Kuro

Kuro is an extremely intelligent man (holding the second highest IQ in the East Blue, behind only Benn Beckman), whose plans have never failed in the past.[11] He is a master strategist and an accomplished fighter, but he was severely hampered by the fact that he simply did not have the patience to deal with a pirate's life on the run from the Marines. He came to desire a life of luxury and peace, giving up his infamy and name in his attempt to achieve it as he concluded he was not suited to be a pirate.[9] Despite his intellect, he has a tendency to underestimate his opponents based on their seemingly harmless appearance, as he believed that Usopp and the Straw Hat Pirates were no threat, which became his downfall. His confidence in his plans tend to lead him to be reckless as well, as he believed that since the pirate attack was nigh, he saw no reason to restrain himself from his feral instincts by needlessly attacking Merry, thus resulting in the surviving Merry to report to Kaya of Kuro's true intentions.

Kuro seems to be very proud of his plans, which had never failed before (hence his nickname, Kuro of a Hundred Plans). True to his epithet in both figurative and literal meaning, he conceived many well thought out plans and would achieve them by all means. When he relived his moments of piracy, he claimed his plans were too great to be wasted on his crew. Because of his pride within his plans, Kuro is intolerant of any failures on his subordinates' part, and would kill them if they were to hinder his plans in any way, even if it was due to bad luck as opposed to incompetence. He valued his plots to perfection, as he refused Kaya's negotiations for leaving the village alone in exchange for handing over the estate and fortune he desired, insisting the attack and her death must occur for the sake of his plan. This shows that Kuro's confidence and pride in his plans also makes him short-sighted in the face of unforeseen events that may benefit his plans more than originally intended. Because if he had accepted that offer, Kuro wouldn't have had to be defeated by Luffy, and probably, the Navy would never find out he was still alive as a result. Another flaw of Kuro's is that, although he is capable of devising highly precise and complex plans, he seems to overlook their long-term consequences. For example, Kuro planned to kill his former subordinates to prevent them from exposing him in the future, and intended to use their bodies to prove his innocence, yet he seemingly failed to consider how he would explain their deaths. In fact, had Kuro actually killed them—even if his plan had succeeded—he might have ended up turning himself in to the Navy. During the final moments before Luffy defeated him, Kuro lost his composure and screamed at the despair of his precious plan failing.

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.[13] Even after the lens were 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).

Kuro, being selfish and arrogant, is very cruel and diabolical towards everyone else, be they ally or enemy. He held himself in very high regard, having a standard for people no one but himself seemed able to live up to. 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, trustworthy and well-mannered—yet slightly snobbish—man who carries a hatred for pirates, and as such, looks down on Usopp. He later admits that, aside from his hatred for Usopp and piracy, how much he despises this pseudo-personality; his hatred of piracy notwithstanding, the true reason is very different than that of his false persona. Kuro has proven himself to be a skilled actor, having created the personality of Klahadore, which was in stark contrast to that of his true persona, Kuro; he managed to maintain his act despite his deep hatred of Kaya and Usopp, enduring them with crocodile tears and verbal taunts, respectively, only revealing himself when he deemed it was no longer necessary. He differentiates his two personalities via his tone of speech: as Klahadore, he uses the formal pronoun "watashi" (私?) to refer himself, while as Kuro, he uses the more arrogant "ore" (おれ?); the anime furthers the two personas by "Klahadore" speaking in a lighter and a very formal tone while "Kuro" has a deeper and much colder voice. His sudden change in personality induced great fear into Merry and Kaya.

Kuro has proven himself to be quite a hypocrite. While discussing his plans regarding Kaya with Jango, Kuro would avoid using the word "kill" due to believing it to be barbaric, referring to her planned death as an "accident" to make it sound more civilized. Once his true intentions came to light and his patience with his crew waned, Kuro bluntly stated that he would kill, even directing such cruelty to Kaya when she confronted him. He later revealed that he never intended to let his crew leave Gecko Island alive despite his earlier claim that three years of inactivity had softened his heart (hence giving his crew five minutes to redeem themselves). Stating how much he detested piracy due to his belief that they are simply buffoons who robbed and killed out of greed and self-gratification, he has proven himself to be no better due to his plot to take everything away from Kaya while reveling on killing all the villagers.

Appearance: Kuro is a tall, slim man with glasses and slicked black hair; during his battle with Luffy, the latter eventually came undone while the former were completely shattered.

As Kaya's butler, he wore a black suit with two golden markings on it 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). He would loosen up the tie and collar on the night before the planned raid on Syrup Village.

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