OkiKagu

OkiKagu is the het ship between Okita Sougo and Kagura from the Gintama fandom.

Canon
Sougo is the 1st Division Captain of the Shinsengumi and Kagura is a member of the Odd Jobs or Yorozuya. Whenever they meet, they begin brawling or insulting each other. It is implied in the early stages of the manga that the two were meant to have a romantic relationship. They grow to become exceptionally close friends, with Sougo always being able to tell whenever anything's wrong with Kagura when nobody else can, even her adoptive family, and Kagura being able to recognize and help him when he's at the lowest periods of his life.

Jump Festa 2005 Special
Kagura and Sougo are engaged in an intense rock paper scissors game, gaining the attention of all gathered due to how quickly they are playing the game. The game progresses, and they stand up, forgoing rock paper scissors, and begin an incredibly fast fist fight. Kagura pins Sougo to the floor, continuing their brawl. Later, it's implied that Kagura set Sadaharu on Sougo, as his head is bleeding and held fastened in Sadaharu's jaw as Kagura watches with a gleeful smirk.

Gengai Arc
Kagura plays at a shooting booth hosted by Hasegawa, Instead of playing the game normally, however, she shoots his sunglasses, intending to take them for her own. Sougo appears, joining her, shooting at Hasegawa's watch. The two share a knowing look in silence as Hasegawa panics and begin harassing Hasegawa, shooting at his beard, jacket, nipple, etc.

When Gengai unleashes his robots on the festival, Kagura and Sougo show up when it seems all hope is lost, Kagura having a blue aura and Sougo a red one. The two auras overlap, creating purple. They finish each others sentences and, together, begin annihilating all robots present.

Episode 20
Kagura, Sougo, and Shinpachi all hide away in a shed away from the mosquito amanto. Sougo lights a mosquito coil and muses over how the amanto could be the evil spirit he tried to summon to get rid of Hijikata. Angered, Kagura asks if he's what caused all this terror, vowing to avenge Gintoki. The pair pull at each other, starting a small-scale fight, Shinpachi admonishing them. They stop fighting when Shinpachi sees the amanto and begins freaking out, forcing them both to kowtow in apology to it.

Episode 27
Sougo tells the Odd Jobs trio his predilection for watching women fight, as the faces they make turn him on. Kagura criticizes his taste. Later, when Sougo brings them into the fighting arena, Kagura grabs his shirt and angrily tells him that if he gives her nightmares from this experience, he'll pay. She releases him as he explains why he's powerless to stop the Rengokukan despite being a government official.

As the Odd Jobs hide out in a bush to spy, Shinpachi comments about Sougo, and Kagura replies with an annoyed look that she hates him. At the end of the episode, Sougo threatens Kagura before leaving. She smirks, looking to the audience as she says, "This guy definitely likes me. How annoying."

Episode 32
Sougo and Kagura meet again, with Sougo telling her to stay out of the ongoing altercation, saying she could die and that she's just a kid. Kagura, annoyed, tells him that he's just a kid as well.

Episode 45
Kagura clings onto a giant Sadaharu's tail, trying but failing to call her pet to heel as he sprints. Sougo drives by in his police car, asking her through a megaphone if she knows how fast she's walking her dog and that she must stop immediately. Kagura, angered, asks if it looks like she's walking her dog, calling him stupid, and then pointing out she would've stopped a long time ago if she could've, followed by more insults about his intelligence. Sougo chooses to focus on the insults she called him, telling her he'll have her arrested for obstruction of justice as she's hurt a police officer's feelings. Kagura calls him an idiot once more, and Sougo resigns to using his bazooka to stop the dog by force, smiling sadistically as he aims. As Sougo tells her "bye-bye", Sadaharu flings the car containing Sougo to the side. After a few moments of shock, Kagura laughs at Sougo, saying he's the one who ended up going "bye-bye". which Kagura finds hilarious. To her dismay, Sougo remains unharmed, clinging to the side of Sadaharu's fur. Pissed, Kagura tells him to let go, calling him a sadist, to which he replies that she's the sadist. She furiously hangs onto his shoulders to try and pull him off, and Hijikata ends up blowing up the three of them with bazookas.

Episode 65
Collecting beetles and forcing them to fight one another is all the rage with the children of Kabukicho. Kagura shows up to a beetle brawling match with her own beetle, but hers is a dung beetle, instead of the mandated rhinoceros beetles. Her fellow children get angry at her, and she calls them out for their ignorance and conservative thinking. Sougo shows up to her defense, asking if he can play with his Sadomaru No. 21. The scene then changes to a makeshift grave for her own Sadoharu No. 18 beetle, which was valiantly defeated in combat by Sadomaru No. 21. Kagura cries over her dead beetles grave, mourning him, incorrectly calling him Sadoharu No. 21, then correcting herself and, again, incorrectly calling him Sadoharu No. 28.

Kagura returns to Odd Jobs and persuades her fellow members to go beetle hunting in order to exact revenge against "that bastard" for killing her dung beetle. They end up being persuaded due to the potential money they could make if they find a rare species, so they set forth. Shinpachi spots a giant beetle hanging onto a tree and the trio kick the tree, forcing the beetle to fall onto the ground. Kagura excitedly grabs the beetle, turning it over, elated that she'll be able to avenge her previous beetle. However, the humongous beetle turns out to be Sougo in a beetle costume. The Odd Jobs get angry at him and Kagura demands to know why he's there. Sougo explains his initial plan of attracting the beetles by appearing as one of them as he struggles to get up. His fellow Shinsengumi members eventually come to his aid, and Kagura tells all gathered her grievances, and that she wanted to avenge her beetle by using Sougo. Sougo tells her that she was the one who killed her beetle, not him, as she was so exhilarated whilst watching a match that she crushed the bug herself. Kagura still pins her beetle's death on Sougo, saying it was him who got her excited to the point of killing her beetle.

Everyone then spots an actual beetle, and the Shinsengumi and Odd Jobs charge towards it. Kagura steps on Hijikata's head, using it as a launching pad to reach the beetle. She is just within reach, but Sougo grabs one of her legs and smashes her face into the ground. Gintoki kicks Sougo into the ground, trying to reach the beetle himself, and as Gintoki and Hijikata fight on the tree the beetle resides on, Kagura is enveloped by her red aura and Sougo his blue. They, again, finish each others sentences, and their auras join together to create an intense purple one. They form a combo move, Sougo unsheathing his sword which Kagura uses as a launching pad to create a giant explosion.

As night falls, the Shinsengumi and Odd Jobs set up their own camps. Sougo lays in a tree, smiling, wistfully saying to himself: "That girl... I'll beat her this time."

Sougo taunts the Odd Jobs, as they have a barbecue, whilst the Odd Jobs have nothing. Angered and hungry, Kagura gags herself and vomits all over the grill the Shinsengumi are using. Satisfied, she smirks at Sougo, who meets her gaze with an undaunting one. The next day, Kagura challenges Sougo to a beetle sumo wrestling match to attain her revenge. He accepts, saying he knew she'd come and that he prepared his best bug for her. She unveils that she will be using the shogun's pet, a luminous golden beetle. The Shinsengumi expect that Sougo will be using his brain and will get the shogun's beetle back unharmed in a calculated move, but he proves to be just as stupid as Kagura, presenting his monstrous, man-eating beetle, which is twice as tall as he and thrice as wide. They start the battle but are cut short when Gintoki uses a special move to knock out Sougo's beetle. Sougo and Kagura both complain to Gintoki about his disruptance, but he smacks them both on the head, telling them if they want to fight, they must duke it out themselves and without a proxy.

Yagyu Arc
When Kagura enters the Yagyu Dojo, a bowl of rice with an is thrown on top of her head, with egg white staining her crotch. Sougo asks if she's ovulating, and Kagura responds by grabbing his face and launching him across the room, a move that everyone agrees he deserved. When Sougo is used as a hostage, Hijikata says it's futile since Sougo has no value as one. Kagura agrees, telling the Yagyu Dojo members to simply kill him with a laugh.

Kagura is tossed into the air during the fight, and just as one is about to finish her off, Sougo strikes the assailant in the back, saying that he will be the one to get Kagura. Kagura, Hijikata, and Sougo momentarily team up to take care of the Yagyu Dojo members, but Kagura complains at this arrangement, saying she'd've been better off with the Odd Jobs trio. Sougo makes fun of her, asking if she feels homesick. Kagura begins to run off to join Gintoki, but is stopped by a Yagyu elite member. She ends up breaking her wrist, grimacing, and Sougo asks what's wrong, and says none of the members are a match for her. Sougo attempts to help her, but breaks her wrist in the opposite way. Kagura howls in pain and breaks Sougo's ankle in retaliation. The two team up and head into an empty house, waiting for the members to strike.

The arrangement they make ends up being Sougo sitting on top of Kagura's shoulders. Kagura complains about his crotch being too close to her, calling it sickening. He sheepishly apologizes, and the member they face attacks them. At first, the Okikagu combo seems to be working, as they dodge his repeated sword jabs, but upon closer inspection, Sougo repeatedly gets hit in the face while Kagura expertly dodges. They charge, and Sougo's face slams into the ceiling. Kagura takes advantage of this, grabbing his ankle as he falls, and bodyslams him into their attacker. Kagura then poses for a selfie, taking a picture of her with her foot on top of Sougo's back as he lays facedown on the elite member.

Popularity Poll Arc
Sougo looks over his allies, saying he trusts them all, save for Kagura. Kagura angrily questions him if the only reason he's cozying up to Gintoki is because he vies for first place. The two close the distance, only a few inches away as Sougo reassures her, saying he doesn't care about her dirty 6th place seat. Kagura tells him to watch his back, as she doesn't care about his placement and that she'll always be after his head. They angrily press their foreheads against each other.

Kagura and Sougo are locked into a fight. Kagura gloats about her win, but panics as her rank begins to fall, and Sougo laughs at her misfortune, telling her that Kondou, who she's allied herself with, is so disgusting that he's dragging her rank down. Kagura and Sougo both try to make him more nasty and more attractive respectively, with Sougo trying to decorate his nude body with ugly accessories, and with Kagura trying to make him fashionable.

Timeskip Arc
Kagura surprises Shinpachi, hugging his arm, causing his mind to go into haywire because of her developed body. Hijikata yells at him to snap out of it and prepares to hit her with his fan, but Sougo takes the blow for Kagura. Kagura kneels down and cradles his head in her lap.

Vacation Arc
Sougo reports to Hijikata over his walkie-talkie that he's found a suspicious person building a giant snowman. Hijikata commands Sougo to make them leave, and Sougo complies. He trails after Kagura as she makes a large snowball, telling her to find somewhere else to play. Kagura pauses and turns to him, telling him to shut up and that she isn't building a snowman, but the feared Neo Armstrong Jet Armstrong Cyclone Cannon. Tensions rise, and one of the two launches the giant snowball into the helicopter carrying the shogun. Sougo throws snowballs at Kagura as she swings the head of the Neo Armstrong Jet Armstrong Cyclone Cannon at him.

Kagura returns as a giant snowball, bounding towards Gintoki to try and help him. She vows to save everyone happily, but the snowball turns to reveal that Sougo is trapped in the snowball with her. His face is depressed and he says they are all going to die. The snowball switches to Kagura again, and she says, still happily, that "if you give up, the game is over". Sougo switches back and says "the worst part is when you're still clinging to hope when you die". Gintoki remarks that the two of them are like the angel and devil on your shoulder. Suddenly, the two both don dark, matching expressions, and say ominous things together: "No. I am not me. I am not you. But I am me. I am you." The snowball turns pitch black, and they continue on saying more skin-crawling things. The snowball turns a blinding white, purified by Katsura, as it's revealed he was also trapped within. Kagura and Sougo both team up to use Katsura's penile break to stop from barreling down the mountain.

Everyone then takes shelter in an abandoned cabin, and soon become offended by a grotesque smell. It is revealed that it is the smell of the shogun's crotch. Kagura gripes about the stench, and Sougo and Shinpachi bravely step forward to smell for themselves. They both keel over, and Sougo wipes vomit off his face, apologizing to Kagura for underestimating the shogun's lack of hygiene. Kagura forgives him. Hijikata, distraught, demands to know why they're agreeing now of all times.

Gintama: The Movie: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya
In the final battle, Sougo and Kagura fight together. She surprises him by placing her hand on his hand and using it to push forward to kick an assailant. The two fight together, clearing their way through a path of enemies. Later, he helps launch Kagura forward by using his hands as a launching pad for her to step on.

Shinigami Arc
Kagura and Shinpachi stand by the rails of the ship as Shinpachi and Kagura worry over their futures. Kagura muses that no one will take her as a bride now because of Gintoki's actions, and Sougo appears, suggesting that he take her. He tells her he has a home prepared for her where she can get three meals per day and live a quiet life, but tells her it's got bars, AKA prison.

Sougo smacks away barrels with his sword, and one hits Kagura square in the forehead. Pained, she yells at him. She gets her revenge just a few moments later, jumping from a place of higher elevation and kicking him in the back, causing him to faceplant into the floor. Later, when the Odd Jobs are being taken to the execution block and Sougo explains their fate, she jumps on his soldiers and angrily gnaws on his head and chastises him. He headbutts her, and as she recovers from the impact, slings her off of him.

Soul Switch Arc
Sougo points his sword to the back of Gintoki's head and threatens to kill him, and Kagura does the same with her umbrella but to Hijikata. Sougo finds this amusing and proposes they see who has the stronger special move and Kagura agrees. Their auras, having been red for Kagura and blue for Sougo have swapped as they charge their moves up—Sougo is now red, and Kagura is now blue. They unleash their attacks, destroying the bridge they were on. Later, when their respective gangs go to war, they face each other head-to-head, both leaping into the air. They team up once more to attack the cat with half of Gintoki's soul inside.

At night, they repeat their attack on the cat as he stands on a rooftop, jumping down from above, looking more enthusiastic than usual. Kagura affectionately calls Sougo, "Sou-kun", and Sougo appears to have no issue with it. However, it turns out that Katsura is currently residing in Kagura's body and Elizabeth Sougo's. Kagura, now in Elizabeth's body, kicks at her former body, angrily questioning the use of the nickname. The cat swats them away, and they all land in a warehouse. F!Kagura grabs F!Sougo's body and holds him close to her heart, admonishing the cat for harming him. Kagura, in Elizabeth's body, explodes at this action, but Sougo in Katsura's body has no apparent issue with it, even telling real Kagura to calm down. F!Kagura is not happy with the sight of the two fighting and wraps her arm around F!Sougo, telling real Kagura and Sougo that they need to get along better since Katsura and Elizabeth are so close.

Real Kagura once again tells F!Kagura that seeing her body close to Sougo makes her sick, and again, Sougo does not appear to be angry with the affection. F!Kagura and F!Sougo restrain Cat Gintoki, but Kagura and Sougo kick them off. Sougo has come to accept his new life as a Joi rebel and seems to have grown fond of the nickname "Sou-kun". When Kagura rips off the cat's testicles, Sougo chastises her.

Feigned Illness Arc
Sougo comes by to visit Kagura on her deathbed whilst everyone in her room argues. He silences the room and looks at her as she has a panic attack. He walks to her bed and tells everyone to stop talking about funerals because Kagura isn't dead yet, and that she isn't the type to die from something like this. He smiles down at Kagura wistfully and tells the princess that Kagura won't die until they settle things for good. Everyone is shocked at his kindness, as Kagura and Sougo are known rivals. However, he quickly realizes that Kagura is pretending, as before Kagura can take an opportunity to come back to live, he chokes her with her elbow, pretending to listen to her last dying wishes, causing her to lose consciousness.

Kagura's coffin is paraded down the street and Kagura overhears as Sougo explains to her that he's aware of Kagura's act. He holds a remote, turning on the lights inside her coffin, saying that he has specifically gotten her a tanning salon-style coffin. Sougo smiles evilly to himself as Kagura begins to panic in her mind. When it is time for her viewing, Sougo volunteers to go first, holding a rose. His shoulders shake, and everyone gathered is touched by how heartfelt he is acting. However, Sougo's shoulders are shaking not from sobbing, but from holding back his laughs as he looks down at Kagura. He asks her how she likes her coffin while Kagura hatefully glares at him. He smirks down at her, telling her he can tell how appreciative she is. He deduces her reasoning for feigning her death and says that if the Odd Jobs' love for her is real, they'll be able to find out. Ironically, he was the one who found out before anyone else, and very quickly at that.

Farewell Shinsengumi Arc
Sougo gets jumped in an alleyway, but having lost all he's cared for, he has lost all retraint, and is prepared to massacre the large group of people gathered. However, Sadaharu punches one in the back of the head, and Kagura appears next to her dog, telling Sougo that he's hindering her walk. Sougo asks why she's there and Kagura tells him he's a policeman, so he should be taking care of traffic. Sougo says he is no longer a policeman, but Kagura points out he's still in his uniform, shocking him. Kagura reassures him and tells him that he's protected two girls (referencing how he defended Princess Soyo from Kamui and also injured Kamui which Kagura used to her advantage when she fough him later). She finishes off her inspiring speech by lightly shoving him and telling him to do his job of taking care of traffic. Sougo, shocked, asks if she's trying to cheer him up because she thought he was sad. Kagura denies this and says she only wants him to change out of his smelly, raggedy uniform. Sougo, slightly angered from the comment, vows to never take off his uniform again because of her words. He walks toward the gathered rebels and says he will still massacre them. He jumps at them with his sword and Kagura joins him with his umbrella, until both are stopped by Yamazaki.

A few days later, the Shinsengumi and Odd Jobs attempt to climb a cliff. Sougo asks how they can accomplish this impossible feat and Kagura presents a solution. Sougo asks if she's sure. and Kagura reassures him. She ties the rope around him and swings him around in a circle before throwing him in the middle of the cliff and telling everyone to grab the rope hanging off him to climb. Sougo eventually frees himself, jumping down on the back of Kagura's neck. The two then wrestle and begin to brawl.

When they successfully begin climbing the cliff, they are shot at by arrows. Kagura, pissed off, begins climbing at a rapid pace, but loses balance as an arrow strikes the place she'd been holding. She then free falls, facing near death, until Sougo grabs her hand. He holds his sword in his mouth, teeth chattering, and is barely able to hold both of them steady. When reinforcements finally arrive, Sougo gets revenge on Kagura for throwing him inside the mountain earlier, and tosses her up the mountain, where she chips off the edge as she smashes into it. Kagura holds her head and angrily points at Sougo when he joins her.

When Nobume and Sougo fight, Sougo's face turns completely shocked as Kagura stops both of them from continuing, stepping in the middle to hold both their faces. Kagura gives them a pep talk and Nobume places her sword near Kagura's neck, threatening to cut her head off. Sougo goes on high alert, gripping his sword tighter. Nobume jumps forward unexpectedly, and Sougo readies his sword to defend Kagura, but she ends up pushing Kagura out of the way to take an attack meant for her. The two team up once again, with Kagura grabbing Utsuro's sword, and Sougo jumps from the back to attack Utsuro by surprise, but fails.

The narration eludes to Kagura being someone Sougo has protected all this while and Kagura as someone who's supported him. Sougo walks past Kagura on a bridge and pauses to look at her from the corner of his eye. He eventually stands next to her and tells her that he thinks Gintoki staying in Edo to protect it in the Shinsengumi's absence is ridiculous. Kagura takes this as him think they're too weak to protect Edo, and tells him to try testing her. She kicks him into the river below the bridge and he angrily asks her why she assaulted him. She asks him if he came to meekly say goodbye to her and tells him that's not like him, that they have something more pressing to worry about instead of other people, with a rueful smile on her face. Sougo agrees with her, and they both sport the same smile at the same time as they draw their weapons, saying they need to see who's stronger. Kagura jumps down from the bridge to attack him, and they say they don't need any dumb words of farewell.

Kagura remarks that they both have a long way to go, and they vow that the next time they meet, they will be stronger than Utsuro and each other. They make each other promise that the other won't lose to anyone else until they meet again. As the sun sets, they look satisfied and happy with the conclusion of their fight.

Silver Soul Arc
Kagura and Sougo meet again as Sougo runs past her and asks what she's doing dawdling instead of fighting. As they fight the amanto, Kagura and Sougo repeat what the other said to them before they left, making fun of their words. They stand back-to-back as Sougo tells her that he's at least grown strong enough to one-shot her. Later, Kagura angrily reminds Sougo that they don't have much longer to live when Earth's headed for destruction as he pettily argues with Hijikata, and he agrees, albeit getting one last jibe at him.

When Kamui and Sougo meet again, they taunt each other, but Kagura warns them of their dollar store Vegeta vs Piccolo dialogue. Sougo heeds her words and keeps his taunts simple, telling Kamui his sister is ugly. Kagura, as the sister in question, angrily beats the both of them over the head with a large slab of stone and cuts their fight short.

Two years later, Sougo fights against Shinpachi and mini Kagura, or Kanna. Sougo agrees that Kanna really is like a copy of her "mother". Kanna's movements get sloppy when Sougo mentions Gintoki, and he freezes, assuming Kanna's father is Gintoki and that is why she froze up. They continue, and Sougo says he hasn't felt goosebumps during a fight in a while, implying the last time was during Sougo and Kagura's farewell fight. He tells her that he thinks he crossed swords with Kagura more times than they talked, but that sometimes, a sword speaks much louder than words. Sougo, once again, realizes what Kanna is hiding, and reveals that Kanna is just Kagura using a shapeshifting technique. When Kagura returns, he says "our beloved stubborn brat is back.".

Gintama: The Very Final
Kagura rests her elbow on Sougo's shoulder with a smile, which he lets her do for a few seconds, before moving, causing her to lose balance. The two glower at each other playfully.

Quotes
"WHICH ONE'S STRONGER, YOU OR ME?!!"

- Both Kagura and Sougo, chapter.

"Aren't you a policeman? At least deal with the traffic, then. I can't even walk my dog like this."

- Kagura, Episode 309.

"Wait, are you cheering me up right now? Did you think I was depressed?"

- Sougo to Kagura, Episode 309.

"TOO LATE TO BEG FOR YOUR LIVES! You're hindering our walk!"

- Kagura and Sougo Episode 309.

Fanon
OkiKagu is, without a doubt, the most popular ship within the Gintama fandom. Despite not having the most fanwork on western platforms such as AO3, OkiKagu is incredibly popular in its country of origin as well as surrounding countries. On Pixiv, the most popular ship art for Gintama are OkiKagu, and the most popular OkiKagu fan art sits at 12M views. OkiKagu fanart tends to gain traction on Instagram as well, posts gaining tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of likes from people who do not even watch Gintama. OkiKagu shipping merchandise sold on Taobao (China's version of Amazon, 8th most viewed website in the world) has sold thousands of copies and many people have stated that they've started Gintama simply for the ship.

It is very possible that Sougo and Kagura were, at the start of the series, meant to be romantically involved. There are several moments in the very beginning of the anime/manga that have romantic connotations, and the author, Hideaki Sorachi, stated in a volume extra that Sougo was anywhere from 15-20 despite already drinking, which makes the age gap between the two much smaller. However, it seems he ultimately decided against this, and aged Sougo up to being 18 so he could have Sougo be an extreme sadist in an attempt to make him funnier, having him commit a degree of unsavory acts as a sadist, as Sorachi wouldn't have been able to make the sexual jokes he did had Sougo been a minor.

OkiKagu week is usually held on September 1st to the 7th, with fans creating social media accounts to post various fan art, fan fiction and all things related to celebrate the two characters.

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