One piece : Celestial Rose

"You are a god, Mark; always remember that."

Said a lady in very expensive clothes while rubbing her belly.

Weirdly, she actually received an answer, a kick from the baby inside her stomach.

This immediately made the woman happy; looking towards her husband, she spoke with excitement.

"Look, Charles, he understands me; our son is amazing!"

Charles was the woman's husband; he was a fair-skinned man with a thick beard.

And he was arrogantly laughing after hearing his wife's words.

Looking towards his pregnant wife, he gave a rare, tender smile.

"Of course, he is our son after all! The union of two gods like us can only create a better god."

"No doubt about it, Luna, our son Mark is the heir to our Rose family."

Luna and Charles were two full-blooded celestial dragons.

They were the direct descendants of the twenty kings that founded the world government, and they were considered gods in this world.

The couple was expecting a baby boy; this boy will be considered the future heir to their Rose family.

With such expectations, the two kept chatting with their baby, who was still within his mother.

They were not expecting the baby to truly understand but wanted to show their love anyways.

"But I do understand."

Thought Mark from inside the womb.

Mark was fully conscious of his surroundings as well as the entire property around them for a while.

Their property was roughly 100 acres from what he could sense.

This might seem absurd for many, but what he was doing wasn't magic, nor was it unnatural.

In the world he was reborn in, many things were possible, which should have been impossible.

The secret to his sensing ability was a thing called observation haki.

"Getting used to observation haki is a little hard, especially when I am only 8 months old."

Observation haki was how Mark was able to sense his castle and understand his parent's words as a baby.

Still, not everyone in this world had their observation Haki active; it required special requirements to use.

Mark somehow managed to complete most of these requirements because of his special circumstances.

"I am thankful for my baby body; the sleepiness made me unable to have any extra thoughts at all."

"Keeping calm wasn't even a problem for me when all your body wants to do is sleep; it comes biologically."

When his body was finally capable of thought, Mark slowly became aware of his existence again.

His immense desire to understand where he was between his little bouts of consciousness made Mark accidentally awaken observation haki.

A calm mind and an intense desire to see—these were the requirements for a person's observation haki to activate.

Since that day, Mark's pitiful sensing range slowly increased; his surroundings became clearer and clearer, and even his duration of sleep was reduced significantly as time went on.

"Haki is amazing; every creature in the world has it. I am no exception either, nor am I a very special case."

Mark wasn't overly proud of himself for awakening observation haki so early; this was a complete accidental awakening.

Even children or babies weren't without their fair share of natural geniuses in this world.

Aisa, a small child on the sky island named Angel Island, was a genius of observation haki.

Not only could she cover a large area spanning kilometers, but she could also detect the presence of every single person who lived there and could pinpoint if or not they had an accident.

"Aisa did this all naturally, pure talent, as opposed to my intentional efforts."

It wasn't like she was the sole example of a natural genius either.

Mink was a race native to this world, and they knew how to fight from birth; they also had powers of electricity at their disposal naturally.

Many such examples of incredibly natural yet unnatural geniuses were present in this world.

Big Mom, fishmen, and lunarians: any of them could trump Mark on his little accidentally obtained power.

"So it's not the best time to conclude if I have a good talent or not; maybe I do, maybe I don't."

"At least because of God's Knights, I know Celestial Dragons have the potential to get stronger; that is all that matters."

Mark thought lazily; he was beginning to feel sleepy again.

At least he had managed to stretch his observation haki range once more.

He figured that repeatedly training his observation haki is what was keeping him energetic nowadays.

"Strong people like the Admirals can fight for an entire month straight, and they aren't even the most powerful existences in this world."

"The only thing they and other strong men have in common is their strong Haki."

Observation Haki was also a type of haki. Mark assumed that this was what was keeping him energetic much longer, even as a baby with limited energy.

But Haki had its limits too, so Mark wasn't willing to push his still-growing body too much.

"Training's done for today; I'll start again tomorrow; Mom will wake me up on time."

Thought Mark as he slept sweetly.

And just like that, between observation haki training and sleep, time went by; it was finally the awaited day: Mark was born today.

"This is light… feels good to see it again."

"This time with my own eyes."

Thought Mark as a cry not of pain but of joy erupted from the newly born baby's mouth.

The first voice of the legendary Mark Rose was heard in this world today.

His existence will change the direction of fate, a world where it's not destined men with destined devil fruits who make history.

But a world where men who work hard to make their own destiny do.