When Nao woke up from the operation Kasuga was there, sitting at her hospital bedside. The AI appeared as a kindly nurse of early middle age, holding Nao’s hand. “Hello, Nao. How do you feel?” Nao withdrew her hand, then held it up to the light from the window. She could move! She threw back the covers, wiggled her toes, then stood up. Her eyes widened. “I can stand up!” “That’s great! Can you feel the floor?” “I can feel everything!” Then she flew out the door, running around in the sunshine, laughing and crying like a maniac. Eventually Kasuga found her in a city park not far distant. “It seems like everything is working okay?” “It’s incredible.” It wasn’t like the old days, where someone with her injury might have been truly locked in. Brain monitoring and AI had allowed her to communicate using a synthetic voice. But her body was unmoving and numb as a stone on the bottom of a lake. “My name’s Kasuga,” Nao’s nurse said. “If you need anything, just ask and I’ll appear. Is there anything I can help you with?” With the neuroport installed, Nao almost never turned it off. The real world was a prison. In the sim she was free. Or almost. It only took her a few days to run into the first guardrail. She’d been flirting with a guy from Singapore who insisted he was real, and after a hot makeout session in an Alpine chalet she decided sure, why not. Fifteen months since she’d had sex (well, eighteen, actually) and she was horny. The AI wouldn’t display Jia Jun’s genitals. When he took off his underwear, there was just … more underwear. “You’re fucking kidding me. Kasuga!” “What?” Jia Jun said, confused. “Talking to my AI.” Who had appeared at the bedside, as though to administer a medicine. “Why can’t I take off his underwear?” “I’m sorry, but pornography isn’t allowed on this system.” “That’s ridiculous. You know this is the only way I can have sex?”
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