The central figure of the story "Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional" is an unnamed Italian man who works at a demolition site. In his youth, he is depicted as a common laborer, and it is during this period as a demolition worker that the fateful events leading to his curse unfold.

In terms of personality, the man is initially presented as disdainful and lacking in charity. When confronted by a starving Asiatic vagrant begging for food, he refuses and cruelly forces the man to carry heavy bags of corn instead. This act of cruelty sets the stage for the supernatural retribution that follows. Later in life, after achieving wealth and starting a family, his personality is dominated by fear and paranoia. He becomes a man obsessed with avoiding happiness, living desperately under the shadow of the curse, which promises to deliver its ultimate despair at his peak of joy.

His primary motivation throughout the story is survival. After being cursed by the ghost of the vagrant, he is driven by the need to escape the promised despair. This leads him to take extreme measures, including using another person as a body double to cheat death, demonstrating a powerful will to live at almost any cost. His role in the narrative is that of the confessor. He enters a confessional booth in a Venetian church, believing he is speaking to a priest, and instead unloads his terrifying story onto the manga artist Rohan Kishibe, who had accidentally taken the priest's place. Through this confession, the man becomes the vehicle for a story about guilt, fate, and the inescapable nature of a curse born from a cruel act.

The most significant relationship is with the vagrant, Sotoba. This relationship begins with cruelty and an accidental death when the vagrant falls down a flight of stairs. The vagrant then returns as a ghost, not to kill the man immediately, but to place a sophisticated curse upon him: he will secretly work to ensure the man's prosperity, only to return and claim his head at the very moment he feels true happiness. Another key relationship is with an unnamed servant. The man uses this servant as a body double, having him undergo cosmetic surgery to look identical. When the ghost decapitates the man as per the curse, it is actually the servant who loses his head, allowing the original man to survive. This act, however, creates a new supernatural enemy, as the servant's ghost joins the vagrant in vowing to stalk the man forever.

The character undergoes a clear but morally ambiguous development. He starts as a cruel young worker who shows no compassion to a starving person. After being cursed, he spends years in a state of fearful anxiety, actively avoiding any situation that might bring him joy. When the curse is finally triggered, he reveals his most defining trait: a cunning and ruthless ingenuity. He successfully cheats a supernatural curse through deception and sacrifice, trading the life of his loyal servant for his own. The story ends not with his redemption, but with him being haunted by two vengeful spirits, suggesting a permanent state of punishment and paranoia.

While he possesses no supernatural abilities of his own, the man's notable ability is his extreme resourcefulness and deception. His most impressive feat is devising and executing a plan to use a body double to trick a ghost. This act demonstrates a high level of cunning, planning, and a willingness to sacrifice another human being to save himself.