Martin Reest

"" I won't be a part of the devil plan, because nobody really wants to die.""

- Martin

Martin Reest (マルティン・レースト) is a hitman working for "The Baby". Following the deaths of his mother and his former girlfriend, to which he felt partly guilty for, he grew an aversion for jobs that include dealing with women.

Life before "The Baby" hired him
Martin is the son of an alcoholic single mother. Little is known about his life during his childhood, but it is known that he would carry his mother behind his back every day from the pub where she drank to their home. His mother would always tell him to leave her alone but Martin felt it his duty to secure his mother's welfare and continued with his fetching of his mother every time she became too intoxicated to return home.

One day, however, his mother became too intoxicated and she fell asleep while on their way home. He kept on waking his mother up so that she wouldn't die from hypothermia, but his mother insisted she was fine and that Martin should go ahead. Martin became so pissed by his mother's behavior that he finally decided to heed his mother's order to leave her alone in the street. The next day, he was informed by the people who found his mother lying on the street that she'd frozen to death. Martin, then a child, was in denial that it wasn't his fault that his mother died, following his reasoning that his mother had told him to leave her there.

When Martin grew older, he met Edda, a drug addict, and fell in love with her. He tried his best to help Edda stop her drug abuse, and his efforts paid off. They started living together and Edda would cook dinner for Martin and wait for him until he got home. Then one day Martin got home from work early and caught Edda having an affair with her ex-boyfriend in their bedroom. She'd been using drugs again, and when she saw Martin enter the room she kept saying "I'm sorry." She begged Martin to kill her but instead he simply turned around and left the room. Suddenly Martin heard a gunshot and he ran quickly back to the room to investigate. There he saw the now dead body of his girlfriend and the ex-boyfriend saying she'd shot herself, pointing at the gun in Edda's hands. Martin took the gun and shot the ex-boyfriend, killing him.

Later he was tried for murder. His attorney found the gun residue on his girlfriend's hands and told him it could give him an acquittal but Martin, feeling partially guilty about the whole situation, pleaded guilty and was imprisoned. He served his sentence but after eight years, he was paroled for being a model inmate and he was hired by "The Baby".

"The Baby" and Peter Čapek
It was not mentioned anywhere in the series how The Baby and Martin came to know each other, but The Baby said he hired Martin straight out of the jail because he can do practically any job he is assigned to, and the fact that Martin grew quite 'allergic' with women contributed to his value as The Baby's subordinate. Then, Peter Čapek, one of the higher-ups in the organization The Baby was serving, asked The Baby if he has someone who can do a very sensitive job for him. Martin fit to the qualifications Čapek gave and he was summoned to meet Čapek personally for his instructions. It is apparent that The Baby had enormous confidence in him but he still threatened Martin that if he screwed up, he would personally kill him.

"I hate this job"
Čapek reviewed Martin's qualifications and Martin stated he wasn't picky with the jobs he was assigned to as long as a woman wasn't involved. Čapek informed him the job would involve a woman and that his primary task was to serve as her bodyguard and accompany her wherever she went.

Čapek then ordered him to pick up the woman of interest in a five-star hotel in Düsseldorf. Čapek told Martin that he was perfect for the job because he didn't need to worry about Martin keeping things strictly professional because he hated to do any jobs concerning women. After he started this task he would always mutter to himself, "I hate this job."

The Bodyguard
Martin then picked up Eva Heinemann at her hotel and told her he was to take her to Frankfurt. Eva confessed to him that she was being targeted by Roberto, so she asked him if he would be her bodyguard. He told her safeguarding her was part of his job but at that moment getting her to Frankfurt was his first task.

He found Eva a very unpleasant woman (he even called her 'unpleasant bitch' in his thoughts), but his professionalism took over and he showed Eva his amiable nature by agreeing to everything she asked of him  On the train to Frankfurt Eva inquired if he drank and he readily said no, so Eva went to visit the dining car to get herself some alcohol.

Later, Martin noticed that Eva had been gone far too long, so he decided to follow her to the dining car. He saw Eva in a side area with a man who was hitting on her while she drank his stash of alcohol. Martin interpreted the man's move as a brazen act and he beat the man up, telling him to not lay a finger on Eva. He then led Eva back to their seats.

When they arrived in Frankfurt, Eva asked him why he didn't drink. He told her it was due to his mother being an alcoholic but he didn't mind if she drank. She told Martin his mother must have had a reason for drinking, so he asked Eva what was her's. Eva told him it was a long story but Martin said he was in no rush, so she told him about Kenzo Tenma all night, including when she tried to kill him at the mountain villa. Martin told her it was better than his story because she didn't kill anyone. That's when he told her about killing his girlfriend Edda and her ex-boyfriend (not telling Eva that Edda had actually killed herself). Eva fell asleep drunk and Martin had to carry her to her room. The next day Martin took Eva to meet his boss, Peter Čapek, who gave her a credit card and permission to use it however she wanted. In turn, Eva took Martin shopping and bought expensive clothes for both herself and Martin, including a tie that reminded her of one she'd gotten Tenma. That night they dined in a fancy restaurant. Martin confessed to Eva that he hadn't believed her earlier story about being a high class person until she got onto him about how to properly eat at the table. Eva then told him that her job was to go to high-class parties and that Martin had to accompany her. At the first party Eva left upset, begging Martin to take her away from there. They went to a bar together and there Eva confessed that she didn’t feel that she really belonged to high-class society either. She told him that she wanted to die as what she thought was "her true self" however it didn’t matter to her anymore, and that she knew she was going to be killed after she finished her job. At this point Martin confessed to himself that he wanted to protect Eva.

Sometime later Martin met Tenma in Robbie's diner after Robbie mentioned that an Asian man had been coming around the place, asking about Martin. Martin recognized him and began to beat him up while Tenma tried to interrogate him. Several nights later at another one of the high-class parties, Martin casually informed Eva about his encounter with Tenma. That same night, Eva told him that her job was done and she was invited by Čapek to dine with him. While those two went off to a restaurant, Martin went to Robbie's diner and he met Tenma again who threatened Martin with a gun. Martin told him that Eva had simply pointed at a young man at the party and Tenma became upset, telling Martin that had been Eva's job and now that it was complete, she was going to be killed. Shocked at this realization, Martin went to the restaurant where he'd dropped Eva and Čapek off. When he got there, only Čapek was there, who told him Eva had been taken back to her hotel room. He then ordered Martin to kill Eva. Martin got to the hotel room and found a drunk Eva, who told him to kill her as she knew that was his next assignment. Instead, Martin asked her to run away with him, but in her intoxicated state, she harshly rejects him. She keeps pushing for him to kill her but then falls over and passes out. He then took her to a different hotel and hid her there. The next day, after getting Tenma's address from Robbie, he went to another party. There he followed a young man, Christof Sievernich, whom he mistook for "the Devil", into his hotel room (room 606). Christof told him about the "end of the world" before speaking with Martin about his past. He questioned his girlfriend’s and his mother's deaths, before claiming that they wanted to die and that he was right to grant them their wish. He then told him that Eva wished to die as well and that he should kill her. As he walked away he saw "the Devil" whom he avoided looking at. Back in the hotel they were found by Čapek's men. Martin gave Eva Tenma's address and ordered her to go there. However, Eva refused and asked Martin to run away with her. She told him that she would wait for him at Frankfurt's Train Station. She then confessed that she cared for him. After she escaped Martin met the men who were chasing them and killed four of them, however he ran out of bullets and was shot down by the last one. He called Robbie and told him to take him to Tenma. Tenma tried to save him but he was unable to do it. Martin told Tenma everything he knew related to Johan and claimed that nobody wished to die. When Martin realized Eva wasn't there, he felt happy, realizing Eva was waiting for him at the train station. He died after he asked Tenma to protect Eva. His death was the final event which led Eva to seek redemption.

Personality
Martin is a very calm man, he is a good bodyguard and knows how to handle tough situations. He does his job properly but he has one weakness, it's women. He can't handle his job perfectly when he works with women.

Martin is a secondary character, so we don't see very much of him, but what we see shows us a dangerous bodyguard who does his job and doesn't overtalk. What is known he is strong enough to resist manipulations of characters such as Johan and Christof. After Christof brought up his past relationship with women, before claiming that they wanted to die, suggesting he should kill Eva. Though he finds himself at her bed, he ultimately rejects the "Devil"'s words because to quote him "because nobody really wants to die."

Quotes

 * "I hate this job."


 * "I won't be a part of the devil plan, because nobody really wants to die."
 * "That's why nothing good ever comes from getting involved with women."

Trivia

 * Looks just like the guy from Memento.