Kaya

Kaya is a young woman who lives in the largest mansion in Syrup Village on the Gecko Islands. She is a close friend of Usopp and is currently studying to become a doctor.

She is an ally of the Straw Hat Pirates during the Syrup Village Arc.

Appearance
Kaya is a slim and pale-skinned girl with pale blonde hair long to the shoulders. She has wide brown eyes, that are of a sort of lighter shade.

Despite her fortune, she is rarely seen in anything but simple neat clothing, be it a plain long dress or "common" clothing such as a skirt and jacket.

Personality
When Kaya was first introduced, she was a rich yet sickly young girl. It later turns out she was just worrying herself into depression and sickness. She was also rather sensitive and against violence, as she was horrified when Usopp attacked Klahadore and the guards, while angry when she thought Usopp was trying to ruin the butler's reputation; after the incident with Usopp she fainted. When Klahadore revealed his true colors and brutally insulted her memories, she broke down into tears.

Kaya is also shown to be caring for people, as she refused to pull the trigger on her gun and was willing to kill herself to protect children.

She now leads a happy and healthy life, working hard toward her dream of becoming a doctor. She is carefree and very trusting towards others.

Family


According to Kuro, Kaya's father loved his daughter very much and wished nothing but the best for her.

Kaya may have other family, but the storyline never touched on this. Klahadore mentioned that if Kaya died without signing a will that would leave her fortune to him, the mansion and assets would go to relatives.

Usopp


Kaya is indebted to her friend Usopp and has grown very fond of him since he has indirectly saved her life through the tales that were told to her, more so than she ever had been in the past. She was willing to listen to Usopp's various tall tales despite knowing he was a liar, yet she was incapable of accepting some of the grim realities when the stories became serious about Klahadore, believing the butler to be loyal and faithful to her.

Since the Kuro incident, she understands he only wants her to be safe and happy, which is why he told his outrageous stories to her while he was in the village. She made a promise never to tell anyone about the Black Cat Pirates' attack.

She keeps up to date on any information that is released about him in the newspapers and vows that no matter what condition he is in when he returns, she will nurse him back to health. Usopp has developed a deep liking for Kaya as well, and it was partially because of her that he refused to give up on the Going Merry despite it having been already doomed to sink soon, to the point of nearly severing his bond with the Straw Hat Pirates.

Usopp Pirates
She also keeps in touch with the former Usopp Pirates and talks to them whenever an update on the Straw Hats - Usopp in particular - gets around to them.

Merry
Merry is Kaya's butler, and is truly loyal to her, seeing her well being as a priority to the point of willing to die for her sake. In turn, she was very shocked and horrified to find him with near-fatal injuries left by Klahadore (Kuro). After Kuro's defeat, Merry seems to have become the servant she turns to. It is shown that Merry is also very dedicated to Kaya, who is thankful and kind to him, as near the beginning of the series Merry traveled a far distance in order to get a gift for Kuro, whose identity was at the time unknown.

Klahadore/Kuro


Until his deception was revealed, Kaya had always been fond of Klahadore, even leading her to dismiss Usopp's claims about Klahadore being a pirate as hurtful lies. However, she did have an occasional argument with Klahadore when he expressed his low regards for her friendship with the town's troublemaker, Usopp. Klahadore refused to let Kaya see Usopp under the basis that he would never be able to face her father if he let anything happened to her.

When she discovered what Usopp had told her was the truth, she became upset and could do nothing as Kuro betrayed her feelings on purpose, upsetting her, yet she was unable to pull the trigger of the pistol that she aimed at him. It was during this encounter that Kuro revealed his true hatred and contempt for her, and she even found it very chilling when he made no attempts to deny nor regret his attempt in murdering Merry.

Abilities and Powers
Having inherited her parents' fortune and estate, Kaya is a wealthy person. She is currently studying to become a doctor.

Physical Abilities
Kaya was rather frail in health, mainly because she worried herself to sickness. Once she regained her confidence, her health improved. Despite her poor health at the time, she managed to force herself to the shore in order to confront Kuro.

Weapons
During her confrontation with Kuro, Kaya brought along an ordinary pistol, though she could not pull the trigger when he proceeded to attack her emotionally.

Syrup Village Arc


Kaya is a rich girl who received an inheritance after her parents died. After their death, Kaya fell ill, and her caretaker Klahadore took care of her. Secretly, the town liar Usopp visited Kaya in her mansion to tell her tall tales to make her laugh and feel better.

However, Klahadore was against this and eventually kicked Usopp out and told Kaya that he was a bad influence. The same day, Usopp and Luffy overheard a conversation between Klahadore and Jango. Klahadore was in fact Captain Kuro, and revealed that he planned to kill Kaya and take her inherited money. Usopp tried to warn Kaya about the plot, but Kaya did not believe him and she even slapped him for "lying" about Klahadore being a pirate after her life and fortune.



Merry, a servant of hers, later informs Kaya that all this is true, after he himself had been grievously wounded by Klahadore. Despite the risk, Kaya runs and confronts Kuro during a battle between him and his men against Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Zoro. Kuro reveals that he had indeed tried to kill Merry. Kaya aims a pistol at Kuro, but she drops it and cries after Kuro tells her about how he was publicly at her side for so long, and how much he wanted to kill her during all of it, and how soon he was going to. Usopp gave an order to the Usopp Pirates to protect Kaya no matter what happened.

Ninjin, Tamanegi, and Piiman flee with Kaya to the forest, and Jango chases after them. When the children try to sneak up on Jango, he attacks them and threatens to kill them. Kaya threatens to kill herself unless the children are kept alive. As she has not yet signed a will that states that Kuro gets Kaya's inheritance after her death, Jango would be in serious trouble if she dies, so he agrees to leave the children alone.

The children pretend to be knocked out when Jango forces Kaya to sign the will. Right before Jango is able to slice her throat apart, Usopp's Pirates ram him with a shovel. After Jango knocks them away, Usopp and Zoro appear. Zoro slices off a branch with his sword so Usopp can hit Jango with his Secret Technique Shooting Star attack and save Kaya's life. Later she and Usopp Pirates make a promise not to tell the rest of the village about the Kuro incident. Usopp's reason is that Syrup Village is so small and remote that most pirates have no reason to come. Usopp believes that the village's peace would be shattered if they learned that someone (Klahadore) they trusted for three years was a pirate, and had planned an attack on them.

After the incident, Kaya gave the Going Merry to the Straw Hat Pirates as a gratitude for saving her life. Later on Kaya decided that she must study to become a doctor one day, and hopefully help Usopp when he will come back injured.

Loguetown Arc
Some time after the fall of Arlong Park, Merry rushed a copy of Luffy's first wanted poster to Kaya. To his bemusement, Kaya noticed only the poster's accidental photographing of Usopp, from it building faith in her own dreams.

Jango's Dance Paradise
Pursuing her medical studies in earnest, Kaya became apprenticed to a local doctor. Around this time, Ninjin, Piiman, and Tamanegi (after driving Jango out of Syrup Village) assigned themselves her unofficial bodyguards.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc
After the Enies Lobby incident, she and the former Usopp Pirates gathered a copy of "Sogeking's" wanted poster, and almost instantly recognized Usopp under the mask.

Post-War Arc


Like the other Straw Hats' friends and allies, Kaya and the former Usopp Pirates were elated when the newspapers confirmed that Luffy had survived the Summit War of Marineford.

From the Decks of the World


Kaya is seen again studying while Merry protects her from a group of suitors. She also has a picture of Sogeking on her stack of medical books.

From the Decks of the World: The 500,000,000 Man Arc


After the events at Dressrosa, Kaya and the former Usopp Pirates were overjoyed to see Usopp's new wanted poster.

One Piece Film: Red
Kaya and Merry listened to Uta's childhood song "Where the Wind Blows".

Anime Differences
In addition to the non-canon appearances mentioned above, the anime makes a few minor changes to Kaya's background:
 * Her bedroom is placed on the mansion's second floor, with Usopp regularly climbing a tree to reach it.
 * Her father is briefly depicted in a reminiscence from Kuro; whether this design had any input from Eiichiro Oda remains unknown.

Live-Action Differences
In the live-action series, Kaya shows weaker health. She is also the heir to her family's shipyards. She directly encounters Usopp, Luffy, Zoro and Nami while she was walking through the garden of her mansion accompanied by Klahadore, inviting them to dinner. Instead of telling her the stories of him being in the garden, Usopp tells Kaya the stories of him being in her room. Later, she also has dinner with Usopp and his new friends, and during the night she chats with Nami in her room, debating about their different ways of life, and talking about her feelings towards Usopp.

Instead of learning about Kuro's betrayal from Merry, she discovers it from Nami when Kuro was already on his way to kill her, being attacked by Kuro inside the mansion. Later, when saying goodbye to Luffy's crew after giving them the Going Merry, she ends up kissing Usopp, revealing to him that she would like to be a doctor.

Translation and Dub Issues
The 4Kids-dubbed anime digitally replaces her pistol with a slingshot that looks identical to Usopp's. It also censors her suicide threat to Jango, depicting her as trying to use the stolen chakram against him; this is accompanied by a bizarre implication that the weapon is sentient, and can "turn on" inexperienced users.

The Funimation release of of Episode 17 accidentally misspells her name as Maya in the credits.

Playable Appearances

 * One Piece Treasure Cruise
 * One Piece Bounty Rush
 * One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!!

Support Appearances

 * One Piece: Gear Spirit
 * One Piece: Burning Blood

Non-Playable Appearances

 * One Piece: Become the Pirate King!
 * Grand Battle!
 * Birth of Luffy's Dream Pirate Crew!
 * Grand Battle! 2
 * Aim! The King of Belly
 * One Piece: Dragon Dream!
 * One Piece
 * One Piece: Pirates Carnival
 * One Piece: Gigant Battle
 * One Piece: Gigant Battle! 2 New World
 * One Piece: Super Grand Battle! X

Trivia

 * Kaya is another name for the Japanese Nutmeg-yew, a slow growing tree native to Japan and South Korea.
 * Kaya also means "rich" in Malay and Indonesian, with it also being used for their word for coconut jam for that very reason.
 * Kaya means "pure" in Scandinavian, and is a reasonably popular girl's name.
 * In the 5th Japanese fan poll, Kaya ranked at 88th place.
 * In Episode 64, Usopp builds a snow woman that resembles Kaya.
 * Kaya's favorite food is seafood.

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