Ishibame

Ishibame is the het ship between Yuu Ishigami and Tsubame Koyasu from the Kaguya-sama: Love Is War fandom.

Canon
Ishigami met Tsubame after joining the Shuchi'in Academy's cheer team. Like most of the boys at school, Yu quickly developed an attraction towards Tsubame. In his case, the fact that she was one of the few people who were nice to him has also helped.

During the Culture Festival, Ishigami ended up unknowingly confessing to Koyasu in public, being unaware of what giving a heart-shaped object at this event implies. Tsubame became concerned about how to gently turn her admirer down, and with Kaguya's advice, as well as after another misunderstanding on Ishigami's part, she decided to get to know him more first and let him know about her answer in March.

Tsubame invited Ishigami to her party during the Christmas break. After being the only two left (with Miko Iino being passed out at the time), Yu helped his crush clean after the party. Afterwards, after tricking him into missing his last train, she visited him in a room she'd given to him. There, she offered a casual sex. Ishigami was initially interested. However, having confessed to her at the place, the boy rejected the offer after Tsubame turned him down, apparently because of the upcoming distance relationship problems due to her graduating two years before Ishigami. Believing he hurt her, Ishigami became very depressed in the morning, to the point he was willing to die from the impact after tripping on the stairs.

Soon after, Ishigami became motivated to prove himself to Tsubame so that he'd be worthy of her. He ended up working out. He also asked her on a date in case his volleyball team won, which they did. He then used his friends' help to plan the date. While the date ended up being successfull, Tsubame still questioned whether she loves or just likes Ishigami.

During the "End of Secrets" arc, the relationship between the two, as well as IshiMiko, is discussed by several characters. It turned out that Kaguya and Osaragi ship the two, Chika and Rei ship Ishigami with Miko instead, while Shirogane wants to support both pairs. In order to help Ishigami and Tsubame's relationship in spite of the rumors about Ishigami, Kobachi Osaragi shared the secret file on Ishigami's incident to improve her opinion of him. This resulted in Tsubame coming up with a plan and calling the girl involved in the incident, whom Ishigami had protected from her cheating boyfriend in middle school.

During the 3rd -Years' graduation, Yuu Ishigami confessed his feelings for Tsubame Koyasu once more with even more vigor than before. She rejected him, but Yuu tried one more time, assuring her that he would try his best to make her happy. At the same time however, it was revealed that she never had romantic feelings for him, but was too afraid to turn him down in the past as she didn't want him to cut all ties with her like all the other boys she had rejected in the past. She revealed to Yuu Ishigami that she was the one who instigated the mass spreading of a counter-rumor for the Ootomo incident, to show how much she cared for and appreciated Yuu despite not seeing him as a romantic partner. Tsubame's rejection ends on a relatively positive note, though Yuu Ishigami is heart-broken nonetheless.

Fanon
The ship sailed as a result of Ishigami's canon attraction to Tsubame. Its main ship rival is IshiMiko. With Miko Iino being a polarizing character herself, this ship is preferred over the other by a portion of the fanbase. However, as a result of Iino still being a popular character, as well as more hints and development for Ishiino, this ship still loses in popularity. Tsubame's offer for a causal sex after rejecting Ishigami has also put off some fans, leading them to abandon the ship and root against Ishigami trying to prove his worth to Tsubame.

Since the chapters in which Ishigami has romantic feelings for Tsubame have yet to be adapted in the anime, only manga readers are aware of this ship. As such, it loses in popularity to IshiMiko and Fujigami for those only familiar with the anime version. In spite of this and its mixed feedback, it's still among the most popular ships of the series.

Fandom
WIKI
 * on
 * on