1. Girl and the tunas

It took me nearly six hours to get to the college where Dr. Cossack's daughter was suppose to be, I had never thought a bike trip would take me this long, but I found cycling a great sport, I can enjoy the freedom I had never had.

I had never been to a university before, accept that experimental robot university setup by Dr. Light. That was different, most of the students in that university were experimental robots, there were some human students of robotics in there, and most of them are male, that proves the theory of female not familiar in mathematics and mechanics is true. Honestly say it would be a lot easier to find a girl in there.

Since university is a place for young humans to study, it would be difficult to find out who is Kalinka Cossack. I can't simply go out and ask every girl what her name is! I am only an ex-gangster, not a freak. I don't want to attack any extra attention either.

There was another problem; I didn't know how she looks like, I didn't even know which subject she is studying, there is only one thing that contains the information I need to know: the student name list of the whole college.

I have to hack into the university's database if I wanted to get the name list…No, wait, why do I have to do such thing? I want to find a girl, not perform an armed robbery! I have to stop myself from getting things done by violating laws and orders.

I don't know it is my programming, or because I was on the bad side, rules and regulations don't work on me too well. When I am on a mission, I prefer get things done as simple as possible, I don't really care if there were a thousand laws broken, they can't actually accuse a robot of breaking laws anyway. In fact, they can't even accuse Dr. Wily of my action.

According to the common laws of robots, all robots must have installed an identity chip on their body before they were activated. Every buyer or owner of a robot must apply for the license for owning a robot. Hence robots are count as the property of their registered owner; a robot owner is responsible for any inappropriate action and destruction done by a robot.

But there are cracks in the law. First, the lawmakers weren't aware of some people are able to create robots on their own and NOT register their robots, just like Wily. Second, they have never expected there are robots can perform actions on their own volition like I do, and third, they assumed robots can't lie, which is a big mistake. In that case, if me or any other Wily's robot get caught during a mission, there is no prove that our action had been instructed by Wily. There is no prove that we belong to Wily as well, since all the robots created by Wily has no identity chip on them (except the ones stolen from the others, like Guts Man and Cut Man). All they can do is to get us reprogrammed, then put us on the product list in an auction, or scrape us.

I have never known that I have an identity chip on me, I had always believed that I was created by Wily, he didn't admit by himself, and he had never told me who my creator was though. The stupid chip is located where I am not able to remove it myself. The worst of all that matters, I have found out my official registered owner, is Thomas Xavier Light!

Why? Why is it has to be him, not someone else?

Originally I don't bear any special emotions towards Dr. Light and his cosy lab, not since I pretended to switch sides two years ago. He had never shown any special care towards me like he does to my siblings. I didn't feel like having a warm welcome. In contrary, I feel lonelier than I was stuck in skull fortress. Perhaps that feeling came from my brother and sister's mistrust as well; they were trying to avoid me, even in the lab; they always whispering something among themselves and went totally silent when I entered; I felt like an outcast, my heart( keep telling meto run away from there. Long story short, they were rejecting me, not just them, but everyone, there was an invisible wall between us, I will never be one of them.

If they didn't treat me like that, perhaps I would switch sides for real.

I had tried to smooth the situation a little, since the lab wasn't a good place to talk; I invited Rock to have a private conversation in the middle park. Turns out Rock finally revealed his actual feeling about me: I am a freak more twist than a car wreck.

No matter how people taunt me, insult me, humiliate me, I can still wear my smirk on my face and pretend I didn't hear that, because I don't care. But these words from my own brother stab right into my circuits like a knife, that hurts, and it hurts very much. Although he said that he always wanted a real brother relationship with me afterwards, that didn't help any, how would I believe that you always wanted a real brother relationship with someone you defined as crazy, as a freak?

I was trying to do what they wanted me to do to make them happy, and they still treat me like I was tainted. I was angry, I decided to stick with Wily's plan and make them pay. I swore to myself I'd rather die than going back to Dr. Light's lab.

Up until now, I still hate that place.

Shit. I am daydreaming again; the recall of the painful memories doesn't help any on my mission. I need to concentrate on dealing with my life now.

I better start with the simplest way; I am going sit through every lecture, and they might have a name list of the students to record their attendance.

This might take me a week to attend every lecture in the campus, but this is the safest way to get the information needed, and I could have a nice place to recharge by the way.

I slip into a lecture hall and choose a seat on the back, I looked around to see where the attendance name list was, and then there was another late student arrived, and he put his student card against a card reader, with a sound "Beep." Shit! This campus is using a smart card system to count the attendance for the students!

My plan had failed; I knew things was never this easy, now I am going to try a less subtle approach for now. Plan B it is.

I used the paper I found in the recycle bin and draw a huge poster, and put it on the message board near the main entrance during the night. It read "Terkina please call 545-555-0100, the tuna you order arrives."

I know this looks stupid, but this is the way Dr. Cossack had told me, to contact each other by using the traditional code of his family, "Terkina" is Kalinka's nickname, "tuna" means father, and the word "dozen" means "urgent," this is to make sure the message sender is the real Cossack and not from the spies. I wasn't sure if anyone would understand this, I only hope the girl would see this and give me some response, I had doubts but I got to try. In fact, the number mentioned in the message is NOT my number, I don't have a cell phone, and it is the phone number of a grocery store near the university.

I got myself a small time job as the delivery boy of the grocery store so I can see through every delivery order in the store. Three days had passed, and there was still no sign from the Cossack girl, I began to feel a little edgy about this, did she get my message?

Three more days gone by; there was a strange delivery request: a dozen cans of tuna, the address was in a small rental apartment near the campus, and the caller called herself Miss C.

That's it! I finally got paid from all those hard work! But still I had to be careful, this might be a setup to lure me out, last time they tried to use my brother and Dr. Light as the bait, it was just lucky for me managed to save them from the trap, I don't want this happen to the Cossack girl as well.

I was there standing in front of the door where the cans of tuna are supposed to deliver; I studied the surroundings carefully to see if there is anything abnormal. It was six in the afternoon; the sun was setting peacefully down to the horizon. I was ready for anything would happen when the door was open. Fighting is never a problem for me, the thing that troubles me was a girl, like I said before, I don't have much experience to get along with females.

After five minutes of hestitation, I pressed the doorbell.

A young female opened the door; she has beautiful of long blonde hair, triangle face, honestly say my first impression of this girl is: she looks nothing like Dr. Cossack, I would doubt if she said she was Cossack's daughter.

"Here…here is the tuna you ordered."

"Oh, thanks" The girl replied casually and took over the bag with the tuna from my arms, "So you are the guy who posted that message?"

"Yes...er...no." I don't even know what I am saying. "So...are you…Miss Cossack?"

"What do you think?" The girl leans against the door frame, brushing her hair.

"I don't think so." I spit it out directly, "But you know her, right?"

"I know her, but she is not here, I was her roommate and a good friend, and she graduated from this place two years ago."

"Huh? But her father told me that she is supposed to graduate this year."

"Yeah...she was supposed to be, but she wanted to speed up her progress so she can go study the subject she likes, she used two years time to finish a four-year duration course. Incredible, wasn't she?" The girl says as she took out a can of tuna from the can and inspecting it.

"But where is she now?"

"I don't know, she didn't tell me her location. We only contact each other by emails. I am just doing a favor for her, she knows her father would send someone here to find her someday, and my job is telling them the truth. Just like what I told you just now."

Another clue was broken, that's getting even harder to locate the girl. I wasn't about to give up yet.

"Did she mention where she was going before she left? Or did she say what she is going to study next?" I was trying to obtain every last information to gain more chance to get the job done.

"Humm, she has a lot of interest herself, last I heard from her is already 10 months ago, she said she was going to participate in a big project in botany or biology, or something in a research institute. That's all I know."

The information too minor to do anything with it; I was frustrated, and I will have to start again.

"Well, thank you for telling me that...um…Miss…?"

"My name's Monique." We shook our hands, "and you?"

"My name is Pro…er…no, I mean…Jake, nice to meet you."

That night I went back to the message board and ripped off the poster I put on it, then I lay flat on a branch made out of stone in a quiet corner of the university campus, stared at the dark void above me. This was one of the times I felt frustrated and having no body to talk to.

"What should I do now?"

To be continued...