Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the characters from the anime. I do own the plot and the Tide Whisperer. Valiant Heart is rated M for language, violence, blood, intended rape, traumatic scenes, and YAOI (boy x boy). If you don't like, don't read. Everyone else, enjoy! Review!

- Prologue -

My life began to take a turn for the worst on the day my mother past away. She had been one of the numerous victims of the horrid typhoid fever epidemic that swept through the Spaniard city of Barcelona where my family made our home. It had happened so fast that we hardly had time to even realize she was lethally sick until it was already too late.

I was the apprentice of Barcelona's most renowned blacksmith, and a few weeks after my mother's death, the King of Spain's newly appointed Captain of the Guard had come to my master to commission a brand new suit of armor and sword appropriate for his new position. I was nineteen, and I had been training under my master, an elderly man named Solomon Hernandez, and I had been training under my master since I was thirteen. Solomon believed that I was ready to take on this momentous task on my own, and he had left me responsible for making the Captain's armor and sword.

I had worked for two weeks just on the sword, a long, double-edged saber with a meticulously detailed hilt and handle made of the purest bronze and bejeweled with a single emerald on the hilt. I spent another entire month on the armor, molding and creating a masterpiece worthy of a king. Once I was finished, Master Solomon had declared the armor and the saber are both worthy of King Phillip. When the Captain returned to collect his possessions, he could scarcely believe that I, a mere boy, had created such works of art. When he was finally convinced, he marveled at my skill.

My talents became rapidly known in Barcelona as several other soldiers and even some noblemen, commissioned for me to make their armor and weapons. My master couldn't have been more proud of me at that time. I had believed that the hardships were over for my family, that I could bring in a steady income to help support my father and little brother, who were both still mourning for my mother's unexpected passing.

But I was wrong.

King Phillip and his three sons had come to meet the teenaged blacksmith prodigy, and from that day, my life went to hell in a hand basket.

It turned out that the moment the eldest prince had set eyes on me he had wanted me. No, I'm not being arrogant; I could see it clearly, the instant lust filled his eyes and it became clear as day on his face. The way he felt that he had the right to touch me whenever and however he wanted, and the disgustingly vulgar comments he carelessly whispered in passing. He was like some drunkard, unashamedly making a fool of himself.

Now, I was nothing. I was the oldest son of a butcher and a midwife, and despite my recent fame in my profession, I hadn't had a penny to my name. Louis was the crowned prince, the future King of Spain. I couldn't simply tell him to bugger off, or much more preferably, tell him to shove his over-inflated ego right up his ass and wish them both long, sleepless nights together…but I could not. I made it abundantly clear that I was not interested, but he couldn't take a hint.

For two months he pursued me, and for two months I had fended off his advances. I endured degradations at his actions, praying to whatever god would listen that he'd finally get a clue. Finally, he did catch on that I wasn't interested, but instead of leaving me be, he put me into a position where I had no room to refuse.

King Phillip summoned my father, my ten-year-old brother, and me to his castle to discuss my father's "negligence in paying his taxes" as he so charmingly put it. Apparently the annual taxation had increased by twenty percent from its original amount, and my father, while dealing with the grief of his wife's death and scrambling to keep a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and clothes on our backs, my father had fallen three months behind in debt. The King proposed a negotiation of sorts.

"Either you can pay me the full amount you owe in two weeks, and if you fail I will strip away everything you own, or I can wipe away your debt if you give your son to mine."

My father was desperate for an alternative, but the king was adamant in his ground. In the end, my father didn't really have a choice. A couple of palace guards dragged me away from my father and brother. They had ripped my little brother away from me, who had clung to my side, so forcibly that they broke his arm. They took me away from my family, the desperate screams of my brother calling out to me the last thing I heard before my entire world went into darkness.

On that day, Yamir Rodriguez had died. Gone was the teenaged blacksmith who had allowed himself to be taken. The young boy who had ended up torn away from the ones he loved and had died as a compliant, subordinate fool who hadn't had the nerve to stand against the prince when he had the chance.

In his place rose a man filled with such cold rage that it burned from the inside out. A man who would never stand idly by as some obnoxious, spoiled bastard degraded him by touching him every way that he felt like.

I am the angel of death, the Reaper of Barcelona. I no longer care what happens to me; if that fucking prince grew the balls to finally put actions to his ranting I will kill him in the slowest, most painful way that I could.

I am Atemu Yamarai Santiago, and I bow to no one.