# Chapter 512: Love-Hate Relationship and Bowing in Submission
Ian naturally found this strange. Earlier, Urouge had sneak attacked Enel, making him spit blood, and now suddenly he seemed to be following Enel like a subordinate?
What exactly had they talked about before?
"..." Enel was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke: "Captain... Captain..."
This address made even Ian feel a chill. Damn, this guy actually called him captain!?
Had the sun started rising from the north!?
Ian's gaze seemed to embarrass Enel somewhat, but he gritted his teeth and finally pretended not to notice, saying to Ian: "Urouge wants to follow me. Is that alright?"
Ian frowned in confusion and asked: "What's going on? You two have me confused. Are you enemies or what?"
Under Ian's persistent questioning, Enel finally revealed the truth.
It turned out that Ian's guess was correct. Urouge and Enel were both Sky Islanders born on Birka in the Sky Islands. However, unlike the Four Priests—who were subordinates Enel recruited after ascending to the throne of "God," a purely master-servant relationship—Urouge was Enel's only friend from childhood!
From childhood to adulthood, Enel had always been an oddball. How to put it... it was a kind of rebellious feeling. Because unlike other Sky Islanders, he didn't have the iconic wings. And Sky Island Birka was different from Sky Island Angel Island. On Birka, Sky Islanders without wings like Enel were heavily discriminated against by those with wings!
On top of that, Enel's parents had died early, which led others to constantly mock and curse him.
Enel's mentality was cultivated this way from the start—it was entirely a result of his environment. It was precisely because of these bad experiences that Enel felt no nostalgia or affection for his hometown of Birka, and ultimately destroyed his homeland without any pity.
However, stories like this often have a rather cliché element, and Enel was no exception. He had one unique friend: Urouge!
Urouge didn't discriminate against the wingless Enel like others did; instead, he often played with him.
Perhaps it was due to some influence from their bloodline, but the people of Sky Island Birka had a special love for land. Their most precious treasures were the stones and soil that occasionally shot up from the Blue Sea below.
Enel and Urouge were no exception—they also had an extraordinary love for such things.
But being alone, Enel couldn't compete with other Sky Islanders back then. Only Urouge would share these treasured stones and soil with him.
If nothing unexpected had happened, the two might have grown up on the Sky Island, grown old, and died together. But as they grew older, especially after Enel discovered the secret room containing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the design plans for the Ark Maxim, becoming a Devil Fruit user, things gradually changed.
After learning that his hometown had another origin and contained something called "Infinite Earth," Enel immediately shared this with Urouge.
Urouge was a bit older than Enel, and the news Enel told him made Urouge develop a vague longing for the Infinite Earth. But since they were weak and lacked materials to build the ark, after careful consideration, Urouge told Enel that he planned to go down to the Blue Sea to help find materials for building the ark.
Urouge left, and Enel stayed on the Sky Island. At first, Enel hadn't thought about becoming a ruler or anything—he just wanted to convince other Sky Islanders to build the ark together.
But what he got was endless ridicule. Those people told Enel that he was simply delusional.
In the end, when the then-ruler of Sky Island Birka, the God, learned that Enel possessed ancient design plans, he tried to seize them.
Enel, enraged, directly used his Rumble-Rumble Fruit power to kill the Sky Island ruler.
At the same time, he realized that since no one identified with his ideals, he would become the ruler himself and enslave these people to help him realize his dreams!
Thus, Enel became the ruler of Birka through force.
But things didn't develop the way Enel had hoped. The Ark Maxim required good conductors like gold, but there wasn't that much gold on Birka at the time. Meanwhile, Urouge had gone to the Blue Sea and there was no news from him at all. Enel thought Urouge had met with misfortune.
So in the end, Enel got the idea to go to other Sky Islands. When he learned that on another Sky Island called Angel Island, there was a group called the Shandians who might have large amounts of gold, he took the Four Priests he had subdued and headed for Angel Island.
Since Urouge was no longer around, when leaving, Enel, having no more attachment to Birka, directly used his power to destroy the entire Sky Island Birka.
But what he didn't expect was that about five years after he arrived at Angel Island, defeated the then-ruler Gan Fall, and became the God of Angel Island, Urouge suddenly returned to where Birka used to be.
Unfortunately, what Urouge saw was just a vast sea of clouds—his hometown had already disappeared.
The news of Enel destroying his own hometown had spread to many other Sky Islands. By inquiring with other Sky Islands, Urouge learned the whole story. But at that time, he didn't know where Enel had gone. After Enel became the ruler of Angel Island, using the power of Mantra, no one could escape from Angel Island, so no news could get out.
Urouge went crazy searching for Enel's whereabouts. Unlike Enel, Urouge still had attachment to his hometown and couldn't tolerate what Enel had done.
In the end, Urouge had to return to the Blue Sea to search for any possible traces of Enel. He thought Enel might have gone to the Blue Sea to look for gold. Since Enel already had the Rumble-Rumble Fruit power when he left, Urouge, after arriving in the Blue Sea, would investigate any news related to lightning and thunder. (This is why in the original story, Urouge insisted on landing on Raijin Island even though he knew it was extremely dangerous—he thought the lightning on the island was caused by Enel's power.)
But unexpectedly, after returning to the Blue Sea, Urouge not only became a pirate but also coincidentally became one of the 11 Supernovas of the same generation.
If he hadn't encountered Ian here on Sabaody Archipelago, he might never have seen Enel again and might have continued toward the New World. But since he suddenly reunited with Enel here, Urouge naturally wanted to take revenge for his hometown.
However, he also knew how strong Enel was, so he chose to sneak attack Enel, using a Seastone club to make Enel spit blood.
Hearing this, Ian roughly understood what had happened. Setting aside all those rambling past events, the relationship between Enel and Urouge could be summed up in one sentence: a love-hate story between two good friends!
And now, after recognizing Urouge again, all that remained in Enel's heart was guilt. He had thought Urouge was dead, which was why he destroyed his hometown Birka. But now that Urouge wasn't dead, Enel felt he had wronged his childhood friend.
This might have been the first time Enel regretted destroying his hometown Birka...
Similarly, Urouge didn't know how to deal with Enel. Although before finding Enel, he was determined to seek justice for his hometown, now that he had actually seen Enel again, Urouge was at a loss. Could he really kill his friend Enel to avenge the dead Sky Islanders?
Although the story was cliché, when faced with an actual choice, not everyone could make a decision.
So the situation between Enel and Urouge was now in a very delicate state. Neither knew what to do. After a long talk, Enel decided to bring Urouge along first. Whether they would eventually reconcile or become enemies, they would leave it to time to decide.
But right now, Enel was nominally Ian's subordinate. To bring Urouge along, he naturally needed Ian's consent. And to get Ian to agree, even Enel had to address Ian as "Captain"...
After understanding Enel's intentions, Ian glanced at Urouge and didn't plan to object.
Urouge, as one of the Supernovas, might be older, but that didn't mean he had no potential to develop. In Ian's impression, Urouge could later even defeat one of Big Mom's Four Sweet Commanders—his strength was considerable!
If Enel brought Urouge along, it would essentially mean Urouge was indirectly joining the Dragon Hunter Pirates. How could Ian possibly disagree?
So Ian nodded and agreed to Enel's request, which greatly surprised and delighted Enel.
However, strange things happen every year, but this year was especially abundant. When Ian brought Enel and Urouge to find Zoro and the others, as soon as they met, Trafalgar Law, the captain of the Heart Pirates who had been following the Straw Hat Pirates, held out his long sword with both hands toward Ian, lowered his head, and said: "Ian-san, please allow my Heart Pirates to join under the banner of your Dragon Hunter Pirates!"
As he made this gesture, the members of the Heart Pirates behind him, including the white bear Mink Bepo, also put their hands together and bowed respectfully to Ian.
Not only was Ian a bit stunned, but even Luffy and the others, as well as Hawkins, Drake, and Scratchmen Apoo, were extremely surprised by Trafalgar Law's sudden move.
Admittedly, through Ian's earlier battles with Marine Admirals Kizaru and Aokiji, they had all understood how terrifying Ian's strength was. But as Supernovas, they also had their own pride. For them to openly say they wanted to be Ian's subordinates would probably be difficult.
However, before Ian could ask why, Trafalgar Law looked up at Ian and said: "Ian-san, I have only one request. If the opportunity comes one day, please let me personally kill Donquixote Doflamingo!"