A/N: hello guys! i know i've been busy with my crossover fic, but guess what? here's a new YGO fic!

i had this sitting in my comp for the longest time ever, half-completed, but i finally completed it earlier so i thought i ought to get it out for you guys.
i haven't done an Azureshipping for a long time - so here's my new effort at it!

in some sense, this is also a testing chapter. if i get enough reviews (say, maybe around 5?), i'll treat it as a sign to continue.

so i hope you guys won't mind reading through this, and get back to me on it! (:

love, fika1603

"Go on, look for love
To the other side of the deep woods

(real love, my dear, is not for sale)"

-L'Arc~en~Ciel

The stocky middle-aged man resisted a sigh as he sought to keep up with his client. He adjusted his name tag – Matsuda – as he paused for a while to let his client visually survey the area. This had been the third piece of land they had been to in less than five hours. The first piece of land had been dismissed as too expanse, despite its seclusion from the city area. The second piece of land had been ridiculed as "an entryway to the Domino City circus of people". The current piece of land, however, happened to be a privately-owned park open to members of the public who would like to escape from the bustle and traffic of city-life. It was this particular piece of land, hedged by woods on one side and overlooking a lake on other, which grabbed the interest of his particularly difficult client.

"If you'd like to see, Mr Kaiba, there's a small cabin that previously belonged to the owner at the edge of the woods," the property agent offered.

"Very well," came the aloof reply.

Matsuda promptly led the way along the paved path towards a quaint log cabin not too far from where they were. He turned to face his client, "Well, Mr Kaiba?"

From the expression playing on his client's face, Matsuda might as well had shown him an uninteresting rock. His client's blue eyes continued to carefully assess the area. Finally he asked, "The land that's for sale, it's this entire area? Inclusive of the lake and the woods?"

"Yes, but..." Matsuda hesitated.

"But what?"

"This area had been converted into a public park for decades, Mr Kaiba. And it's been rather popular with the people..."

"But it's still under private ownership."

"Well... technically, yes."

Seto Kaiba smoothly reached into his suit pocket, took out his cheque book, scribbled in an amount well twice of what the area was worth and handed it to Matsuda. "Good. Then I don't see what's the problem with buying over this place."

"But the park, Mr Kaiba?" Matsuda protested.

The young multi-billionaire owner of Domino City's largest corporation merely stared at him coldly. "It's my property, Mr Matsuda. I'll decide if it's open or closed."

XO XO XO XO

The latest issue of the Domino Dailies landed with a loud, angry smack on the conference table. In large and bolded print, the front page read: New Owner Announced Closure of Kawatsuki Park. The entire city had been in disbelief and in uproar since the morning about the arbitrary decision to close down the popular public park. Such dissatisfaction probably intensified itself in the office of the Domino City Heritage Centre, and no one seemed more annoyed by the news than the Natural Aesthetics Department.

"What are we going to do about it?" a lithe blonde who was more comfortable to go by the name of Anya asked glumly, resting her chin on her cupped left hand and absent-mindedly stirring a cup of coffee with the right. "He has a point – it IS private property after all. It's just that the previous owner has been really generous to open it to the public."

"The centre should've pushed to gazette it as city property a long time ago!" her colleague bristled as she angrily plonked herself down in her chair. She was an attractive young woman of twenty-five, with chocolate brown hair that she had let grow out and an impressive record of both volunteer works with the Heritage Centre and excellent grades which secured her a position in the department despite being fresh out of college. Sighing, she dragged the newspaper towards her and looked on hopelessly at the photo of the new owner in the insert. "He hasn't changed, has he."

"Who? Seto Kaiba? Ah, Tea, wasn't he your... classmate or something?"

Tea Gardner thought for a while. "Yeah, but... " She stared at his photo again. "No. He's just so difficult that even if you view him as a friend he'll just reject you flat-out because you bring no additional value to his life."

"Then why don't you go and be the value to his life?" Anya grinned at her as she sat up. Ignoring the look Tea shot her, she pressed on. "I mean, he's been notoriously single all this while. There's been more news in the tabloid of him rejecting models, socialites and artistes than there are of him rumoured to be with any woman. And even then, I've never heard or read about him remotely seeing anyone."

Tea rolled her eyes. "Please, if any girl is sane, she wouldn't want to date him."

Anya shrugged. "But he is acquainted to you, after all. Can't you use that to our advantage in getting him to reopen the park?"

"Oh you mean, go up to him, bat my eyelashes and hope he'll change his mind?" Tea remarked sarcastically. She sighed. "Anya, he has the stubbornness of a diamond. No one but he himself can dent that stubbornness of his."

And his ego, Tea added quietly as she recalled her tumultuous yet rather adventurous high school years with him. She bore no grudge against him, she did not even dislike him like her friends Joey and Tristan did, but she did get annoyed by his level of superego which inflated sometimes at the wrong time.

"Then go be the other diamond!" Anya persisted. "Tea, just give it a try? I really don't want us to be spending department money and creating a huge media opportunity by bringing up the case to court. Yet."

Tea shook her head. "You have no idea what kind of person he is."

"That's your problem," Anya said conclusively. She eyed her rookie seriously. "This is an order, Tea. Persuade him to re-open the public park. Otherwise tell him that we won't hesitate to bring him to court."

XO XO XO XO

He peered down from the cockpit window of his private helicopter. A picketing team had formed at the entrance of his office - furious Domino City citizens jabbing fists and signs in the air as they seemed to (he presumed) hurl abuses in the direction of his towering office building.

"After we land, make sure the security clears them out of the office precinct," he ordered his pilot. "And keep the press away from here. I don't feel like facing them."

His pilot indicated his assent as he prepared to land on the top of the KaibaCorp office tower. Seto scarcely waited for the helicopter to fully reach the ground before he grabbed his briefcase and leapt out of the vehicle. He ignored the greetings from his employees who were quick to open the roof exit for him to stride through. When he reached the back door of his office on the 27th floor, he held up the locket around his neck to a scanner, which unlocked the hidden panoply of locks that held his room secure. Once he stepped in, he came face-to-face with a false wall, which pulled itself away from the floor via a hidden switch that was hidden under one of the floor panels. His main office was as immaculate as ever, courtesy of Roland who was the only employee apart from his secretary that he allowed unrestricted access into his room.

As he laid his duralumin briefcase onto his desk, he noticed that his secretary had left a few sticky notes on it, along with some files. The audits he had requested for had come in on time, and a few phone numbers indicating missed calls had been kindly annotated by his secretary. Most of them appeared to be from the press – no doubt to get his statement on his recent purchase. One, however, came from the Heritage Centre.

No doubt to protest against my purchase of that park, he thought aridly as he picked up the phone and dialled the number. Maybe I can get some pre-work entertainment.

The phone rang quite briefly before there was a response. A female voice answered, "Good morning, this is Tea Gardner of the Natural Aesthetics Department of Domino City Heritage Centire. How may I help you?"

Seto snickered. This was bound to be interesting. "Good morning, Gardner. I assume it was you who broke my tranquillity this morning with a phone call?"

"Kaiba?"

"What is it that I can help you people with? If this is about the park, you're free to join the picketing mob in front of my office."

"Do you know what you're doing to the people of Domino, Kaiba?" Tea asked him heatedly. "You're taking away a beloved public space!"

"It's private grounds made public out of the good-heartedness of the former owner," Seto corrected her coolly. "I didn't take away a public space, as you put it, Gardner. My transaction is legal in the eyes of the civic authorities." He paused a while largely for her benefit. "Well, even if it's not legal, the civic authorities will allow me to make it legal."

His words had the effect he intended; it riled up Tea Gardner sitting in her cubicle in the Heritage Centre a few good kilometres away from his office tower. "Listen, Kaiba," she threatened. "If you're going to start on all this legal talk, then we won't hesitate to lodge a case against you in court."

"On what grounds?" he challenged. "I told you, my transaction is legally done."

"What are you planning to do with those grounds?" Tea asked stubbornly, refusing to back down from a lost case. "Build a new mansion?"

Seto snorted at her ridiculous proposition. "Are you stupid, Gardner? I've been living in the same place for almost twenty years. Why do I need another house to trap dust?"

"So then what are you planning for those grounds?"

"I don't have to answer you on that," he said airily. "Just hear this, Gardner: those grounds are mine. What I want to do to it is my business, and my business alone. Your Heritage Centre has zero jurisdiction over it, so move it!"

As if to reinforce the point that there was absolutely no room to manoeuvre for any potential negotiation, Seto Kaiba slammed the phone down, cutting off the call abruptly but only serving to incense the other party more.