Kuro

Captain Kuro (キャプテン･クロ), also known as Kurahadol (クラハドール), is the main antagonist of the Syrup Village Arc. He is the captain of the Black Cat Pirates and the former caretaker of Kaya.

Appearance
Kuro is a slim man with glasses and slicked green-and-black hair, though during his fight with Luffy strands fell off onto his face.

During his stay on Gecko Islands, he wore a black suit with two golden markings on it (That were called "poop" by Oda in SBS volume 4) over a white shirt with a curious collar, with spiral-like protrusions on the edges, and a standard black tie. He also sports striped shoes (which he apparently kept from his life as a pirate).

During his time as a pirate, he wore a standard black captain's coat with the Black Cat Pirates' symbol on the epaulets over a simple white shirt hanging over a pair of black pants reaching down to his knees, and his trademark shoes.

Whichever his persona he is using, he wears round glasses that tends to always slip off, until Luffy knocked them off when he dealt the final blow, where a previous punch shattered the lens and the final headbutt bent the frame.

Personality
In general, Kuro's intelligence is of the highest caliber, (having the second highest IQ in East Blue, behind Benn Beckman), whose plans have never failed in the past. He is a master strategist and an accomplished fighter, but he was severely hampered by the fact that he simply did not have the fortitude to deal with a pirate's life on the run from the Marines.

My plan cannot fail! Kuro seems to be very proud of his plans, which had never failed before (hence his nickname, Kuro of a Hundred Plans). When he relived his moments of piracy, he claims his plans were too great to be wasted on his crew. He also said that he would kill his crew if they were to hinder his plans in any way. During the final moments before Luffy defeated him, Kuro lost his composure and screamed aloud that his plans would never fail.

He also seems to like the glasses he wears very much, even though they tend to slip down his nose every so often. He pushes them up with his palms so he does not scratch his face with his Cat Claws, a symbol of remembering his murderous ways. Even despite the lens being shattered by Luffy's punch, he kept them on. The glasses are his signature belongings, and as such, he destroyed the new ones Kaya gave him (though it may be because he simply hated her). Upon Kuro's defeat, the glasses dropped onto the ground, bent in a symbolic manner.

Kuro follows the role of the diabolical mastermind and continues One Piece's tradition of noticeably cruel villains. He held himself in very high regard, having a standard for people no one seemed able to live up to but himself. He felt nothing for the lives of others, willingly sacrificing anyone he needed to achieve his ambitions.

During his three years as Kaya's butler, he acted as a benign (though a little snobbish), trustworthy person who carries a hatred for pirates, and as such, looks down on Usopp. He later admits that, aside his hatred for Usopp, how much he despises this pseudo-personality. Judging by the severe change in personality between Captain Kuro and Kurahadol, it is possible that Kuro has some degree of a split personality, or he is a very good actor. Either way, his sudden change made Merry and Kaya fear him greatly.

Though able to restrain himself most of the time, deep down Kuro is a very bloodthirsty man, a trait that comes to full effect upon seeing a crescent moon which drives him wild and even he finds it difficult to resist the temptations of violence brought on by the stage of the moon. On the night of the Marine attack, there was once again a crescent moon, which seems to have been the reason why Kuro was so brutal to the Marines on board. Even after yearning a peaceful life devoid of the needless violence associated with piracy, Kuro still found the sight of a crescent moon an irresistible lure to his old ways, leading him to unnecessarily attack Merry simply to satisfy himself; his habit of pushing his glasses up with his palm instead of his fingers, whether as a pirate or butler, is prove that he has not forgotten his killing methods. As a consequence during the first opening of the anime a red crescent moon can be briefly seen in the scene with Kuro.

Crew
Pirates should be faithful pawns of their captain. They live and die by my command. Kuro had come to the conclusion his crew were nothing but puppets; that pirates were barbarians that stole from people out of greed and nothing more, and that they were buffoons who were nothing without his guidance and direction, and that his skill is wasted helping them to plot. He saw his crew as this since the very beginning. He would willingly sacrifice them all and by the time his plan was ready he had already long decided they should all die. This disgusts Luffy and made him even more determined to stop Kuro.

Enemies
His life as a pirate led him to become irritated at the idea that he was forever chased by the Marines, as well as those seeking his bounty. He then began to yearn for a peaceful life, without such bothers.

As Kurahadol he was forced into acting kind natured, to make himself out as Miss Kaya's trustworthy family butler and caretaker. He later admits how much he hated acting out this role for three years, and in the process betrays Kaya's feelings. At one point, he relives seemingly happy memories with her, breaking her heart as he states that he "endured it", and voiced his utter contempt for her. He mocks Usopp when he calls himself a pirate, calling his act a "Childish game", and sees him as equal to an insect. Usopp dislikes him for this, and comes to hate him after realizing what he is planning.

Master Strategist
Worthy of his epithet, Kuro is a master strategist who has never once before failed in his village raids, due to him planning skillfully beforehand. He is the second most intelligent man in East Blue, and was skilled enough to have tricked the Marines into making them think he died, thus leaving him alone.

Stealth Foot
Kuro can run at blinding speed, with which to deliver his attacks, a technique he named "Shakushi". His skill is such that at full speed he is only able to be seen as a vague blur or by the damage his attacks cause. He is able to run 100 meters in around 4 seconds. While he uses super-human speed, his weakness (being unable to tell what he is hitting) puts him at a set back against other super-speed users who can tell what they are striking, though the fact he can move so fast at his level (which is weak compared to other super speed users) is still impressive, as well as the fact that he does not really care about anyone around him and feels no remorse for killing his crewmates, counteracting this weakness. His inhuman speed is due to his powerful legs; therefore, he also possesses powerful kicks, as demonstrated when he kicked Usopp and Luffy sending them both flying for a great distance from him.

Weapons
Captain Kuro uses weapons called "Cat Claws", furred gloves with full-length katana blades at the end of each finger. He combines these large iron claws with his impressive speed to indiscriminately slash everyone in his vicinity to death at random depths of cuts.

Captain Kuro often pushes his glasses up on his nose with the palm of his hand, a technique he has used since his days as a pirate: straightening them with the fingers would be impossible when the Cat Claws are worn. According to Jango, this proves that even after three years of peaceful life Captain Kuro has not yet forgotten how to kill.

The Black Captain
The dreaded former Captain of the Black Cat Pirates, he is also known as Kuro of the Hundred Plans for his elaborate plans that virtually never fail. However, this proved to have a huge setback; as time passed, he grew tired of setting up schemes for his crewmates and of constantly being hunted down by the Marines. That was when he decided to have an impostor, one of his pirates named Nugire Yainu to take his place as Captain Kuro, and be executed in his stead by Captain Morgan so that the hunt for him would be ceased. He then taught his crew to survive without him, and passed his captaincy to his first mate Jango, keeping them all alive in order to use them for his plan in the future.

Cunning Plans
Soon after, Captain Kuro set up an elaborate scheme in a small village he came to live in, in order to live free from pursuit with great wealth. He took the name Kurahadol and, for three years, lived as the butler of the wealthy parents of Kaya, who he is believed by many to have killed (this is not yet known to be true, as he denied it when Jango accused him of it, saying that their deaths weren't part of his original plan). He then became the sickly Kaya's caretaker.

When three years passed, he contacted his old first mate, the hypnotist Jango, and arranged for the Black Cat pirates to lay siege to the village, force Kaya to write and sign a will leaving all her wealth to Kuro, and then kill her. He would then kill the pirates who attacked the town to make it seem as though they had killed her in their attack. His plan goes awry when he is overheard by Monkey D. Luffy and Usopp when he speaks to Jango about his plans.

Scratch Marks on the Coastline
Luffy, Usopp, Roronoa Zoro, and Nami fought together against the Black Cat Pirates. This caused them to be delayed from their supposed time of plundering the village, and for Kuro to approach them in fury. He gave his crew five minutes to resolve everything, or be killed by him. However, this changes when Kaya approaches him in an attempt to negotiate for a settlement, after she discovered an injured Merry, whom Kuro slashed the previous night due to his insatiable blood-thirst from a crescent moon. Kuro brutally insulted Kaya, breaking her heart, and evaded Usopp's attempt to attack him. However, Luffy then intervened, and engaged in combat against Kuro.

After a brutal exchange of attacks, in which Kuro had the advantage due to his super speed, he recounted on why he faked his demise to escape the life of a pirate. Luffy retorted that he shouldn't have been a pirate to begin with if it annoyed him so much, and broke his right claws. After that, Kuro revealed that he plotted his crew's massacre from the beginning, and initiated his Shakushi technique, butchering them at random swipes, until Luffy stopped him and smashed him with a Gomu Gomu no Kane while immobilizing his limbs by wrapping around them. After that, Luffy threw Kuro's limp body to the remainder of the Black Cat Pirates, and ordered them to leave the island and never return. The crew dragged Kuro and boarded the Bezan Black, and left.

Major Battles

 * Kuro vs. Marines (including Morgan)
 * Kuro (as Kurahadol) vs. Usopp
 * Kuro vs. Monkey D. Luffy
 * Kuro vs. Usopp Pirates
 * Kuro vs. Monkey D. Luffy

Anime and Manga Differences
In the manga, Kuro is not seen again after his defeat by Luffy.

In the anime, Kuro was last seen in a cameo appearance on board of his ship, as the captain again, when his crew informed him of Luffy's 30,000,000 bounty. It also appears that the marines are unaware of his resumed life of piracy, which would make sense since everyone decided to keep it under wraps. When the inside of Fullbody's ship was seen in the same episode, Kuro's wanted poster was seen with a red X through it, meaning that he is still believed to be deceased by the marines.

Translation and Dub Issues
"Kuro" can be written in kanji as 黒, meaning "Black". "Kuro" is also a way of saying "claw" in Japanese.

Due to his odd alias, Kuro's "butler name" has been translated in a wide variety of ways. The English adaptations use the name Klahadore, possibly a "claw" pun. The pronunciation of "Klahadore" could be compared to "claw-a-door" in English. Some fans of Kaizoku Fansubs, however, use the term Kurahadol; as it is what K-F uses.

Also, in the original version, Kuro's epithet is "Of a Hundred Plans," while the English version changes it to "Of a Thousand Plans".

Trivia

 * When he was in his butler attire, there were strange symbols on his jacket. Oda jokingly explained that these symbols are poop, to signify that he is lying. This directly resembles the American slang term "bullshit", meaning lie. Although the answer was obviously a joke (as Oda is known to give joke answers to questions he cannot seriously answer), this could be a play on the slang term "full of shit".
 * In an SBS in the manga, Oda stated that the most intelligent person in all the East Blue saga is Benn Beckman, followed by Captain Kuro in second and Nami in third.
 * In the 4th Japanese Fan Poll, Kuro is ranked the 29th most popular character in One Piece.
 * Due to being thought of as dead and the events surrounding him largely unwitnessed outside of those involved, Kuro was not considered when the Marines gave Luffy his first bounty.

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