ItaFushiKugi

ItaFushiKugi is the poly ship between between Yuji Itadori, Megumi Fushiguro, and Nobara Kugisaki from the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom.

Canon
Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara are first-year students at the Jujutsu High. Nobara and Yuji seem to match each other’s energy quite often, especially if it’s excitement, though they often bicker and argue on mundane things, while Megumi waits for them to get over it without interrupting. Reserved and serious Megumi makes a good contrast to always enthusiastic and reckless Yuji and Nobara. They frequently compel him to join them on their adventurous undertakings — he looks reluctant, but always indulges them anyway.

Itadori and Fushiguro meet on a fateful night Itadori’s grandfather died and his classmates decide to unseal Sukuna’s finger. During that night, Fushiguro saves Itadori twice: first time when he pushes him out of the way and takes the hit himself, then later, when Gojo asks Fushiguro what they should do with newly turned vessel Itadori. Even though it turns to be futile in the face of the elder clans who sentence Itadori to execution, Fushiguro asks Gojo not to let Itadori die. Apparently, Megumi didn’t want “a good person like [Itadori] to die. They’re already on somewhat friendly terms when they meet another first-year student Nobara Kugisaki. She doesn’t seem very impressed with either of them at first, noting that Yuji looks simple-minded, while Megumi is way too grim, she even suspects him to have a hobby of lighting seagulls on fire in his spare time. However soon they start working together and seem to make a good team.

The trio’s first mission is to exorcise the Cursed Womb in West Tokyo City. When they enter the territory, Yuji and Megumi have an argument, Yuji wants to take one of the inmates’ dead body to bring his guardian, however the other boy thinks that inmates don’t deserve such treatment and they can’t waste their time on that anyway. Nobara breaks their argument and is immediately sucked into a freshly opened portal in the floor. As a curse appears in front of them, Yuji talks Megumi into going after their classmate to help her, while he himself decides to stay behind and hold off the curse. When Megumi and Nobara are outside of the detention center, the former gives Yuji a signal that they’re safe, and Yuji envokes Sukuna, who seems to be the one among them to tackle the curse. Ijichi takes unconscious Nobara to college, while Megumi decides to stay and wait for Itadori to come back. However, Yuji cannot wake up and Sukuna uses rips his heart out to take him hostage. Megumi and the King of Curses fight, until Megumi appeals to Yuji hoping that he is somewhere inside listening, and says that his reasoning to save him back then was emotional and selfish, and he has never regretted doing it.

Yuji regains consciousness, tells his friend to “live a good life” and apparently dies. Despite having known Yuji for a very short period of time, Megumi and Nobara are very saddened after his death and grieve their fallen comrade. Facing hardships their memory evokes his stoic image, his bravery and kindness: when the second-year students asked Megumi and Nobara if they want to join them in the Exchange Event with the Tokyo college because the third-years were suspended, the two eagerly agreed, as they both remembered Yuji, his resilence and willingness to always become stronger and better.

While they mourn him, Yuji stays in the basement on the territory of college campus, undergoing Gojo’s personal training program. Later he is sent on a mission with Nanami Kento that doesn’t go as successfully as it could have been, and Yuji loses a new friend, Junpei, which makes him more reserved and serious. The young sorcerer trainee hopes to come back to his friends one day, until Gojo allows him to join them on the Student Exchange Event with Kyoto college students. Yuji expects his friends to be ecstatic when they see him alive, however upon finding Yuji alive and well, Megumi and Nobara seem stunned and unable to say or do anything. Later, after they've accepted Yuji's comeback, Nobara kicks him putting on a look of annoyance, while Megumi is simply happy Yuji is alive as he asks him whether everything has been alright for him when he was away.

As the Exchange Event goes by, Yuji, Nobara, and Megumi are sent on yet another mission — to investigate deaths of three people. All victinms died under similar suspicious circumstances, and it runs out hey all went to Megumi's Middle School. When they arrive at Saitama Urami East Junior High, and the idling hooligans recognise Megumi as their bully, Nobara and Yuji express their anooyance about their friend not teling them anything about himself. Later their accusatory tone changes to teasing as the school janitor recognizes Megumi, too, and calls him "a problem cild". Itadori and Kugisaki are shocked to learn that Megumi has a n older sister, called Tsumiki. The trio finds out all the victims were found unconscious beneath Yasohachi Bridge, and Tsumiki once went under that bridge, too. Realising the growing threat, Megumi sends his friends with Akari Nitta back to college, as he plans on taking the bridge curse down on his own, not wanting to risk his friends' lives. Yuji protests, but his friend taks him into it anyway, and the car with the sorcerers leaves. Little does Megumi know, his friends secretly returned back and joined him. Megumi silently accepts them, and after Kugisaki and Itadori ask Fushiguro to share at least a little personal information with them because they're friends, he tells them Tsumiki's tragic story and why it's important to kill this exact curse, as he suspects it's what keeps his sister in coma and can kill her at any moment as long as it exists. Yuji and Nobara, with small smiles on their faces, agree to deal with it together. All three triumphantly go through the ordeals and Aoi Todo, Kyoto College student, meets with principal Yoshinobu, and nominates them to be promoted to grade 1 sorcerers. As they rest after the mission, Nobara encounters Yuji's old classmate, Yuko Ozawa, and finds out she has a crush on him. Nobara tries to help the girl and calls Megumi to come to the cafe they're at promptly. As Megumi arrives and realises what they're talking about, he and Nobara exchange tense looks and decide to aid her with what they can. However when Yuji joins them, Ozawa doesn't have the heart to tell him, and Yuji doesn't realize that she likes him. As Megumi and Nobara worry if the girl will be alright after she leaves, Yuji seems completely oblivious to the girl's intentions, and all three agree to go to the movies.

Fanon
The ship is relatively small, being overshadowed by ItaFushi and NobaMaki, and many Jujutsu Kaisen fans seem to enjoy the characters’ interactions as friends. The relationship is often compared to the previous Jujutsu High trio, SaShiSu. Some fans enjoy imagining all six as friends together, like in this art.

Many fans wonder what the dynamic between the three would be like when they graduate the college. Although, as of chapter 150, Nobara's fate is unknown, fans hope she's alive and will come back to fight alongside her friends. In many arts (like in this or this art) Yuji is depicted having grown into a larger frame (taller and broader than Megumi), Nobara has longer hair than during her student years and an eyepach over the eye she lost, and Megumi is wearing traditional Montsuki Haori Hakama (he is the head of a clan and must appear as a distinguished gentleman).

In some AUs Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara appear as members of mafia or professional assassing like here.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

PIXIV
 * Plant Trio tag on Pixiv
 * Plant Trio tag on Pixiv

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Nobara's first name contains kanji that mean "wild rose", Megumi's means "blessing", and Yuji’s — "relaxing”, “caring for others".
 * The trio’s unofficial symbols are a tiger, a dog, and a red rose (usually presented as 🐯🐺🌹 — Megumi’s dog is turned into a wolf), it’s due to Nobara’s name meaning, Megumi’s ability to summon divine dogs, and Itadori’s last name meaning “tiger cane” (it’s a herb, but if the second kanji (杖) is omitted, it’s just tiger (虎).
 * Sometimes referred to as "Plant Trio": Nobara (野薔薇) is a wild rose, Itadori (虎杖) is Japanese knotweed, and Fushiguro (伏黒) is Silene firma.
 * In one of Jujutsu Strolls, when Yuji assumes Megumi is being hit on by a stranger, he and Nobara rapidly approach their friend, and latch onto his clothes. With tears in their eyes they beg him to remember how good it was when they were together, specifically, Nobara mentions how he "toasted to her eyes", while Yuji recalls Megumi telling him that the time they've spent "was the best of his life".
 * At the end of episode 24, as friends return from a shopping spree, Yuji lets Nobara's white blouse fall out of one of the bags. She starts scolding him violently, and Megumi turns away from them, visibly flushing — either from embarrassment or endearment.
 * In the first light novel, Yuji and Megumi accidentally visit an Angel Maid Café in Akihabara (a themed place, where waitresses are dressed in maid costumes, act as servants and treat customers as masters). When Nobara learns about that, she seems extremely disappointed in both of them, especially Megumi, who, according to her, acts primly and composed, but turns out to be a debaucher.

Gallery

 * ItaFushiKugi/Gallery

Variations

 * FushiKugi refers to the ship between Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki
 * ItaFushi refers to the ship between Yuji Itadori and Megumi Fushiguro
 * ItaKugi refers to the ship between Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki