo? They don't mesh, you know? You can't like, combine them together or anything."

What? Nevermind, I can't let her derail me. I've got to tell her everything.

"Erm, no, no. Anyway, Genji was trying to impress Tomo for a reason."

"Well, she is quite the sexy beast… according to Tomo."

Focus, Sho! Focus! "The five of us, Genji, Marion, Ryu, Ken, and myself, we were all trying to woo one of your friends."

"Is that it, then?"

"Er, yes. Through a highly specialized process, Genji was matched up with Tomo, Ken got Yomi, Ryu got Sakaki, Marion got Kagura, and I got… well, I got you. That's… ah… that's the entire basis of our relationship, sad to say. I don't know how the others fared, but in my opinion, we're doing pretty good."

"They all failed," she said simply.

"How do you know? You've been with me the whole time, you know? I mean, we've seen Genji fail in front of Tomo, but how do you know how Ryu, Marion, and Ken fared?"

"Names. They're more important than you think. I had… ah, let's say a divine revelation, a religious epiphany, a miracul-"

"Erm, back to the names, Osaka…"

"Hey, did you ever wonder about the garden of eden?"

"The garden of eden?"

"Yeah. This god fellow, he gives the first two people this wonderful paradise, 'cause he's god and all, yeah? The, for no readily apparent reason, he or she sticks a big fancy tree in the middle of it and says to the first two people, 'Hey, don't eat that, okay?' and, what do ya know, they do. What does he do? He pops out and goes 'Gotcha, bitches' and kicks them out. Doesn't that strike you as… er… spiteful?"

"Well, he did tell them not to do it."

"But if he's got all this power, then why bother with it? If you're saying he did it to test them, then there's really no point in testing them at all, don't you think?"

"How does that make any sense?"

"Well, y'see, if he's gonna test them once, he's gonna keep testin' them until they fail. Since he's all-powerful, they can't win. It's like dealing with the kind of person who puts a brick on the ground and then covers it with a hat so that mischievous people who'd stomp the hat wind up bustin' their feet. Might not work the first few times, but he'll keep tryin', and eventually he'll resort to lighting paper bags on fire and then putting bricks in those."

Sho stared at Osaka, not entirely sure how the conversation had gone this way. He got ready to bring it back on topic, but the bell rang before he could.

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Kimura's class went by painfully slowly for Sho. He wanted to figure out Osaka. This girl and her idiosyncrasies had completely puzzled him for the better part of the day, and he intended to put a stop to that.

If I'm going to have a relationship with her, if we're going to stay together… it just wouldn't do if I didn't understand her, or if she didn't understand me.

Actually, I'm not sure if she even really understands anything. Hell, I'm not even sure if her understanding anything would make a difference in the way she acted at all.

But I want to understand her. I'll just have to keep talking to her, then. After all, she said yes to me, so she has to have seen something endearing in me. I should at least figure out why we're even together before pursuing it any further.

Ahh! Why is this girl so damned complicated?

Sho sighed in frustration, and turned around. Kimura was not, by any means, a disciplinarian, and Sho figured that he could get away with a little bit of chatter in Kimura's class. It hurt him to betray his favorite teacher in that fashion, but Sho figured that Kimura of all people would understand the overwhelming desire for truth that was driving Sho at the moment.

Sho turned to Osaka, ready to begin his inquiry.

Unfortuately for him, she was busy talking to Tomo at the moment.

Sho sighed and resigned himself to trying to pay attention to Kimura's class until the bell rang.

He fell asleep.

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Sho dreamed an odd dream. In his dream, he was sitting safely at home, watching the news. Scientists had, for some reason or another, decided to firmly define something as a planet. Unfortunately for Pluto, it didn't fit the definition and, as a result, was disqualified as a planet. A few days later, the scientists announced that Pluto was hurtling through space towards the Earth at an incredible speed.

Panic was the general reaction. After all, a planetoid hurtling towards the Earth wasn't something that people were generally prepared for. It tore through space at a terrifying speed, and despite a barrage of nuclear and conventional weapons, Pluto could not be stopped.

Sho found himself standing in the streets of modern day Japan, staring at the sky as Pluto gradually occupied a larger and larger portion of it. On the day of the impact, Sho stood on his roof and watched as the celestial body threw itself at the Earth in apparent fury over not being a planet anymore.

As the collision approached, Sho could not help but close his eyes and turn away from the tremendous projectile. He waited for oblivion, but oblivion never came. When he opened his eyes, he saw a tiny orange speck holding off the enormous planetoid. He squinted, and from a distance, it looked like a cross between a somewhat misshapen cat and former Prime Minister Mori. The orange being, perhaps a god, turned away the rather ticked-off planetoid, saving the world for the time being.

Then it flew down towards Sho, and it became readily apparent to Sho that his initial impressions of the deity were not terribly off. It did look rather a lot like a misshapen cat with Mori's face. It gave him a terrible glare, as though reading his mind, and simply said,

"Hey look, Osaka's already sleeping with her new boyfriend."

Sho awoke with a start, and the face of the god was swiftly replaced by Yomi's grinning visage. "Don't worry, don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she said, and promptly left.

Sho turned around and saw Osaka lying on her desk, asleep with a silly expression that Sho was sure must've put his sleeping face to shame. He reached over and gently woke her up.

"Hey, Osaka, class is over. We… ah… should get going."

"Hmm? Yeah, 'spose we should."

The two got up and started to walk out of Kimura's classroom.

"Hey, Osaka, what did you mean earlier?"

"Earlier?"

"About names, I mean. Why were you so sure when you said that my friends all failed?"

"'cause the names don't match, of course."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh. Well, it's a little weird, yeah?"

Everything about you is a little weird, Osaka. "No problem, just tell me."

"It's because their names don't really match up, you know? Like Genji and Tomo. They don't fit together at all. Ken and Yomi, there's absolutely nothing there, can't you see?"

"I'm… afraid I don't."

"No, no, you know, like Ryu and Sakaki. They've got nothing on each other at all, see? Kagura and Marion? Absolutely dreadful together, don't you think? They don't fit."

"I'm… sorry, I must be slow or something but I don't quite follow you."

'Oh, fine. You see our names? Sho and Osaka. See?"

"What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"Sho and Osaka! Shosaka! See? They mesh together all nicely, whereas you can't do the same thing with Genji and Tomo, or Ken and Yomi, or… or with any of your friends, really. They just don't fit, you know?"

Sho stared blankly at Osaka. Is… is that the entire reason she said yes earlier today? On just… just a letter game? That's what got you to say yes?

"Actually, now that I think about it, Sakaki and I fit together nicely too. Osakaki, see? That's pretty damn nifty, really. Hey, you know, I fit with Kagura too! OsaKagura, at your service! That one's pretty damn good."

I… I… I'm not sure if I believe it.

"Hmm. I fit rather well with Tomo too. TomOsaka! I guess she'd be dominant there, though. Well, what about Yomi? Well, I don't really fit with her, unless you wanna say something like OsaKoyomi, although I lose part of my name and she can't use her full name at all."

Sho watched Osaka chatter to herself, and wasn't at all sure how to react. He couldn't think of a single thing to say, and Osaka's way of looking at the world was simply bizarre.

"Tomo and Yomi fit together better anyway, I think. Tomi or Yomo, you see? Each person keeps three letters, the name stays 4 letters long, and either one can go in the front. They're an excellent couple! Actually, now that I think about it, my name fits with Chiyo too. ChiyOsaka, although I'm really not into that kind of thing. Too young for my tastes."

"Osaka… you can't be serious about this, can you? How can you decide things like that over something as simple as a name?"

"What? What do you mean? What's wrong with that?"

"I mean that names are fairly arbitrary, you know, and you're letting them influence your view of the world in such a tremendous fashion."

"Yeah, but it's my view of the world, isn't it?"

"Yes, but… but names don't have that kind of power. They're just… names."

"Yeah, but it's my view of the world, isn't it?"

"So what if it is?"

"Well, think about it this way: How do you know that, for example, these chairs are hard?"

"I touch them, and they feel hard, so they're hard."

"So you can only understand the world through perception."

"Yes."

"So if I have an interesting way of seeing the world, of understanding the world, such as choosing to believe that names have a tremendous impact on how people work, then…"

"Then?"

"Then I'd perceive the world in that way. My world isn't your world, Sho."

"Wh…what?"

"If we can only understand the world through perception, and we don't all perceive the world as the same, then it follows that the world cannot be the same for each person. My world is fundamentally different from your world because I perceive it on my own, in my own way. My way isn't your way, ergo we don't see the same world."

"B…but…"

"So if, to me, names really do make that much of a difference, then in my world names really do make that much of a difference. It might not mean a thing in your world, but your world doesn't concern me because it's not mine."

Sho gaped at Osaka.

"Actually, now that I think about it, I'd be an excellent lesbian, don't you think? Well, you know, if it wasn't for the whole bit where I was straight, I'd be really awesome to pair with."

Osaka grinned at Sho placidly and went to join her friends. Sho wandered down the hallway, making his way out of the building.

My world made sense five minutes ago.

Sho wandered out of the school, lost and fairly confused. He wasn't sure if he and Osaka were still a couple at all, but that was a fairly minor worry at the time. For now, Sho was entirely unsure as to whether or not his world really meant anything to anyone else. He tottered, lost, unsure, entirely unattached to anything. The wind blew through the streets of Tokyo, and it carried Sho along with ease.

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Author's Notes: And there it is. I'm sorry about the delay in putting this one up, but I kept getting sidetracked by various things. Oh well. I must say that it's been a fun run, really. I don't much care for romance, so I figured this story would be an interesting challenge at best, but it actually did turn out to be rather entertaining. You reviewers are a huge part of that, so I'll say thanks again.

As for this being the final chapter... Yeah, it probably is. As much as I'd love to write an Osaka-only chapter, she spent almost the entire day with Sho, and so there's really not much for her in the way of original content. So, you know, this is Sho and Osaka's chapter, although there weren't any peeks into Osaka's psyche. Actually, I don't really know what to stick in there, unfortunately. I fear I'd probably get her all wrong.

I may do an epilogue of sorts, or maybe a HaLire's day thing where I explain all the little cause-effect things that found their way into the story, like Tomo saying yes to Sho and dumping him shortly afterwards because Osaka kept telling her to get a reason for her haircut. I might do both.

Anyway, just because this is the last "real" chapter doesn't mean that you guys shouldn't review it. Tell me what you think, alright?