Black Cat Pirates

The Black Cat Pirates (クロネコ海賊団) is a pirate crew headed by Kuro and Jango.

History
Three years before the start of the series, the crew's captain, Kuro, had built up his infamy via his well-planned out plunders. He was also known to have killed many of his subordinates with his indiscriminate fighting style. However, as time passed, Kuro could no longer put up with the Marines and bounty hunters pursuing him, and decided to falsify his death by sacrificing a lookalike member. The first mate, Jango, became captain, and Kuro taught them all how to survive without him, while instructing them to answer to his calls three years after his departure.

Kuro then feigned being washed up on shore of a local town where the father of a rich girl named Kaya found him, and he was nursed back to health by the family. He then took the identity of Kurahadol the butler, slowly earning the villagers' trust by building a reputation of an honest and humble man with a distaste of senseless violence and pirates. Sometime around, Kaya's parents died under mysterious circumstances, to which Jango speculated (much to Kuro's denial) was Kuro's doing. Kaya then fell ill, in which Kurahadol looked after her, secretly plotting to assassinate her when the time is ripe.

After the three years have passed, Kuro meets up with Jango and his crew, plotting to have Jango hypnotize Kaya into signing a will that would leave her fortune and estate to "Kurahadol". The second portion was to have the crew assault the village to create chaos and distraction, and that the cover story was that Kaya died in the pirate attack. Since Kuro spent three years building his respectful reputation, no one would find it odd that everything was left to him, thus leaving him with the peaceful and wealthy life he desired. Unknown to the crew, however, Kuro plotted to kill them all as well, in order to destroy all evidence and witnesses of all those who know of his true identity, and that nobody would question that a band of pirates died for their criminal statuses makes them untrustworthy.

After Usopp and Luffy overheard Kuro explaining the plan to Jango, Usopp tried to warn everyone in town, but Kurahadol's reputation and Usopp's tendency to lie led them to not believe him. Thus, the Straw Hat Pirates took it upon themselves to protect the village. Through a difficult battle, Luffy managed to keep up with Kuro's insane speed and defeat him, and at the same time Usopp managed to protect Kaya from Jango. Afterwards, the crew, sans Jango, fled the island.

Left behind, Jango set off on his own, and through a series of events, had his criminal record erased and joined the Marines under Captain Hina.

Nyaban Brothers
The Nyaban Brothers (ニャーバン・兄弟（ブラザーズ）) are the ship guards of the crew, and consists of Sham and Buchi. It is their duty to watch over the Bezan Black while the rest of the crew leaves for pillaging or other purposes. They are also the top fighters of the crew, each wearing a pair of clawed gloves for combat and fighting cooperatively to overwhelm the opponents; they are called by Jango to deal with more troubling enemies when necessary, and were supposedly stronger than Jango when fighting together. It is unknown if the two are truly brothers or merely as a team name.

Crew Strength
Most of the crew is weak by the standards of Luffy's and Zoro's strength, but to the average person, like Nami and Usopp, they were formidable and deadly. Aside from their captain they have little strength as a whole. Jango, Buchi and Sham were the only other crew members aside from Kuro himself with any real fighting ability. The crew mostly relies on their first captain's cunning schemes and instructions for effective plundering and second captain's hypnotism for increasing their physical strength to higher levels. Upon Kuro's departure, he had taught them to survive on their own, in order to use them three years later for his own machinations.

Other Information
Every member of the Black Cat Pirates has a cat theme: for Kuro, this is in his weapons, the Cat Claws and his stealthy speed and agility, as well as his cunning intellect. Jango is the only member that does not represent a house cat; he is depicted as a sphinx, a lion with a human head in Greek and Egyptian mythology, since he has striped beard like the ones worn by pharaohs. Most of the other members have their hair in a cat ear style, and the Nyaban Brothers added a pair of clawed gloves as well to further their theme.

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Kuroneko-Piratenbande 黑貓海賊團