Demalo Black

Black is a hulking, obese man with a very wide face, a forehead that thrusts forward far enough to nearly bury his brows, and a narrow nose that broadens into large rounded nostrils. Facial hair runs from the corners of his mouth down to his chin, his legs are thin and hairy, and an X-shaped scar marks his stomach with another on his left shoulder. A flintlock pistol is rarely out of his grip, and he is almost perpetually grinning.

To pass as Luffy he copies the outfit and paints on an imitation under-eye scar, but the resemblance falls apart at every detail: three stitches instead of two, a battered straw hat with a striped band, a shirt too tight to button over his bulk, and boots in place of sandals. His later Eustass Kid costume swaps in spiky hair, forehead goggles, a fur coat with shoulder spikes, lizard-print trousers, and a left arm painted to mimic Kid's mechanical replacement. In both cases he looks almost nothing like the man he is imitating.

Black behaves much like a slightly milder World Noble, convinced that borrowed status and reputation entitle him to do as he pleases. Leaning on Luffy's enormous bounty and infamy, he acts with impunity, demands to be addressed as Boss, and treats any slight, even being accidentally knocked over, as grounds to kill. He flares into rage the moment plans go awry and uses his stolen renown as a weapon to intimidate, though it impresses only fellow criminals.

His arrogance routinely clouds his judgment. He failed to recognize the real Nami, Usopp, Luffy, or Chopper despite meeting them, never weighed the danger of impersonating a man hunted by the World Government, and showed no loyalty to his crew, treating them as disposable and even using Fake Nami as a shield to flee. He bragged constantly about a heritage he did not possess, fired on bystanders he mistook for enemies, and learned nothing from his downfall, since he repeated the whole scheme as a fake Eustass Kid while imprisoned.

With the Straw Hats unseen for two years after Marineford and widely presumed dead, Black and his crew of impostors seized the opening and passed themselves off as the famous pirates. At a bar in the Sabaody Archipelago he recruited captains with bounties above a set threshold and, failing to recognize the genuine Nami, tried to force her to join, only to be routed by Usopp's carnivorous Pop Greens and Nami's lightning before they fled. Soon afterward the real Luffy accidentally bumped into him, and Black's wounded pride drove him to attack, but Luffy dodged his shot and knocked the whole fake crew out with Supreme King Haki.

Determined to avenge the humiliation, Black gathered all his recruits at Grove 46 and declared they would sail for the New World and die for his sake. His plan unraveled when the Marines arrived with Sentomaru and two Pacifistas. Sentomaru, who had met the real Luffy, saw through the act instantly and dropped Black with a single broadside swing of his axe, after which PX-5 announced his true identity and modest bounty, and his recruits scattered in fury at the deception. Years later, during the Egghead Incident, Black and several crewmates turned up impersonating the Kid Pirates while imprisoned in a Marine base.