Black Cat Pirates

The Black Cat Pirates are a crew of pirates headed under Kuro, and then Jango, then back to Kuro.

Part in the Story
Three years before the present storyline their captain Kuro desired to leave his life of piracy by faking his own death, leaving Jango, his first mate, as the captain. Later he pretended to be washed up on shore of a local town where the father of a rich girl called Kaya found him, and he was nursed back to health by the family. He then took the identity of Kurahadol the butler, presumably he murdered Miss Kaya's parents then looked after her when she fell sick afterwards. He then asked Jango to help his scheme to gain the life he desired by stealing Miss Kaya's fortune.

The plan was for his old crew to strike the local village. Under the chaos of the attack, Jango would hypnotise Kaya to sign a will leaving Kuro all of her family's wealth and then kill her, with everyone thinking she was a victim of the pirate attack. Since he had three years to build up a respectful reputation, no one would find it odd that everything was left to him. Unknown to his crew, however, Kuro was also intending to kill all of them as well.

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. It is unknown if the two are truly brothers or merely as a team name. They are known as the Meowban Brothers in the English versions.

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 being hypnotized by Jango into having immense physical strength in addition to the schemes of their cunning captain.

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.

Trivia

 * Pirates of the 19th century believed that black cats bring different kinds of luck. If a black cat walks towards someone, that person will have bad luck. If a black cat walks away from someone then that person will have good luck. If a black cat walks onto a ship and then walks off it, the ship is doomed to sink on its next trip.

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