A/N: I've never actually been to Belfast. Much less to Queen's. The following chapter is a product of my own imagination with the help of a few pictures. If you are Irish/student at Queen's/resident of Belfast, by all means, do correct me if something needs serious correcting. Otherwise, enjoy!

This is for the 500themes challenge on Livejournal. The prompt is: 185. Seek and find.

Chapter Four

Their students study in a palace? Rangiku wondered as she stood before the main building, gaping. Ben was a few meters ahead and stopped upon realizing that his new charge had ceased to follow him. Glancing behind, he caught her stare, "I was too intimidated to ever come here."

Students were everywhere within the vicinity, hurrying to class or standing around idly during their breaks. Watching them made Rangiku a bit nostalgic. She and Gin had technically studied together—even if he had graduated long before she did. He had even helped her a bit, giving her tips for executing quicker and more efficient Kidou spells. And occasionally he had been her sparring partner.

He always went easy on me.

"This way," Ben finally said, forcing her to push the nostalgia to the back of her mind.

With one last glance around, Rangiku did as she was asked and followed her guide into the building. The inside was similarly impressive with large halls and old staircases, low hanging chandeliers and beautiful glass windows. Light filtered through, setting the entire place aglow like an enchanted castle. Rangiku felt like turning circles to take it all in and wondered, briefly, if all of her journey would be like this. Filled with new discoveries.

It was almost as if Gin was giving her a chance to rediscover herself. She smirked, briefly closing her eyes in thought, Hmph, you cunning bastard…

"Wait here," Ben instructed, holding up a hand to emphasize his point, "I need to ask someone for directions."

Rangiku was only too happy to oblige. The extra time provided an opportunity to observe her surroundings more thoroughly. On one of the walls, she noticed a series of portraits, and she found herself ambling over to observe the stoic and stern faces of former schoolmasters. They look like they could have used a few drinks, she mused. In fact… I think I could use a few myself.

She mentally made a note to ask Ben about the pubs. She had heard rumors that the Irish were quite the merry drinkers—and quite good at it too.

Ben's footsteps woke her from her reverie and she turned to acknowledge him. With a motion of his hand, he strode off down one of the halls, carefully studying the room numbers as he passed them. Finally, several halls and staircases later, he stopped at a plain wooden door and knocked politely.

A middle-aged woman opened the door, her black hair pulled back in a sharp bun and her eyes as kind as a jagged rock; she smiled formally and without warmth, "May I help you? My office hours aren't for another two hours."

"I have a young woman here who doesn't speak much English. She's searching for someone. They told me that you could help."

Rangiku listened to the conversation, straining to pick up familiar words, but gave up halfway through. It was just too fast. Luckily, it didn't last long. After meeting a curious glance from the professor, they were invited to enter her office.

The office was much smaller than Rangiku expected, though she figured this was largely due to the overwhelming amount of books—in both English and Japanese—crammed into almost every visible corner. There were hundreds of them—lining bookshelves, stacked on the floor—and Rangiku half expected to see books hanging from the ceiling. She tried her best not to make an obvious glance in that direction.

The woman's desk was cluttered with paper, where she had been working on who-knows-what, and signs of a rather hasty meal. In the front were several mugs, each holding several pens, and a nameplate on which her name was inscribed in fine italics: Sarah Hogan.

"Please, sit down," the professor encouraged, waving her hand in the direction of two green velvet cushioned seats. Rangiku obeyed, hardly registering the fact that the woman had said it in Japanese.

"I am Professor Hogan, the Japanese instructor here." She said it in both languages, giving them hard, discerning glances, before switching entirely into fluent Japanese; her attention now rested fully on the Shinigami, a look of expectation settling permanently in the depths of her rather disconcerting gaze, "He has informed me about your search for a friend. I don't know that I'll be of real assistance. Perhaps the police would be a better bet?"

This woman needs some drinks too… Rangiku thought idly, Professor Hogan's unwelcoming demeanor hardly fazing her.

"The police?" She couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh dear, I'm afraid I'll have to share the entire story with you. You see, the police can't help me. The person I'm looking for is no longer in Belfast."

"Then why are you here at all?"

She's absolutely no fun. Rangiku grabbed her copy of Cache-Cache and tossed it haphazardly onto the desk, ignoring as it rearranged some of the paperwork. No one needed paperwork after all. "I'm looking for the writer of this story."

"This garbage?" The professor mumbled under her breath as she straightened the papers, "It's decreasing the IQs of my students."

Rangiku wasn't the least bit insulted. After all, hadn't she thought the story was mediocre after having read it the first day? She couldn't recall immediately what had gone through her mind, but she remembered thinking it had gotten way more attention than it deserved.

"Oh, now Professor," Rangiku said, donning her best smile, "it's not all garbage."

Professor Hogan wasn't the least bit amused, "Continue with your story. I don't have all day."

"The writer—Snake—is placing clues in the story for me. I don't know where they lead—or what I'll find when I get to the places, but I have to figure this out."

"You came all the way to Belfast because you think there are clues in a story?" The professor looked slightly abhorred at the mere thought, "What a waste of time!"

Rangiku blinked once, never losing her smile, "Oh, believe me, I have all the time in the world."

"Well, some of us don't."

"Have you read this addition?"

Professor Hogan arched a brow, the mere angle of it making her face five times more stern, "What do you think?"

"Then the quicker you read it, the quicker I'll be out of your hair."

For a moment the professor sat in stunned silence. This woman really expected her to read it? As Rangiku leaned back patiently in the chair, her light blue eyes remaining steadfastly observant, Professor Hogan knew she was serious.

"What am I supposed to be looking for?" The professor finally asked, defeated.

"Anything that might lead to a specific place in Belfast. I think it's a lighthouse."

"And you seriously think that he will be waiting at this lighthouse?"

Rangiku sighed, "No, I doubt he'll be there. That would be too easy. And Gi—Snake—is not the kind of person that would make this easy." She paused with the first signs of doubt, "But surely something will be there. This is his game."

Ben asked a question that was lost to Rangiku and Professor Hogan responded quickly, reaching simultaneously for the Japanese version of Cache-Cache as if it might burn her. The Irishman laughed loudly, grinning from ear to ear.

"What did he ask?" Rangiku quizzed.

"Whether or not I'd be able to help you."

"And what did you say?"

Professor Hogan gave the Shinigami a hard stare, "That I'm a Japanese instructor. Not a teacher of the disillusioned."

But even as she said it, the professor opened the magazine to the right page and started reading with only the slightest grimace.

Fifteen minutes passed and Professor Hogan said nothing, leaving Rangiku to stare idly at the room. She found herself searching the spines of books for familiar titles, wondering vaguely how one woman could acquire so many. When that grew boring, she looked towards the window, allowing her thoughts to venture into old daydreams.

Finally, after another five minutes had passed, Professor Hogan began to type something on her computer, drawing Rangiku's attention back to her stern face. When she found whatever she had been searching for, the professor cleared her throat, "The majority of it was completely irrelevant."

Rangiku tried to hide her disappointment, "Oh."

"However, I read over the introduction twice and I think something is a bit interesting, if one is reading it with the idea of clues in the back of her mind." She handed Rangiku her copy and pointed to the first part of the story, "Read that carefully and tell me what you think."

Rangiku had already read it several times, but she decided another time wouldn't hurt. Her eyes followed the thin, bony finger to the first line, and she began to read out loud:

Certain cats allegedly give bad luck when they cross your path, but when she crossed mine, everything changed for the better. I didn't know it then. I couldn't have known, maybe, because I had placed the entirety of my focus on protecting her. But she was like a beacon calling me home… like a rueful but expectant lighthouse at the edge of the shore, enshrined forever in a patch of clover.

"The last line is the only one that mentions the lighthouse," Professor Hogan said with the barest hint of excitement. "You see, he used the word 'beacon'. A beacon generally calls a person towards it—whether it is a sound or a light."

"But I already figured I had to find a lighthouse," Rangiku shrugged, her hope beginning to diminish.

"Yes and you were correct," Professor Hogan leaned forward, examining the magazine from the opposite direction. "But keep reading that line."

The Shinigami obeyed half-heartedly, "…like a rueful but expectant lighthouse at the edge of the shore…"

"Your friend is actually quite clever. His writing may not be on par with the greats, but he has a distinct command of subtlety."

Subtlety? Rangiku knew that was something she had never had. She reread the line a third time, "So what are you saying?"

"The key here is the word 'rueful'."

"Rueful?"

The professor nodded enthusiastically as only someone who loved to read and make connections in literature would do. If she had been hesitant before, Professor Hogan was now completely enthralled by the tactfully written message within seemingly otherwise useless writing. It was ingenious!

"I just ran a search online. There is a lighthouse in Northern Ireland called the Rue Point Lighthouse. It's in Ballycastle." She paused to turn the computer screen in Rangiku's direction, "Here, look."

And there it was—the clue. A beautiful photo of a black and white circular lighthouse nestled at the edge of the sea. Rangiku knew instantly that this was the answer. "Amazing," she said with genuine warmth, "you're amazing!"

Professor Hogan flushed a bit at the praise, but brushed it off as delicately as she could, "I studied literature as well as language. We're taught to read in between the lines."

"It's not really surrounded by clover," Rangiku noted, remembering the final words in the introduction paragraph and comparing them to the rocks in the picture.

For the first time since the Shinigami had entered her office, Professor Hogan laughed, "In the literary world, one would call that taking some literary license—meaning not everything has to be true."

Rangiku smiled, only to remember that Ben was in the room, "Could you tell him that you found the answer?"

Upon hearing this, Ben grinned, "This calls for drinks."

The Shinigami nodded in agreement, needing no translation for that suggestion; when it came to alcohol, there was no language barrier. Especially not where she was concerned.

"What do you say Professor?" Rangiku asked with a sly wink, "I've been meaning to see how well the Irish can hold their liquor."

"Oh, no. Not me." Professor Hogan replied, her voice like a whip.

But Rangiku didn't appear to hear her. She cheerily took one of the loose sheets of paper from the desk, not even bothering to check if it was important, grabbed one of the pens from a cup, and began to write in neat Japanese characters:

Gone drinking. If important, please leave a note.

I went ahead and published this chapter earlier than planned. Tomorrow is a three hour lecture with the worst professor of Estonian ever born. Please help cheer me up by leaving reviews. I assure you that they will make my day. :)