A Tearjerking Story

Kanzaki's reminder surprised Gen and Yamada, but it also prompted them to investigate Ogata Kyo's identity.

They discovered that before this Ms. Takahashi Kyo married Ogata Keisuke and registered under his family name, records showed that she had been an orphan—

Everyone in the Criminal Affairs Division office was discussing the matter!

"Takahashi Kyo—an orphan? Then how did she have a cousin like Yamaguchi Tetsuo?" Realizing they had been deceived, Yamada spoke with some irritation.

"Being an orphan only means she had no parents. She could still have cousins. But the records show that Takahashi Kyo was from Fukuoka, while Mrs. Ogata kept saying she had returned to Tokyo. That's very suspicious," Gen added.

"So—her identity really was fake? And she even got married and registered under a new family name?" Kanzaki said oddly upon hearing this.

"Some black markets sell dormant family registrations. They usually belong to missing persons, people who died by suicide without being removed from the registry, or people who settled overseas without being removed from the registry. In some remote areas, there are people who buy and sell these identities," Haitani said knowledgeably.

"At the very least, there should have been some kind of review when she got married, right?" Jiren muttered.

"In many remote municipalities, marriage registrations aren't connected to any network. They only conduct a paper review of the residence certificate and never trace its origin," Amaki said, clearly familiar with how grassroots work operated.

"So—as long as she successfully completed the family registration, the fake identity became legitimate?" Jiren said in sudden realization.

"It looks like this Mrs. Ogata's identity has serious issues. She may even be connected to Dr. Ogata. After all, if she really underwent plastic surgery to resemble a replacement, her husband couldn't have been uninvolved!" Haitani said.

"Wait,