Virtual-piano ✓ | Complete |

He tore off the visor, furious. The real piano sat in the corner, mocking him.

Lena.

Outside, Mira leaned against the doorframe, listening. She smiled, pulled out her phone, and canceled the subscription to Virtual-Piano. virtual-piano

How had the Virtual-Piano learned it? He didn’t care. The algorithm had scraped his old social media videos, his voice recordings, his ambient home audio—and synthesized her . Not perfectly. The timing was a little robotic. The dynamics were flat. But the intent was Lena. The clumsy, loving, off-key intent.

And then, among the crowd of ghosts, he heard her . He tore off the visor, furious

“You see?” he whispered to the empty room. “Even the future can’t fix me.”

He placed his hands over the haptic gloves. He joined her. He played the bass line to her melody, clumsy as it was. And for the first time in three years, the air in the virtual room felt light again. Outside, Mira leaned against the doorframe, listening

She had never played piano in her life. She was a violinist. But there she was, picking out a melody with one finger on the virtual keys. It was the tune she used to hum while cooking dinner—a silly, made-up song about burnt toast and forgotten groceries. Elias had recorded it once on his phone, years ago, but the phone was long dead.