"No, No, No, this simply will not do," Bentham pouted. Crocodile looked at the okama unbelievingly, rubbing his temples. The Okama had come a long way since joining Baroque Works. Bentham had skipped up all the way to the top of the agent rankings, landing at #2. And so the okama had earned the codename for the position- Mr.2. Of course, agents usually worked in pairs, but there was no one else quite exactly at Bentham's skill level. So Crocodile had decided to just let the okama take the code name Mr.2 and be done with it.
"What's wrong with it?" Crocodile growled, "Daz liked it perfectly well when he had the name."
"Daz isn't an o-ka-ma," Bentham said, stretching each syllable. "Mr.2 implies that I'm a man."
"Are you not?" Crocodile sighed, confused.
"No!" Bentham exclaimed, insulted, "I am an o-ka-ma. I am neither man nor woman. I am both man and woman."
"That doesn't even make sense to me."
Bentham shrugged.
"Does it have to? It makes sense to me, and that's all that matters."
'Hardly,' Crocodile mused, thinking of all the complications that must come with living in that manner.
"What do you want me to call you then?" Crocodile sighed, crossing his arms.
"Isn't Bentham ok?" Bentham whined.
"No. It isn't." Crocodile snapped. The last time he'd allowed one of his agents to use their personal name, said agent had been identified and killed by the government. As annoying as Bentham could be, the okama's Devil Fruit abilities and strength as a fighter made the okama irreplaceable in Baroque Work's espionage branch. Crocodile could not afford to lose Bentham.
"Well…" Crocodile mumbled, "Why don't you just take both names?"
"What was that?" Bentham asked, exaggerating the motion of cupping his ear. Kami, the okama could be so annoying.
"I said," Crocodile grumbled through gritted teeth, "Why don't you just take both names? You don't have a partner, so there wouldn't be any confusion, and you could just use both names as you please."
"Ooh! That sounds kinda nice!"
Crocodile smiled. Bentham appeared satisfied.
"Mr.2's counterpart name is Ms. Obon Kurei," Crocodile said, opening his filing cabinet. He instantly spotted Bentham's dossier of private information. The okama had insisted on decorating it with glitter glue and sparkly stickers. Kami knows the okama is completely screwed if someone decided to break in and search for intel on the top agents. They'd know everything about Bentham in a snap.
"That's kind of a mouthful, isn't it?" Bentham mulled over the name. "Can I just shorten it?"
"To what?" Crocodile asked, skimming through the pages of Bentham's file.
"Bon Kurei has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
"Yes," Crocodile mumbled, picking out the document.
"So Mr.2 and Bon Kurei it is?" Bentham asked hopefully.
"Agreed," Crocodile said, jotting down the names on the document. He passed the piece of paper to Bentham, who looked over it approvingly.
"Welcome to the Baroque League of Elites, Agent Bon Kurei."
A.N.: Reviews, Favourites, Subscriptions, Reader Birthdays, and Reviews welcomed and much appreciated! An explanation: I didn't check my list and by accident noted Bentham down as August 25 instead of 15. So, I'm updating all the chapters in a way that will make sense now. Sorry for the confusion!