Just as James prepared to cut the swordswoman free from her restraints, the commanding shouts from behind had caught his attention.
"You there! Hands on your head and back away from the prisoner! Where do you think this is? You're under arrest, now surrender and don't move!"
James turned to face the gathered Marines with an intriguing smile on his face before deciding to toy with these corrupt soldiers. James knew that from the story most of if not all of these soldiers weren't really bad people and were just forced to carry out Captain Morgan's orders under duress, but that doesn't absolve them of the crime of aiding and abetting, as there were methods to report the corruption, but they chose not to do anything and act as if they were just bystanders unable to make a change.
"You know, I really hate having guns pointed at me… I think it's time that they DISAPPEAR!"
As James spoke, his hand waved as a flash of white light caused all the weapons in the surrounding navy hands to disappear in motes of white light particles.
"W-What happened?!? Where did our guns go? D-Did he do that?! H-He's a monster!"
When the leading officer saw that his men were beginning to panic, he resolved to assure them as he had a bit more knowledge than they did and knew that what had just happened was most likely some kind of devil fruit ability.
"Calm down, men! This is just some kind of devil fruit ability! If guns don't work to intimidate him, then our fists will do just fine!"
With such encouraging words, the surrounding navy soldiers began to gather courage and start to close in on James and the still bound swordswoman.
"Hais~ Seems you fools didn't get the first hint"
"Erasure!"
James waves his hand once more and all the surrounding navy soldiers disappeared in motes of white light, and when the swordswoman saw this, her eyes widened in amazement as she remembered James mention the sixth level of swordsmanship and how it involved attacking with just a thought, and while this seemed a bit different from how she imagined it, it still seemed to her that James had attacked through thought, as she was unaware that James hadn't utilized swordsmanship for his recent attack, but his powers of destruction, though he didn't feel in necessary to clarify.
"Wow! That was so amazing! You were all like, Woosh~ 'Erasure!' and they all disappeared! Hey, how did you do that!?"
As James turned back to the bound swordswoman, prepared to untie her, another female voice interjected, albeit more energetic and joyful, a personality a bit too familiar to James, and he didn't want to believe it, but as he turned to face the voice, he noticed a beautiful girl in a straw hat with long black hair tied up into twin ponytails, wearing a red long sleeve button up shirt with the top two buttons open, revealing a bit of her cleavage that seemed to be well endowed for her age appearing to be around 17 or 18, and a pair of short denim shorts with a pair of sandals.
'Seems my theory was right. I've been thrown into an alternate world of One Piece where the Straw Hate Pirates are gender swapped, that only leaves me to wonder if Nami and Robin will turn into men, or if all the men will just turn out to be women'
"Hey hey! My name's Monkey D. Layfey, and my dream is to set sail and marry the King of the Pirates! You seem super strong, do you want to board my ship and become my king!?"
When James registered what he was just asked, he felt that this girl in front of him seemed to be quite open and loose, as if her goal was to sleep with a man who would become king of the pirates, then any tom, dick, or harry who has a dream to be the pirate king would fit her criteria, even if their strength wasn't up to par, but as James began to take the time to sense the aura of purity around her, he could tell that she was quite reserved, or at least she wasn't easy to trick into bed. As James looked at her up close, her appearance was quite good, seemingly on par with the female swordsman still chained up behind him.
"Hmm… Being the Pirate King doesn't sound all that bad of an idea. And you do look cute, so I don't mind joining you in fulfilling your dream"
When James spoke, Layfey's eyes brightened as she jumped into James' arms and gave him a deep and passionate kiss on the lips, a move that shocked James deeply, as he felt that Layfey was moving a bit too fast for her own good.
"Ahh, Layfey, why did you just jump on me like that? What would happen if I were just trying to trick you into bed with no idea of aiming to be the king of the pirates? Do you think the true pirate king would like a woman who would sleep with any man claiming they would take the title with no actual plan of trying to achieve the title?"
James wasn't trying to cockblock himself, he just wanted to teach Layfey to be more cautious of swindlers in the future, but it seems his worries were unwarranted as her next words left him surprised.
"Ahh, no worries! I've always had a strong intuition that tells me when people try to trick me. When I look at you, my intuition tells me that you are the strongest person I've ever met, even stronger than my grandpa! So I trust that you won't lie to me, and your warning just now cemented that idea. Plus, I think you are really cute, and I like you, so I'm happy to kiss you"
James could only shake his head as he looked behind Layfey towards the shriveling and cowardly pink haired boy who would soon make a name for himself as the Deserter King of Reddit, Koby. He, just like Helmeppo, seemed to still be male, so it's obvious that so far only the members of the Straw Hats were gender swapped.
"Uhh, excuse me, but could the two of you put your makeout session on hold and untie me already?!"
Just as James and Layfey, who were still tied together, with Layfey's body wrapped around James, were prepared to continue their conversation, the forgotten swordswoman spoke up in a bit of annoyance.
"Ah, right! I'm sorry, I got distracted, I'll untie you now"
Just as James came over to untie the swordswoman, Layfey who was curious as to who she was was the first to interrupt.
"Hey, I'm Monkey D. Layfey, what's your name?"
At first, the swordswoman didn't want to acknowledge Layfey, but seeing as James seemed to have agreed to board her ship, this meant that she would be following, so it was better to get to know each other now.
"My name's Roronoa Zara, my dream is to become the world's greatest swordsman! And to do that, I need to get strong enough to beat this man- Speaking of, I still don't know your name yet"
As Zara looked toward James who was untying her bindings, Layfey also seemed to remember she was unaware of her future husband's name and also looked over in expectation.
"Ahh, did I not tell you earlier? Hmm, that's fine, no time like the present to get introductions out of the way… My name is James Braddie, but you can call me James. I also have another name, or rather a title"
When Layfey and Zara heard this, they were a bit curious as to what kind of title their man had and wondered if he was some bigshot from some unknown region of the world, as the name James Braddie didn't ring any bells to them, so perhaps his title might remind them.
"I am known as the Omni-King, ruler of the universe"
Upon explaining his title, both Layfey and Zara were left in confusion, they had never heard of anyone with such a title, nor did they have any concept of what the universe was.
"James, what is a 'universe'?"
Zara nodded on the side, also curious as to what a universe was, and seeing that both his followers were unaware of what astrophysics were, James felt that explaining the concept would be tedious and time consuming, so instead he tried to give a brief explanation and a promise to give them a demonstration after they were done sailing.
"Well, it's not easy to explain, but in simple terms, you are aware that in this world there are kings that rule over kingdoms?"
Seeing both of them nod in understanding, James began to continue his explanation.
"So if there are kings that rule over kingdoms, then there are emperors who rule over the seas, you guys should be aware of them, as while they are not legally recognised as rulers, their power gives them such a title. For me, my power gives me the confidence to claim dominion over the entire world we live on along with the stars beyond it, that is what a universe is and why I proclaim myself ruler of the universe"
As if understanding, both Layfey and Zara nodded in acceptance, but their acceptance was only based off the trust they held in James, not in factual evidence supporting the claim, so while they understand what the title was, they didn't necessarily believe in the veracity of the claims as they have yet to see the evidence to support it, but they chose to trust James until proven otherwise.
"Okay, now that we got that over with, I think it's time we retrieve Zara's swords and set sail"
Zara, who had just been freed began rubbing her wrists and cracking her neck before a bright and wicked smile appeared on her face as she turned to face James and asked in a somewhat shy tone.
"Ahh, James, could I borrow your blade for a bit? I want to retrieve my swords with my own hands"
James began to ponder the question. He felt that it was just a casually created sword and didn't really hold much significance to him except to match the outfit he created, so without much thought he nodded and handed the sword and its scabbard to Zara for use.
"Well, take good care of this. I trust you know what you're doing"
Zara nodded before dashing off into the naval base while James stayed back as he pulled Layfey who was prepared to run off after Zara to help cause destruction.
"Hey, what's up, James? Why'd you stop me?"
"Nothing much, I just feel that Zara needs to handle this herself since she was tricked by these people into starvation for a week"
When Layfey heard the words 'tricked' and 'starvation' her face went pale at the thought of being forced to starve was mentally torturing her, so when she realized that Zara was taking revenge, she didn't insist on joining in unless her help was required.
"I understand! Then how about we get to know each other instead?"
As Layfey spoke, her arms began to elongate as they wrapped around James' body while Layfey's body inched closer and closer until they were pressed against one another as Layfey went in for another kiss.
"Layfey, stop, we shouldn't do this here, we also have a peeper"
"Peeper?"
As Layfey turned to the direction James pointed, she noticed Koby still standing there like a lamp post, as his fidgety body tried to act as unnoticeable as possible, obviously feeling awkward from the situation. Layfey only gazed for a moment before she turned back to James and began her makeout session once more, while Koby off to the side was feeling a bit more than he showed on the surface. One had to know that Koby was stuck on a pirate ship, forced to be a choreboy to a fat and ugly wench obsessed with being called beautiful by her crew, so when Layfey appeared and saved Koby from that nightmare and even validated his dream to become an Admiral of the Marines, a feeling of affection began to bud in his heart. He had even hoped that one day he could grow strong enough and catch Layfey out on the seas and through his strength, convince her to turn away from the life of a pirate, but now this fantasy was being crushed right before his eyes.
'What's so great about this guy? Yeah, he's handsome, strong, and brave, but I can be all that too! So why did she choose him?'
Koby's internal ramblings didn't seem to escape James' keen perception, or Layfey's for that matter, as while she was observing Koby, her innate intuition which was just another name for Layfey's partially awakened Observation Haki allowing her partial mastery over the Voice of All Things, allowed her to get a sense of the emotions stirring within him. When Layfey looked at Koby, although she didn't hear his thoughts, she could sense two emotions being expressed and manifested, one was the emotion of jealousy, the other anger, and both of these emotions were directed toward James, and comparing it to the emotions she had felt from Koby before meeting with James, she knew that Koby harbored feelings for her and now that she was with James, Koby was jealous and angry towards him. So Layfey's actions of returning to her makeout session with James served a purpose two fold, the first being to show Koby that she wasn't interested in him, the other was to foster deeper emotions with James so their relationship could progress.
"Wow, look! It seems Zara found her swords!"
Layfey shouted as she watched Zara walking out of the marine base while covered in a small amount of blood and clutching her side that seemed to have been injured during the earlier fight.
"I assume you've taken your revenge?"
As James put forward the question, Zara only responded with a nod before James nodded with a smile and took both Layfey and Zara to a small eatery followed by Koby where they all sat down to eat. Later they were surrounded by the marines who ordered their eviction from the town, and when Koby was about to be forced to leave alongside them, Layfey stepped in to beat the living dog shit out of him before turning away in a huff, followed by James and Zara. Koby, left unconscious, didn't even know that Layfey didn't hold back because all throughout the meal, she continued to feel the negative emotions emanating from him towards James, and she felt she had to stand up for her man.