The title comes from the magpie rhyme, though obviously it applies to Ai as well.
One for
Sorrow
August 4: She left her life on Monday
Word Count: 311
"What is your name?" the old man (Professor Agasa, she reminds herself) asks.
"My name is meaningless now," she says. She is no longer Shiho Miyano, eighteen years old, desperately clinging to her older sister, trying to convince herself that as long as Akemi is alright, everything will be okay (because Akemi is dead, and she must face the fact that things will never be okay). She does not want to be Sherry, tries not to think about all the crimes she has committed under that alias, all the people she has hurt and betrayed.
"Hmm, we'll have to make one up then." Suddenly, the old man, Professor Agasa, hits his fist into his other palm. "I know! We'll use mystery writers, just like Shinichi! Only we'll be cleverer, because we'll have time to think of the name, whereas he had to make his up on the spot." The professor walks away to the computer, extolling the virtues of his plan.
Ah, Shinichi Kudo, who, according to the professor, is currently masquerading as Conan Edogawa at the local elementary school. Professor Agasa said Kudo intends to bring Them to justice, which just shows that the boy is an idiot.
She plans to give him a shock as soon as possible, wake him up to the reality.
"Look!" Professor Agasa exclaims from across the room. "We can use the V.I. from Warshawski's name and turn it into 'Ai,' which can mean love or--"
"Sorrow," she says firmly. The professor cranes his neck around the monitor, looking ready to protest, when he sees her steely expression.
"Perhaps for now," he finally relents, sinking back in his seat. But she (Ai now, she supposes) knows that she will carry around the kanji for the rest of her life.
She has escaped Their cage only to find herself walled in by guilt and grief.