Rohan Kishibe/History
Early Life
When he was young, he was often left at his babysitter's house, Reimi Sugimoto. One day his parents had a important thing to attend to and so Rohan was left with Reimi. He was saved by Reimi at the cost of her own life from the serial killer Yoshikage Kira, but entered in shock and couldn't serve as a witness. He decided then to not remember much of this life in his adult years.
Years later, Rohan met a woman named Nanase Fujikura at the inn of his grandmother. Rohan, at the age of seventeen at the time, becomes intrigued by her and attempts to use her as a model for his drawing. Nanase shows interest in his drawings and asks to read his work once he finishes it.
Days later, Nanase tells him the story of Nizaemon Yamamura, who created the "Under the Moon", which Nanase describes as the "the darkest painting in the world." She leaves the room to answer her phone briefly, but when Rohan goes to check on her, she appeared to be crying about her divorce and goes running out of the house.
A week later, she returned and Rohan knocked on her door. She opened the door and embraced him while crying. Rohan attempts to show her his drawings of her, but she suddenly becomes enraged and begins stabbing the drawings. She runs away crying again, only this time she doesn't come back.
Diamond is Unbreakable
Rohan first appears as an antagonist to Koichi and Toshikazu Hazamada when they go to his house for an autograph. After they try to sneak a peek of the new issue of his manga, he activates his stand to prevent either of them from attacking him. Then he reads their memories and in doing so finds out about Josuke Higashikata, Okuyasu Nijimura and others affiliated with the two. He then decides to use them as materials for his manga. After using Koichi as his personal "inspiration", Okuyasu and Josuke find out about where Koichi has been going by following him. Rohan attempts to take advantage of Josuke's sensitivity about his hair and hence force him to open his eyes and be subject to Heaven's Door, but this backfires when Josuke's anger even prevents him from recognizing Heaven's Door in the manga and enables him to pummel Rohan without restraint. Rohan's manga, Pink Dark Boy, is suspended for a month as a result of his defeat (though interestingly, Rohan was never shown to have been deformed from being punched by Crazy Diamond).
Upon leaving the hospital, Kishibe finds a lot of respect for Koichi, who he confides in, and at the same time holds a deep hatred towards Josuke. When Josuke finds a Mikitaka Hazekura, he decided to play a dice game with Rohan, who soon finds out that Josuke is cheating before threatening to take off his little finger if he doesn't stop. However, Rohan is ultimately unable to prove Josuke's dishonesty when his house breaks down midway into the game.
Rohan later encounters stand user Ken Oyanagi, who encounters him five times to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, and almost loses his stand in the process. After defeating him, he's attacked by Highway Star, who lures him into a room with a vision of Kira in a room cutting off a woman's hand. Later, he also encounters Masazo Kinoto, who harbors Cheap Trick on his back. After seeing Masazo's back, the stand transmits himself to Rohan's back. He deals with this by forcing the stand to detach from his back in Reimi's alley.
During the effects of Kira's Another One Bites the Dust, Rohan investigates to find out that Yoshikage Kira in fact hiding as Kosaku Kawajiri after reading about his secret identity via using Heaven's Door on Hayato. Another One Bites the Dust activates and Rohan disintegrates via the explosion. The time loop activates, upon which the time rewinds repeatedly and Rohan dies in the same manner at the exact same point in time. He survives when Kira deactivates Another One Bites the Dust.
At a Confessional
the mangaka heard an horror story from a mysterious sinner confession. As he is visiting Italy, Rohan decides to research the churches, especially for their architecture and spiritual background. He walks into a confession booth to research the interior, but mistakenly walks into the side reserved for the priest. Shortly after, a man walks into the other side of the booth and confesses his sin to Rohan, believing him to be the priest. Rohan hears his confession anyway, interested in getting information out of the man's horror story. The man tells he has been cursed by the spirit of a beggar he had been responsible for the death, who would come to take him at his happiest moment. After telling the story, where the man continues to explain his sins and why he was still alive after apparently killed by the spirit, it is revealed that he had found a servant who was willing to do anything for him, and used plastic surgery to alter both his and the servant's appearances, thereby fooling the beggar into dogging the servant instead. The spirits of the beggar and the beheaded servant then dog the man, and both vow to watch him around the clock to make sure that he does not do anything suspicious again. Rohan watches on with curiosity, deciding to interview him later if given the chance, as he didn't know what happened to the man after that.
The Book: 4th Another Day
(The information below derives from a Light Novel not written by Araki. As such, it may or may not be considered canon.)
Rohan appears drugging 34 cats to find out the one who invaded his house earlier, but forgets about the cat after finding Trinita covered in blood. Searching for his master with Koichi they find the corpse of Hanae Orikasa. Rohan uses his stand on Trinita and discovers that the killer has red marks on his arms, and so tags along with Koichi to find him.
Mutsukabezaka
Rohan meets his editor, Kagamari Minoru, while reading a De Staël's Art book. After scolding him for being early to the meeting, Rohan asks his editor for a borrow in advance from his manga pages. He explains that he has gone bankrupt, currently living at Koichi's place and that his only possession was the Art Book. Rohan explains that due to his research about the Yokai legend he bought 6 mountains in order to stop a corporation who wanted to build a resort in that area. When the resort plan was abandoned, Rohan's lands lose its value and he is unable to recover his money. However, Rohan tells his editor the research was a success and begins telling him about it. Rohan goes to investigate the story of Kamafusa Gunpei, a gardener who died but whose body never stopped bleeding, after randomly coming across Osato Naoko, Kamafusa's former lover, and using Heaven's Door in her for his research. Rohan wants to know Kamafusa's goal, suspecting him to be a yokai, and so investigates the region around the Naoto's house until he comes across a young girl. She tells Rohan she's not allowed to talk to strangers and runs away. Rohan tries to catch her, but that makes the girl fall and hit her head on a rock, bleeding just like Kamafusa. Rohan realizes this girl is actually Osato's daughter with Kamafusa, surprised the man who became a corpse was able to impregnate Osato dead. Rohan soon realises the girl is a yokai trying to posses him and uses Heaven's Door to write one last memory before all her memories fade away and she dies: "I don't know Rohan Kishibe. Even if I meet him, I won't see him". When the girl comes back she briefly shows her true form to Rohan, but leaves after not seeing him. Rohan comments that one second late and he would have been posessed or exterminated by the yokai, who he names Mutsukabezaka, and declares his research complete
Rohan at the Louvre
Rohan tells Josuke, Okuyasu and Koichi about Nanase. He then decides to investigate about the painting she told him and travels to Paris. There he discovers the painting is located at a abandoned section at the Louvre and asks to see it. Thinking it's strange there's a painting at a abandoned section and its archives being top secret, the interpreter Noguchi accompanies Rohan in there with Gaucher and two firefighters. When the group finds the painting they are attacked by a ghost mob of their relatives and everyone is killed the same way the ghosts died. Rohan is almost killed by his grandmother, but the ghost of Nanase, who reveals that she was actually his ancestress, reveals to him the painting uses the memories of its victims. Rohan then erases his memories with Heaven's Door, but not before writting a clue to recover it once he's outside of the Louvre. At the end his four unfortunate companions are considered missing and Rohan discovers the painting was burned after being examined by scientist, even though he doubts it.
Rohan Kishibe Goes to Gucci
Rohan, accompanied with a beautiful interpreter, goes to a Gucci factory to investigate about his grandmother's treasured bag, that has the strange ability to vanish valuable things. He is informed by the leather goods artisan in charge that it is one of three bags created by an genius artisan from Gucci. Rohan asks for the bag to be fixed, even though the artisan tells him he doesn't understand the bag's true purpose. The interpreter gets Rohan drunk and steals all his valuable things, except for the bag, leaving him wandering alone. Rohan finds a hotel, but is unable to pay for any room. It is then that a man shows interest in Rohan's recently found umbrella, offering the exact value of the bills Rohan made the bag vanish for it. Rohan then comes to the conclusion that the bag had a stand bound to it, with the ability, but laments that he had the bag fixed (probably the artisan who bounded it took the stand of the bag) and now can't make use of the stand anymore.
Village of Millionaires
Rohan and a manga editor by the name of Izumi Kyouka go to investigate village located in the mountains for his new one-shot at her suggestion. Innitially believing it to be related to the mountains he previously bought, Rohan agrees after Izumi tells him how every resident in there became rich at the age of 25. Izumi plans to buy a house in there, as she now has 25. They are greeted by the butler Ikkyuu, who tests them about good manners. After Izumi fails the test, Rohan discovers that a bird he found earlier had died, while Izumi's mother and fiancee died in a car crash. Rohan becomes suspicious and uses Heaven's Door on Ikkyuu to discover the mistery behind the village and trick Ikkyuu to break a rule by writting on him. The village was under a curse that gave things to anyone who showed good manners, while those who didn't lost things. Ikkyuu claims that this time Rohan broke a rule, as he hadn't give permission to be turned into a book, and Izumi starts to have a heart attack. Rohan begs for another test to save Izumi and is succesful in it, all the while making Ikkyuu break a rule (as he wrote earlier). Ikkyuu says Rohan cheated and asks for another test, but Rohan denies it and carries Izumi away from the village. He notices the bird also returned to good healthy.
Stone Ocean
When Stairway to Heaven sped up time to the point where one work day lasted for less than 5 minutes, Rohan was mentioned as the only mangaka to continue to meet his weekly deadlines, easily publishing over 20 pages in less than an hours time without food or sleep . Rohan himself does not appear, however as it is mentioned over the radio.