Kaya

Kaya (カヤ) is a girl who lives in the largest mansion in Syrup Village on the Gecko Islands.

Appearance
Kaya is a young girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, dark brown eyes and pale skin.

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 and sickly girl. It later turns out she was just worrying herself into sickness. She was also rather sensitive and against violence, as she was horrified when Usopp attacked Klahadore, while angry when she thought Usopp was trying to ruin the butler's reputation; 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.

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.

Past
Kaya was born on August 24, 1505, from a unnamed couple.

Arrival of the Straw Hats
Kaya is a rich girl who received an inheritance after her parents died in a unknown accident. 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.

The Murderous Plot
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 gun 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 get's 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.

Thanks and Farewell
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.

Keeping Tracks on Straw Hats
She is mentioned many times when the Straw Hat Pirates talk about the Going Merry.

She made another appearance when she saw Sogeking's wanted poster. She and the Usopp Pirates recognized Usopp despite his disguise.

Two Years Later
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.

Parents
Three years before the start of the story, in 1519, when Kaya was 14 years old, her father hired Kuro (under the pseudonym Klahadore) to live in the mansion as a butler (going as far as to save him from the streets in the anime), not knowing of Kuro's true identity. It was thus shown that Kaya's father was a 'soft' man, someone who was caring and compassionate. Sometime after his employment, Kaya's parents died, according to Kuro, by "accident" and were not part of his plan to gain her riches; Kuro denied killing them when Jango suggested it to him, but Kuro also said that it was just a bonus. Her father loved his daughter very much and wished nothing but the best for her.

Other
Kaya may have other family, however the storyline never touched on this. Klahadore mentions 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 saved her life, more so than she ever had been in the past. She was willing to listen to Usopp's tales knowing he was a liar, yet incapable of accepting some of the grim realities when the stories become serious about Klahadore, believing the butler to be loyal and faithful to her.

Since the Kuro incident, she understands he wants her only 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. A small running gag is that, even though Usopp's face has not been shown in either of the wanted posters he has appeared on, Kaya always recognizes him.

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 was 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 begining of the series Merry traveled a far distance in order to get a gift for Kuro, who's 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 flintlock 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.

Anime and Manga Differences
In the anime, like several other characters, she was seen reading the news about Luffy's second intrusion to Marineford along with Ninjin, Tamanegi and Piiman.

Translation and Dub Issue
In the original Anime and Manga, Kaya threatened to cut her throat with Jango's Chakam to make him stop hurting the boys. However in the 4Kids dub, they had Kaya struggle with the Chakram as if it had a mind of its own, Jango told her amateurs should not be using it. Also, in the scene in which she points a gun at Kuro the 4Kids dub edited it into Usopp's slingshot instead.

In the credits of episode 17 on the FUNimation DVDs, her name was accidentally written as Maya, but this was only a typo on FUNimation's part.

Trivia

 * In the 4th Japanese Fan Poll, Kaya is ranked the 78th most popular character in One Piece.
 * 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.
 * In Episode 64, Usopp builds a snow woman that resembles Kaya.