Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn (レンブラント・ファン・レイン) is the main protagonist of Blood & Paint. He is a private investigator who works for Mercurius Private Investigators. Rembrandt is a world-renowned detective who finds himself in many peculiar cases, with his Talent named The Night Watch, he is able to replay events that happened in his surrounding area.

Appearance
Rembrandt is a tall young man with light brown hair swept to the right, his deep blue eyes often become the center of attention because of its color.

His outfit consists of a white shirt, a large red tie, and his signature brown coat along with his long black pants. Keeping a simple outward appearance to make him less conspicuous, though his height is often a 'problem' for him. He also stores his customized Desert Eagle nicknamed "Titus" under his coat

Personality
Rembrandt is a relaxed person who is a little immature at times, unnaturally calm when it comes to even the direst situations. But under this façade is a person who deeply cares about his job and people around him.

His tough upbringing made him into a so-called “cheapskate”, saving money whenever possible. This upbringing also has upsides, Rembrandt understands the hardships of others easily and sees kindness where most can’t see it; often he would hide his softer side to prevent his friends from worrying about him. At the same time there are downsides to this, he seems to always look back into the past and his past failures.

Despite his easygoing nature Rembrandt takes his job as a private investigator quite seriously, he would time and time again deliberately throw himself into dangerous situations to protect his clients, leading him to be jokingly called a ‘masochist’. He is also known to be asexual, but not aromantic, his only comment on this is “I don’t really know about those types of relationships, but I enjoy the company of others.”

Talent

 * Main Article: The Night Watch

Rembrandt's Talent, The Night Watch, lets him rebroadcast events that happen in a 5-meter by 5-meter area, these actions are recreated by mannequins. If a person in the rewind has been seen by Rembrandt previously, then the mannequin will take the shape of the person.

The Night Watch's ability to replay events perfectly makes it perfect for creating baits in combat or setting up traps by doing the action previously then being replayed using The Night Watch, it's versatile nature is what makes Rembrandt a great detective.

Background
Rembrandt originally grew up poor before becoming one of the members of Mercurius Private Investigators, Rembrandt grew up in Amsterdam and ended up being good friends with Vincent van Gogh and Caspar Netscher who both he considers as his brothers, even if Rembrandt more often than not spends time outside the Netherlands. During his early years joining Mercurius, Rembrandt became an alcoholic and was barely scraping by with his paycheck. He was then sent to Japan to train under the guidance of Hokusai Katsushika.

Because of this training, he gained mastery over his Talent ability, forging a close bond with Hokusai and many of his friends and allies. During his original stay in Japan, he became close friends with leader of the Mangaka Guild, Osamu Tezuka with the both of them often spending time together going to barbecue restaurants to talk about their recent activities.

Escher and Caspar has mentioned that Rembrandt is a decent baker, seemingly spending his spare time cooking desserts for the rest of Mercurius to try.

Beginning
Rembrandt was called to Japan to investigate a murder case that happened at the Gutai Group's warehouse by his mentor and old friend Hokusai Katsushika. There he became quick friends with members of the Gutai Group and eventually discovered that Kyōsai Kawanabe, a person he had met in his previous exploits, had covered up the crimes committed by an organization known as the House of Wolves. During a standoff between him and Saburo Murakami against Kyōsai, he was suddenly knocked out by a mysterious needle. After what seemed like hours, Rembrandt returned to his senses and interrogated Kyōsai. After giving him the name of his boss, Yoshitoshi Tsukioka, he and the Gutai kids witnessed Kyōsai committing suicide in front of their eyes.

After that event he decides to enlist the help of his old friend, Osamu Tezuka to help identify the needle that was shot at him. Tezuka mentions that the needle is a Conceptual Item instead of being naturally made from iron. Rembrandt then contacts Vincent van Gogh to see if there are any Talent Users who can use needles. Later on, he joined Tezuka for dinner where he met both Escher and Netscher. The four of them chatted and soon Netscher returned to the Netherlands and Escher stayed at a hotel in Osaka. After Rembrandt returned, he had a talk with the Hokusai about the current situation. Suddenly, he receives a call from Escher about an expected delivery for the mafia group, Hokusai and Rembrandt immediately rushed there only to meet Yoshitoshi. The three of them fought only for Yoshitoshi to be caught by a fellow member, ending the battle.

The next day, Hokusai delivered him the news that the Mangaka Guild will provide some of their resources and Talent users in the case.

Trivia

 * Rembrandt's custom Desert Eagle is named after his real life counterpart's son,.