Breaking the Joker's trap

A/N: In this story Homura and Tokiya are brother and sister. Homura used to be a magical girl but her contract with Kyuuby has been broken.

It was hard to believe that Tokiya was doing this. He stood in front of Homura's door deciding what he should do. He was on a break from school and he had been offered an amazing opportunity to be part of a group of spies. They had chosen him because of his intelligence which he had gotten from his parents. The job started on Tuesday but he didn't feel like he was able to do it.

He lifted his hand to knock on the door. He knew his sister could shoot a gun better than anybody else. She was also way better at covert operations.

He knocked on the door. "Come in." Homura called. Tokiya walked into the room.

Homura's room was simple. There were posters and pictures of Madoka, Tokiya (singing in concert) and their family in one corner of the room. Homura was sitting on her black and white sheets on her bed listening to music. "Hi Tokiya. What do you want?" She said taking out her headphones and turning to look at him.

"I know you used to be a magical girl." Homura sat looking up at him. "And I know that you still have some guns and I was wondering..." Tokiya paused looking at Homura's face trying to prepare himself to ask the question he needed to ask. "I was wondering if you could teach me to shoot a gun." Homura sat looking up at him.

She didn't want to teach him to shoot a gun. She didn't want him to ever shoot a gun. Using guns had been part of her being a magical girl and that's it. The only reason she kept some was to stop that fleabag Kyuuby from coming near anyone that she loved again, especially Tokiya. "Why do you want to learn to shoot a gun?" She was not angry only somewhat upset.

"It's not just learning to shoot a gun. A group hired me to be a spy and I was wondering if you could train me since you to be a magical girl." She stood up, her arms crossed. Tokiya was begging now. "Please Homura. If you teach me to fight for this I could defend myself from that evil Kyuuby."

Homura felt uncertain now. She still didn't want to teach Tokiya to be a spy but if it would protect him from Kyuuby then she would do it. "I'll do it."

"Thank you Homura!" Tokiya said giving her a hug.

She pulled away from him and looked at his face. "But you have to promise me a few things first. You can only use these fighting techniques for positive reasons like protecting someone."

"I promise."

"Next you must not tell anyone that I taught you these techniques."

"I promise."

"Finally," Homura said looking him straight in the face "You must promise that if you take this job that you will come back alive and the same Tokiya as when you left because if you died, I would never forgive myself."

Tokiya hugged her again with tears in his eyes and he said "I promise." He didn't want to lose Homura either. They pulled away from each other as Homura looked at Tokiya's appearance.

"First you should wear a suit. It looks like you are always doing something important." She went over into his room and pulled a suit out of his closet. He went to the bathroom and changed. Homura nodded. "Next when you're a spy you shouldn't go by Tokiya. People would find out who you are if you use your real full name."

"What name should I use?"

"How about Toki? It's still close to your name but people won't know it's you."

"That sounds good. Should I have a nickname?"

"Yeah, that's a perfect idea!" Homura said with a smile.

Tokiya tapped his chin thinking about a good nickname. His eyes wandered around the room until they landed on the diamonds on the sides of Homura's tights. "Perfect Diamonds." Tokiya whispered.

"Perfect Diamonds?" Homura asked.

"Yeah, Perfect Diamonds."

Homura smiled and hugged Ichinose "I can see why they chose you. That's a perfect nickname." Homura pulled away and said "One more thing. Not now but when you're a spy you could grease your hair. It's just another way to hide your true identity."

Homura stood up and walked over to her closet. Tokiya had never seen the inside of Homura's closet. She opened the doors and there were clothes from wall to wall. She pushed them aside and behind them was a safe. "There's a safe back there?" Tokiya asked.

Homura said "Yeah. I decided to get one to protect my guns and other important stuff." She put in the code the date of Tokiya's birthday. The safe unlocked. She pulled open the safe and looked inside. Her guns were hung up on the wall. On the bottom of the safe was a photo album of her family along with her shield, bullets, some figures of Tokiya, Yuri and herself, manga books, her red ribbons and the headband from Tokiya along with a homemade figure of the snowman Tokiya and her made. She took out her shield, two boxes of bullets and three guns. She put them on the bed and looked at them. Shaking her head she put one gun back and closed the safe. "Did they say that they were going to give you a certain position?" Homura asked.

Tokiya thought for a moment. "No. I don't think so."

"There are four different parts to being a spy, fighting without a gun, using a gun, affecting emotions and data collection from a computer."

"Should I bring my computer outside?"

"Sure." Tokiya walked out of the room followed by Homura.

They went outside as Tokiya realized something. "Are Mom and Dad home?"

"No. They're at work. So it's a good time to practice before dark. What do you want to do first? Social, guns or no guns?"

"Social I guess."

"For this exercise we have to pretend that we are not brother and sister."

Tokiya nodded and said "Homura, what was being a magical girl like?"

Homura's face darkened. "It's not important. Now" said Homura her face lightening "When being a spy"

"Or magical girl."

"You should use people's emotions and characteristics to win them over to your side."

"Was it fun?" Tokiya was just curious about when Homura was a magical girl. They used to be close and they still were except Homura would never talk about being a magical girl.

"That topic would be good to use to change emotions."

Tokiya didn't want to push Homura too far but he knew it would be better for both of them to hear what Homura had to say.

"I want you to come over here..." Without waiting for her, he came over and pulled her into a hug and looked down into her eyes.

"My sweet sister, Homura" He said truly sincere. "Should I be a magical girl?"

That sent her over the edge. She hadn't told Tokiya to protect him from that beast. She tried to push away from him as he pulled her closer. "Let me go! You don't deserve to know! You don't deserve the evil that being a magical girl brought me! You don't deserve to have me for a sister Tokiya!" Her voice cracked as she cried the last word and she collapsed into his arms. He stroked her hair and held her hand. She pulled closer to him as she pushed her face against his chest making his shirt get wet. "Tokiya." She said through tears. "I didn't tell you to protect you!" She sobbed harder now.

He whispered in her ear, "It's okay Homura. I'm here. You can tell me."

"I can't tell you. You don't deserve the sadness! I love you Tokiya that's why!"

After a few more minutes of crying she looked up at his face. He looked like the curious kid from when they were younger and one of them had a secret. "Tell me." They would whisper. If either of them said that the other had to do it no matter what the secret was. "Tell me." Tokiya whispered knowing she would remember.

She dried her eyes and said in a whisper "It was terrible. I could only depend on myself and Madoka would always die no matter what I did. The worst part was the creature I made a contract with."

"Contract?"

"I agreed to fight evil in return for a wish. The creature knew that whoever made a contract would eventually become a witch. It knew we would all come to self destruction and it enjoyed using us. That creature told me one time that it didn't just want me to be a magical girl it also wanted Mom and Dad and..." Homura wiped her eyes again and closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Tokiya. It also wanted you. Since the day that Mom, Dad and you broke my contract I have spent time destroying that creature. I can't lose Mom or Dad or you, Tokiya. That's why I agreed to train you when you said that you could protect yourself against that creature." She looked up into her big brother's eyes and said "Tokiya this training is going to be difficult because I want you to be perfect or not be a spy at all. I just love you and want to protect you Tokiya. That's why I made you promise to come back the same Tokiya as always." She pulled closer to him and said "Tokiya promise me that you won't leave me alone."

This was the first times that Homura had opened up to him about being a magical girl. He could see the pain in her eyes when she spoke about it. "I promise that I'll never leave you."

Homura wiped her eyes and again and smile. "I guess we'll start training then." Homura said "Flirt with me."

"What?" Ichinose said.

"Practice flirting with me."

Ichinose tilted her chin up. He brushed back her hair and whispered in her ear "You have the prettiest eyes in the world. I wish I could stare into them forever."

"Good. Now what if I was a married woman or a man? You would have to act differently." Tokiya pulled away from her. "Make conversation." Homura commanded.

"About what?"

"Whatever you want."

Tokiya did as she commanded. "I was reading this story about a teenage boy who met a mysterious girl in a classroom. She had an amazing singing voice but she never felt loved since people believed that she was cold. He promised that he would help her to be less cold if she promised to sing for him every day."

Homura nodded in approval. "Weapons or non-weapons?"

"Non-weapons, I guess."

"When you answer, be confident. Confident people die less often."

He nodded at her command. "Non-weapons."

Homura stood waiting staring back at her brother "Come at me bro." She said with a slight smile.

Tokiya began to laugh. "I'd never expected you to say that Homura."

Just then the wind was knocked out of him as he felt himself crash to the ground. His eyes were still closed as he felt Homura's hair brush against his ear as she whispered "Never underestimate you're opponent." Tokiya opened his eyes to see his sister, who was about 9 inches shorter than him, with her knees against her stomach as she knelt on top of him. "Without weapons you must use your body as your defense."

Homura stood up as Tokiya stood up too. He was feeling a bit sick since she had been kneeling on his stomach. "You feel sick don't you?" She asked him making sure he wasn't going to throw up. He nodded. "Another effect of the attack. Not permanent but crippling. Now do it to me." Tokiya regained his footing. Homura had asked him to do some crazy stuff so hard but this was the craziest.

"If I do it to you, I'll crush you."

"Just try."

Tokiya thought about it for a moment but then realized something. "I didn't see how you did it."

"As a spy your eyes are your greatest assets. Your eyes allow you to see suspects, clues and weaknesses." She nodded at him to say 'Try it.' He began running at her and he was about to knock her over when she moved out of the way. He slid to a stop and turned around. Homura stood behind him with her arms folded. "Try again but this time don't think of it as attacking me." Tokiya nodded and began running again toward her. She jumped out of the way again but he was closer than last time. "Better."

He ran at her again thinking of his next move before reaching her. She jumped out of the way but he expected this and kicked her shins in the middle of her jump. She tumbled to the ground. He stood on her sleeve so she couldn't get up or move of the ground. "Better, but you're going to have to think and act in a single second. I guess we can go on." Tokiya moved off of her and she stood up.

"The next training will be the most difficult and I'm going to make sure that you are perfect at it." She put on her shield and said "It is the most important since many times you will find yourself with a weapon. We will begin with guns since they are the easiest to use and work." She took out one of the guns. "We will begin with pistols and hand guns."

She pulled out some bullets. "First you load the gun with bullets." She put the bullets into the barrel of the gun. She handed the other gun to him. "Load." He put in the bullets like she instructed. He had some trouble at first. He put the bullets in. Homura then pulled out a stuffed Kyuuby and set it in the yard.

"Why do you have some many of these if you don't like them?" Tokiya asked genuinely curious.

"It's for target practice." Homura said with a straight face. She pointed her gun at the head and pulled the trigger. Stuffing flew into the air. There was a hole in the side of the head. She went over and picked up it up.

"You shot it through the head?"

"It deserves it." She put it down and moved behind him. "Now try it."

Tokiya didn't want to think about what he was doing so he closed his eyes and opened them again. He pulled the trigger. Homura went over and picked it up and brought it to him. "Do you see where you hit it?" He didn't. Homura pointed to the chin area. "It's not the usually place to shoot but it would still kill it." She placed it back and commanded him to shoot. He did and it hit the same place as Homura's. "Good." She said then picking up something shiny in the grass.

"What now?"

She handed him a knife. "Time for without guns. Try and attack me." She said.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"It's okay. I'm ready."

Before he could do anything he turned the knife in his hands. Something felt strange. He heard a noise. He found Homura over by the edge of the fence lying on her side on the ground. Kyuuby walked around her. Tokiya ran over to see what happened when Kyuuby smiled at him.

'Ichinose Tokiya. Nice to meet you.'

"What did you do to Homura?" He asked, trying to remain calm. 'I just reminded her who she is.'

"She's not just a source of power for you!" Tokiya cried and sliced Kyuuby with the knife in his hand. It felt strange but he had to protect Homura. He saw another Kyuuby in the grass and sliced it too. Then there was another and another. He continued until there were 5 Kyuubys in the grass.

He went over to Homura. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and whispered. "Thank you Tokiya." She sat up. "I'm not worried about you being a spy." She said getting up. "I'm okay. You do know only the first Kyuuby was real." She said standing up.

He felt embarrassed. She whispered "It's okay. You did protect me from the real one and you practiced with the others." She hugged him and whispered "Thank you."

"I think that's enough training for one day." Tokiya said.

"We have one type to practice. Take out your laptop." He did as they sat down in the grass. She instructed him how to begin and soon he was retrieving info by himself. "You're amazing at this Tokiya." She said with a smile. "I'm not worried about you after you leave." She gave him a hug. "You're the best and bravest older brother."

He hugged her back. "You want to know why I become a magical girl."

"Why?"

"It wasn't just because of Madoka. You remember I was a sweet, kind of stupid little kid?"

"All kids are like that."

"Well I was. I wanted to be more like you, brave and caring. Tokiya you were the best brother and I wanted to show you that I deserved you."

"Homura you always 'deserved' to be my sister. You're sweet, smart and caring. Do you wish for better big brother?"

"No. I don't make wishes. I try to love what I have and I love you Tokiya."

"I love you too." They sat there and watched as the stars came out and twinkled like perfect diamonds in the sky.