Last Time on Lazy Genius:

"No, Not anymore" He said as he smiled up at them watching them all fall to the ground. Once they all got up he rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I'm a Tokyo University Alumnus Now, I'm Urashima Keitaro." he said with a bow to them.

The Hinata Sou was the very definition of calm and peaceful on the outside. The birds were chirping merrily and all in all the Hinata house looked like something from a picturesque post card. Then came the shout of, "WHAT?!" and the birds all took off at the same time, sensing danger.

"You've already graduated?" said Naru in a disbelieving voice. Keitaro simply smiled and nodded as she paced back and forth.

"How can this be? I was under the impression that Tokyo U did not supply less than 4 year education." Motoko asked with a questioning look on her face, "Perhaps you just look younger than you are?" she supplied hoping to be told he was 3 or four years older than he looked.

Keitaro simply shook his head and said, "I turned twenty 3 months ago." He had to keep himself from grinning, these girls seemed like the type to deal out physical punishment on hair trigger reflex, though he had yet to meet any girls besides his promise girl who didn't do that. Perhaps he could look into that anomaly when he had time. 'My promise girl...' he thought as his mind began to run through its scenarios again. He'd been snapped out of it before he could think things all the way through. Grandma supported his quest for the promise girl, perhaps she had wanted him here to meet the promise girl, or perhaps they'd missed each other at the university and she would come back to Hinata because its where the promise was made. There were too many factors to sort through quickly. He doubted his grandmother was out to hurt him, but based on the little tricks she decided to toss his way it was never a bad thing to be cautious. His head snapped up as he felt eyes on him and he said, "I'm sorry, what's up?"

The girls all looked at one another before they rushed off to a huddle, leaving Haruka and Keitaro on one side of the room. The two of them simply looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

In the huddle...

"I still think we should let 'em stay, I bet he runs fast when he's being chased by missiles." said Su in her customary fashion as she leapt out of the huddle and on to Motoko's shoulders before bobbing her head down into the huddle with a cute grin.

"Yeah, I mean seriously, if he's a Tokyo University Alumni at 20, he's gotta be like a genius or something, guys like that are usually rolling in the money once they graduate." said Kitsune who to punctuate her train of thought stuck her head out of the huddle and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Keitaro, who blushed before she put her head back down in the huddle.

"If he is a Tokyo University Graduate, then he is most likely trustworthy. If you both wish him to stay, I'll not stand in your way." Motoko added, her mind reeling over the information. He was a Genius of the Mind it seemed, as she was a Genius of the Body. If she knew anything, it was how focused one could be on one's specialty, to the exclusion of almost all else. There seemed to be little chance of him being a pervert.

"Hmmph, I think hes lying, if he wants to stay here, he should prove it." Naru said as her head poked up out of the huddle and she glared at the guy in question. He was in mid yawn however and seemed to be talking to Haruka about something so he didn't notice.

"An Excellent plan Narusagawa-sempai, how can we make him prove it?" Motoko asked.

"I've got a few of my cram school practice tests up in my room that I haven't done yet. If he can do them without getting any wrong, I'll believe it." Naru said with a smirk as she dashed out of the huddle and upstairs. The other girls broke the huddle and walked back over to the couch.

Keitaro looked away from his conversation, "Hey, you're back, how was the huddle?" he added in a deadpan tone and expression that made the girls realize for the first time that yes, he was truly related to Haruka at least. Haruka had left to go back to the Teashop at some point during the huddle they noticed so it wasn't as weird as it could have been.

"It was nice, why don't you join us next time, all huddled in close together..." Kitsune said as she struggled not to laugh at the strangled gasp and look on Keitaro's face.

Motoko also blushed a bit as she admonished Kitsune, "That is unnecessary, Kitsune."

Su meanwhile, had already leapfrogged off of Motoko's shoulders onto Keitaro who was stunned from Kitsune's light innuendo. She grabbed Keitaro's face and rubbed it cheek to cheek with hers before she said, "Hypothesis proved, Keitaro feels good. Next time we huddle, he gets ta' be my partner." She said with a laugh as she leapt off his shoulders and ran back over to the other girls with her arms out as she made airplane noises.

Keitaro recovered from the surprise attack quickly and was already in thought as he stared at Su. 'She seems to be at genius level intelligence, just from what I've seen so far. Based on the technology that she's brought out, she's gifted in weapons technology, but she's either trying to hide it or she's too unbalanced to be properly educated. If they do allow me to visit, it would be in my best interest to test out a few hypothesizes myself, outside of the search for the promise girl.' Keitaro was brought out of his thoughts by Motoko's voice.

"Urashima-san, we feel that you would be trustworthy enough as a Tokyo University Alumnus to be allowed to spent the night here, but we require proof that you are. To that end we'd like you to take a test." Motoko said in an authoritative voice.

Keitaro shrugged and said, "Sounds reasonable, but also sounds like way too much work, I'll just rent out a room at an inn or something." Keitaro rose from his seat and stretched before bowing to the girls, "Thank you for your hospitality." He said as he began to walk towards the door.

Naru meanwhile had been at the foot of the stairs and had heard his parting remark. "I knew he was lying." Naru said with a bit of disgust in her voice. "He's probably just some dumb ass that wanted to sound cool in front of a few girls, but realized in mid-lie that he'd goofed up."

Keitaro had stopped halfway to the door and with his back turned he said in a deceptively quiet voice, "What did you call me?"

Naru snorted and said, "I called you a lying dumb ass."

Keitaro turned around and thrust his hand out and in the lower tone of voice he'd used earlier simply said, "Please hand me the test."

Naru rolled her eyes and handed him the test. He deftly took it out of her hands and set it down. With a grunt of acknowledgment he sat down and began writing.

Twenty minutes later...

The girls sat in the common room looking at one another as they waited. Kitsune was the first to speak, "So, how long is the test supposed to take."

Naru shrugged and said, "The Test took me about an hour to do and I only got a 93 on it, If he's striving for perfection, it'll take him quite a bit longer than that, but if he's such a genius, then it'll be easy for him right?"

Su grinned and said, "I told him I would give him a banana if he got it done fast, that way we can start playing."

"He seemed to be ready to leave, Narusagawa, I would question the wisdom of baiting him into taking the test, perhaps you wish him to stay?" asked Motoko with a small smile.

Kitsune's jaw dropped before she started laughing, "I-I think" she had to pause in between giggles "Motoko-chan was teasing you, hell must have frozen over or something."

Motoko looked over at Kitsune and said with a neutral expression, "You are a bad influence." Kitsune just smiled big, which Su quickly emulated as they began to laugh some more at Naru's stupefied expression. Motoko turned to Naru and said, "Naru-sempai, my apologies. I didn't mean to tease you, though it is a valid question."

Naru finally came out of the shock brought on by being teased by Motoko of all people before she grumbled, "I just don't like Liars is all."

They were interrupted by the sound of the front door closing. Naru smiled triumphantly as they got up and went into the front room where Keitaro was taking the test. The test was laid out on the desk with both a pencil and a pen out on top of it. Keitaro, it seemed, had left. Naru pulled out her answer sheet and quickly began to scan answers. "Un-unbelievable! Every single answer is right, and he even corrected the syntax of some of the questions!" her expression was absolutely gob smacked.

Outside...

Keitaro reached the bottom of the steps from the front walk when he heard a voice calling out to him. He turned and looked at Kitsune and Su as they both stared at him.

"Why are you heading out tiger, ya passed the test." said Kitsune as she leaned against the railing on the steps.

Keitaro merely shrugged and said, "It was Haruka's suggestion, while I wouldn't mind staying the night, the simple fact is that finding an inn and checking in are going to be met with a great deal less resistance than my staying here would be. If I had to fill out a test on the level of Tokyo U acceptance just to be able to stay the night, I'd probably be hassled the rest of the night." He held up a hand to forestall any other comments, "Perhaps not about staying, but if you guys wished me not to stay so much that you'd try to prevent me by making me take a test just to be able to, then the test won't change your mind. You'd just feel you'd have to accept me. I'd just rather avoid the mental and emotional turmoil that forced acceptance brings."

Motoko and Naru had both arrived sometime during the speech and as Keitaro turned around Naru spoke. "Look, I'm sorry I called you a liar, we'd all like for you to stay here tonight. I'm the one who called for a test to prove your truthfulness,and the others had already agreed to let you stay, so there is no more resistance." Naru said with a smile at the end.

Keitaro nodded his head with a blush as he began to walk up the stairs 'She knows how to turn the wattage up on her smiles thats for sure...'. The girls each introduced themselves as Keitaro approached. They all walked in together and the doors to Hinata Inn closed in an almost symbolic gesture.

As they closed the front doors Keitaro looked at the others and said, "So which room am I sleeping in? Is Grandma Hina's room still furnished?" As the others nodded he took his satchel and walked upstairs.

Keitaro had already dumped his satchel to the side of the room and ignoring the smell of old lady that seemed to linger dropped onto his futon and began to doze off.

The girls all looked at one another before they nodded and went to go talk to Haruka to find out more about their house guest. They quickly made their way down to the teashop and looked around expecting to see a few of Haruka's regulars. What they saw instead was Haruka seated at one of her tables as she waited expectantly. She looked up from her tea and nodded to them and simply said, "Yo."

The four girls looked to each other to ask the first question, but it fell to Kitsune as usual. "Whats the deal with your Nephew?"

Haruka continued to sip her drink as she looked up and said, "What about him?"

"How about how is he a Tokyo U grad at 20?" Naru said in an exasperated manner.

"Well he graduated high school at 15 and applied for Tokyo U. He'd been working hard all of his life, dreaming about going to Tokyo U. When an opportunity to graduate early presented itself, he took it and the extra work it entailed, just to be able to go to Tokyo U." Haruka said taking a long draw on her cigarette.

The girls all looked to each other slightly surprised, the image of a workaholic Tokyo U aspirant didn't really mesh well with the lazy, yet smart, devil may care attitude of the Keitaro Urashima they had sleeping up in the Manager's room.

"He doesn't seem like the type of guy that would do something like that..." Naru finally said, and most of the other girls nodded as well, although Su simply seemed to nod because everyone was doing it and it looked fun.

Haruka shrugged and said, "All I can tell you is that until about 4 months ago, the Keitaro you just met didn't exist. Keitaro was a driven genius with quite a few rivals from what he told me, between his accelerated degree program and the various side projects he was working on, he'd get three or four hours of sleep a night. The rest of the time was spent working in apprenticeships for professors or on schoolwork."

Motoko shook her head and muttered something. Once she realized everyone had turned to her to hear what she said she finally spoke up, "There are those who overtax the body and injure themselves, I was under the impression that the same thing could happen to the mind, Burnout, I believe it was called."

Haruka shook her head and said, "I thought that as well, Keitaro is resilient, but the body and mind have limits, right? He takes to his research with the same voracious nature as before, but he does it alone. I think a particular incident is related, burnout might be a factor, but something else comes to the fore."

Kitsune who'd been quiet since the first question spoke up once again and said, "I know why we came here, but it was supposed to yield little or no info, why are you telling us this? I mean the guy is your nephew and even with things that you are free to talk about you usually say, 'That's something you'll have to find out on your own.' "The last part had mimicked Haruka's deadpan voice very well.

Haruka smiled and said, "Keitaro figured that even if he wasn't allowed to stay there'd be questions about him. He told me to answer what I could."

The group all looked to each other before Kitsune smiled and said, "We allowed him to stay, he went straight up to Grandma Hina's room to sleep."

Haruka narrowed her eyes and frowned, "He said he would answer your questions himself if he was allowed to stay. That lazy..." The sound of the fax machine going off in the back room got everyone's attention as they all walked back . Usually the only person to fax the Teashop was Granny Hina and they all hoped for a few answers. As they paper came out Haruka pulled it off the printer. She broke from her normal expression to raise an eyebrow which was as close to an expression of shock as the girls had ever seen on her. The second paper was also quickly coming out and it looked official to the girls.

"What is all this? Is it from Granny Hina?" Naru asked silently bracing herself, seeing as how it had surprised even Haruka.

Haruka nodded, "Yeah, Granny has just given the deed of Hinata Sou over to Keitaro," she said motioning to the legal document that had just finished printing. "Provided he becomes the manager..."

From up in Granny Hina's room, Keitaro rolled over and put his pillow over his head after hearing a loud screech of, "WHAT?!"

Author's note

Thanks to everyone whose reviewed, based on some of your suggestions I edited the syntax and grammar in chapter one. I covered up a few obvious and not so obvious mistakes on my part.