"So… what are we doing?"

"Tuna…"

"We're going to do shit"

It was nearly a week after getting her students settled in when Maki decreed to her classmates that they were going to have a fun night together. She didn't mention that despite hating the place she came from, Maki does have a house at the family estate. Tonight, it's going to be everything she has dreamed of.

A night to just hang out and be with her friends.

Even though Toge and Panda were not Zen'ins, they got in anyway due to the fact that she controls Naoya, and his control does not affect her. When they arrived at the state, he appeared but sneered. "I'm not letting in wild animals or a cursed tongue into this estate!" he protested.

"Over ruled." Maki decreed as she, Panda and Toge walked through without issue.

"NO FAIR!" Naoya shouted.

"Just ignore him," Maki said and continued on. She was smiling wickedly as they arrived at her lodgings here, she kicked the door open rather carelessly and threw her stuff on the ground.

'This has to be the biggest house here…' Inumaki thought aloud.

"It is, it use to belong to the former family head… only fitting I take over this dump. So if you want to wreak the place, go for it!" she decreed. Suddenly, her nose scrunched to a smell. "That drunk…" she muttered. Venturing over to a far wall, she found a hidden wall, when it was opened, there was nothing but bottles of sake as far as she could tell.

"That family head was always a drunk… I could smell booze on him over a mile away…" Panda said offhandedly.

Curious, Maki took a stiff shot of the booze, but sneered. "Ugh, like battery acid!"

'Sukuna brews better huh?' joke Inumaki.

"No shit…" but she paused. "How do you know he brews better than this shit?" she asked offhandedly.

Inumaki snickered. 'I've had some of it, it's strong, but good. In fact, I saw Sukuna use Nanami sensei as a guinea pig recently. Even Suguru at one point or another'

"It's strange too, I hardly see Toshi. If anything, I think Sukuna is dragging him to the brewery every day for hours on end." Maki said offhandedly. "Okay, enough of that, we're here to have a good time, so, let's get this party started!"

#

There was enough junkie food to make anyone question their lifestyle choices, soda, chips, candy and take out. Maki brought it all for the sake of trying to rekindle what was lost all those years ago.

Despite the night being relaxed… it didn't feel right to her.

"Maki…" Panda said gently.

"Yeah… I know…" she sighed. "We grew out of this, didn't we?"

Her friends nodded. Despite wanting to do something like this for so long… it's lost it's magic. It lost its purpose too.

'It was quite the effort you put into it…' Inumaki said offhandedly.

She forced a smile. "I guess… I just wanted what was taken from me so long ago…"

Everyone fell silent to her, she knew they felt the same way as well, despite being sorcerers, they never did…

Wait…

Was that the real reason?

"Maki?" Panda asked.

She sighed aloud. "I think I finally understood what sensei was doing…" she said and snickered. "He's still an idiot, at the same time… he was making sure we still got to be kids, didn't he?"

The two paused but sighed and nodded. "It's true," said Panda.

"Salmon" Inumaki followed up.

"I never really considered why he did what he did, when I was too narrow minded to become stronger to prove myself to the clan… guess he knew how that would turn out. They never would have accepted me."

"And yet, you outlived them," chimed Panda.

She snorted a laugh. "Yeah, because I'm the one who did them in! Even if I didn't, do you think there would be a clan to go back to? I know Naoya was after the head's seat, but, when it went to Megumi… he didn't take kindly to it. In fact, nearly the whole clan didn't. There would have been a civil war. Those who wanted Naoya to take over, and those who believe the superior technique should led the house. Either way, Megumi was unwanted by BOTH sides. Shit… he does have a lot in common with Kamo… Toshi" she said correcting herself.

"It was a no win situation either way…" Panda said in a reminiscing tone. He then looked at everyone oddly. "What do you really think of Yua?" he said.

It brought a pause to the room. Maki herself couldn't speak at first but then… "I don't trust her completely." She said bluntly. "I do admit, she has a way of looking out for everyone, but the fact remains, she is giving people second chances who don't deserve them the least bit."

Panda nodded to that. "She has everything… too well in hand, too controlled in a sense, I just don't think it's right that she has been able to help everyone around her… giving them jobs best suited to their abilities, even giving them purpose…"

'I felt the same way when I first met her… when she came back with Gojo sensei and the others from the train station. But… everything from before that… it's hard to recall' Togu explained.

"That was because of her… Yua confessed to me that when she came back to Japan, one of the dragon's final acts was to alter time and space. There are memories that I have that are becoming more distant, events that have happened but altered their ending. She confessed to me, she used the dragon's power to turn back time to favor her… delaying when some people died, and who knows. Perhaps some who did die before she interfered… ended up being spared… I don't know at this point. When she explained that to me, I began to wonder… what is she really capable of? She is learning first hand from Sukuna of all people… but why is he so willing to teach her out of all others?"

"To make up for what he did to her family?" Panda said offhandedly. "We all saw that right? Her family raised Sukuna…"

"It's more than that," Maki said. "I can't explain it, but it's far more than that… After all, Yua's curse energy is far different from the others I have seen or encountered. Even Gojo sensei has said such a thing, Sukuna too. Question is, how is that possible?" she said aloud.

'There have merely been stories and rumors that surround the Tooru family. My family knew a few of them… but… they weren't bad stories.'

"Really?" Panda asked.

Inumaki nodded. 'One, I remember reading about, was how my family was saved by a stranger. A sorcerer who gave no name, and yet, he helped my family in the past when they were being hunted down by the council because of the curse tongue ability. We only learned later on that it was a Tooru who 'helped' us… in fact… this one took the heat off my clan.'

"How?" Maki and Panda asked.

'He abused the curse tongue and used it against the council.' He said but his head hung. 'He never killed anyone with this power, and yet the elders didn't want a Tooru with such an ability. One of my ancestors killed him for it, but, it brought us back into the good graces of the jujutsu elders.'

"There appears to be a lot of self sacrificing in the Tooru family." Panda muttered. "They did that, became Sukuna's main targets over everyone else, and yet… they still helped others."

"It's too suspicious" Maki announced. "Why on earth go through hell for people you don't know only to get yourself killed?!"

The room, went silent.

"Didn't we do that at school too?" Panda asked.

"But this is different!" she protested. "The Tooru family was pretty much treated the same way a non jujutsu sorcerer or a woman is in my clan! Why bother with those who never bothered to help you when you needed help?!"

They paused to consider it, but there wasn't anything they could think of that would give proper reasoning for the Tooru's actions. Maki then remembered something. "My family's archives are still here… maybe there might be something…"

However, Inumaki peered behind her. 'I think there's something in your elder's sake cabinet…'

Maki paused but peered in a little closer. Behind the bottles and gourds made to hold booze, she suddenly saw what Inumaki did.

There were books hidden in this compartment.

"Well, perhaps we need to see what they say…"

She took out all the booze, then the books began to flow out.

None of them had names, marks, or titles, they were all black books but had been written into. When everyone had a fair amount, they sat down and began to look over the content.

"Wait, are these diaries? Logs from the previous heads of the Zen'in clan?" Panda asked.

"Looks that way." Maki muttered as she began to peer over the book.

Ironically enough, it was from the last family head, and he was speaking of Toji. "Huh, listen to this. 'It has happened once more, one of our own lacks curse energy and yet. If they are able to expel it, there will be no one in this family who could stand against them. I have taken proper action to ensure this child realizes that he won't amount to anything, we are hopefully he will fall like all others who have come before him. However, he appears to be different, somehow in some way, I sense him growing stronger. Yet recently, his lack of growth has been relieving for me, he hasn't been able to get over a threshold. I hope it stays that way.'" She read aloud.

"Toji?" Panda asked.

"Without a doubt, the date of it would match."

She kept reading, but found an interest passage a few pages in. "Hey listen to this! 'It has finally happened, my family has finally made contact with the Tooru clan. If all goes accordingly, I maybe able to get a concubine out of it. The Toorus are notorious at hiding themselves and yet, any and all who have married a Tooru are promised strong and powerful children. Many inherited the family technique of the one marrying the Tooru. This maybe my one chance of obtaining what I really desire, a true heir.'" She couldn't help but pause and snort at the notion. When she checked the date once more, she snickered even more. "This was written shortly after Naoya was born!" she laughed aloud.

The others read it but snickered at the irony.

She continued on and read, but there was little information about the Toorus, however, there was another book. She began to read over this one but found it odd. Compared to the others, that were dated in proper order, this one was in a sense, but the dates of them were all over. But, there was a theme here.

It was every encounter the Zen'ins had with a Tooru.

"Whoa…" Maki whispered as she began to read.

"Found something?" asked Panda.

"Yeah, I may have hit the mother load on this one. This book is every encounter the clan had with the Toorus, this book is dedicated to that alone! But, why keep it separate from the other books? There's nothing that explains what happened the day the family head got his meeting. Absolutely nothing."

The first passage was from over 200 years ago.

It was one of the shadow summoner who had the family technique, came across a Tooru and fought them. Much to their surprise, the Zen'in was defeated despite the summons he possessed. 'I thought for certain my death was to be given, and yet, the Tooru did no such honorable action. They left me to live my life and consider my stance. Such an embarrassment will never know the light of day' at least, that what this one says… it looks to me most of these are the same. They encountered a Tooru, only to fight them, be defeated by said Tooru and yet, spared. Why?" she asked.

'Perhaps they wanted to test their strength against them?'

"True, at the same time, to constantly go after a Tooru? Was it to prove themselves to their clan?" asked Panda.

But then, there were photos, sketches of the Toorus that they fought against…

They were all women!

"Wait, what?!" Maki demanded. "These assholes sought out the Tooru family to fight their women!?"

Panda took the book, he began to read the pages as well, but paused oddly. "There's something more to this, I am not too familiar with human explanations or tones in writing…"

Inumaki took the book and read it over as well. He paused about mid way before he turned to Maki. 'Don't take this the wrong way, but, I think this is how your clan got a woman'

Maki smirked. "I don't take it the wrong way, since it sounds very plausible at this point. The men in my clan were all pigs!" she protested. She considered the notion though. "They were desperate to have a Tooru in the clan, weren't they?"

"It sounds like it, at least in my perspective, it appears those who had the family technique, all sought to take a Tooru for a wife." Said Panda. "It's strange isn't it? For a family to be out casted and yet sought after like this?"

"Not really if you consider how some sorcerers would react. Those who seek glory would cling on to anything close to it or get their foot in the door. If the Toorus were desperate and sought approval, I am certain they would have married themselves off to the three great families, and yet, here we read how defiant they were of such an offer. They were rejected and beaten possible suitors time and time again. But, if this was a way to get back into the jujutsu society and be heard… why didn't they?"

'I think we only need to look to Yua and see why' Inumaki said. 'Take into consideration, when we first met her, she was dying. But her greatest concern was Itadori and the dragon she possessed. Not her life. I think she may see a greater picture like Gojo sensei when it comes to curse energy. But it's far broader than his perspective…'

"Deep" muttered Panda as he began to reach for the junk food.

Maki only they realized she was snacking as well. Despite it not being the night she wanted, it became something close too it!

Who knew Toorus had this kind of affect on things?