Paradigm city, a city without a past. The furthest historical records date about two hundred years back, and no further back than that. Yet there is technology older than that, ancient weapons and vehicles more advanced than anything we have now. With a population of just over a million, it isn't the largest of cities but still manages to be mostly self sufficient. While the Paradigm City Self Defense Force (PCSDF) maintains peace and order against outside threats, smaller threats are handled mostly by the police force. But the police cannot be everywhere, and corruption is rampant in the department. So citizens with problems that the police can't or won't handle, or that don't particularly trust the police, turn to private investigators.<br/><br/>In the thirtieth district in particular, there exists an old, four-story office building. The ground floor of the office building is a laundromat, though the owner of said laundromat is known for running numbers on the side.  The second floor, on the other hand, is home to the offices of Mystic Ankh Private Investigations, Inc., a private detective agency run by private eye Ankhesenamen Aziza and information broker Masateru Suo.  Though not a particularly lucrative trade, the two see enough business to make ends meet, and have even hired a secretary.  The third and fourth floors, meanwhile, are living quarters, and are specifically reserved for employees of the two businesses that the building is home to and for the owner of the building herself.  A chronic shut-in, the landlady is willing to leave her apartment to harass her tenants from time to time, but has not left the actual building in several years.