ItaKugi

"There are only so many open seats in my life, and I don't want to let my heart be swayed by anyone who's not sitting in them. Is that mean? Of course, there are also people like you who bring their own seat and sit down."

- Nobara to Yuji.

ItaKugi is the het ship between Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki from the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom.

Canon
Yuji and Kugisaki are classmates and close friends at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, both being Jujutsu Sorcerers. The two are in a small group with their peer, Megumi Fushiguro, under their Sensei, Satoru Gojo. Despite their upfront personalities strongly differing, the two find themselves on the same wavelength a lot of the time and have proven to be powerful when working together.

They first met after Yuji became the vessel for the special-grade curse, Sukuna, immediately being recruited by Gojo, and when Kugisaki enrolled into the college. Yuji, along with Megumi and Gojo, met Kugisaki when she first arrived in Tokyo. Yuji was somewhat put off by her upfront, and blunt personality whilst Kugisaki assessed Yuji as the kind who ate his own buggers. Nonetheless, they were immediately sent on a mission by Gojo to eliminate some curse spirits nearby on their own. The pair ultimately succeeded and have since developed a strong sense of camaraderie.

Kugisaki is a proud, open, and blunt person, often making honest remarks to whoever she is talking to, and is highly confident in every situation she is in. Yuji is simple-minded, energetic but also equally as confident, lacking any fear whatsoever. Despite their initial differences, the two often react in similar ways to news or events. They both were excited to tour Tokyo, were obsessed with Megumi’s demon dog, and teased Megumi for having beaten up some bullies when he was a kid. They both find amusement in the fun things in their lives and tend to have a good time together, often being just as excited as each other. When Yuji's ex-classmate shows romantic interest in him, Kugisaki agrees to help the girl but reveals her competitiveness by stating the idea of Yuji being in a relationship before her feels annoying, adding that he should be after her.

Despite the fun they have, Kugisaki is not above "abusing" Yuji if he annoys or upsets her, often punching him. However, Yuji does not react negatively to this, instead either feeling remorseful for having upset her in the first place or confused as to what he did. She also does not take kindly to him giving her commands, even at one point telling him not to boss her around, due to doubting his abilities as he was relatively new to fighting curse spirits. This left her pondering how Yuji was able to break through a wall with sheer force during their first fight against a curse spirit.

However, when it appeared that Yuji had actually died, Kugisaki was evidently upset at the loss of her new friend, despite exclaiming to Megumi that she does not make a habit of mourning someone she had only known for two weeks, yet Kugisaki still made a painful face after saying that. When he revealed himself to be alive, in an overly theatrical way, she is left initially disturbed by this revelation but soon walks over to Yuji and demands he apologizes to her for making her grieve for him. Conversely, when Yuji witnesses Kugisaki get disfigured by Mahito, possibly leaving her dead, he becomes distressed and filled with rage. It is implied she has actually died after Megumi’s silent response when Yuji asks how she is doing.

Gradually, Kugisaki comes to accept Yuji as a comrade and begins to have faith in his abilities to fight off curse spirits. Their friendship culminated when they fought together to defeat two special-grade curses. They proved to be a powerful duo with Kugisaki, in particular, having great admiration and confidence in Yuji’s ability to handle the pain he was inflicted with whilst fighting the special grades. At one point, he is able to carry her to safety when being pursued and she is shocked to see how absurdly quick he can run. When Nobara uses resonance on Mahito's clone, greatly affecting the real Mahito who Yuji is fighting, he thanks her for showing that he isn't alone.

Following their victory over the special grade brothers, Kugisaki comforted Yuji when he felt unhappy at killing the special grades, as opposed to exorcising them. She reminded him that they’re not in a position to save everyone and do not have the means to do so. Later, Megumi concludes that the recent events of active spirits killing people result from Yuji eating Sukuna’s finger. She agrees not to mention anything to Yuji as she fully understands how much it would upset him. It would also seem Kugisaki admits that she cares for Yuji’s well-being, as she explained that there are a limited number of seats for the people she can care for in her life, but that Yuji had brought his own seat to sit down on, ultimately accepting he has become a part of her life. Kugisaki, with great poignant, tells Yuji how her life wasn't so bad after she reminds herself of her past with Fumi and Saori, moments after she was disfigured by Mahito.

Moments

 * In chapter 5, Nobara blushes and smiles at Yuji as she thanks him, Yuji blushes back.
 * In chapter 64, Nobara tells Megumi that the idea of Yuji getting a girlfriend before she gets a boyfriend annoys her, she points at Yuji's imaginary blushing figure and says that her heart skipped a beat.
 * When Nobara fights Momo Nishimiya, there is a scene where she gets a flashback of Yuji. In the Manga the panel made him look funny, however in the anime that was changed and Yuji looked more happy, presumably from Nobara's point of view.
 * Whilst battling Nobara, Mahito realizes that she is a close friend to Yuji and decides on killing her as he thinks that bringing her dead body to Yuji would destroy his soul.
 * Yuji was the only one who asked about Nobara's condition while talking to Megumi, getting enraged when he realized the truth.

Quotes
"Itadori. Tell everyone... it wasn't so bad!"

- Kugisaki smiling at Itadori as she tells him this before her death.

"Kugisaki?! Kugisaki..! Thank you! I couldn't save everyone, I wasted everyone's effort..but.. Thank you for showing me I'm not alone."

- Itadori is grateful to her.

"If there is only pain.. Yuji... Itadori.. will not stop!"

- Nobara about Yuji right before Black Flash.

Fanon
ItaKugi is not a particularly popular ship in the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom, but this is not due to a dislike of the pair, in fact many fans see them both as very close friends. There is no romantic hints between either of them and for many fans that is how they think it should be. Platonically, the pairing is very much loved because of their comedic and energetic personalities blending well with each other. The fact that Kugisaki stated she would never date Yuji, even if Heaven and earth danced to the lambada, encouraged fans to see their relationship as sibling-like.

Nonetheless, some fans argue that it is these qualities that makes the pairing worthy of being shipped. The two get on well with each other, share similar interests and excitement, and work well together as a team. Even with a lack of romance, ItaKugi shippers still hope that the pair will end up together or for romance to form between the two. Some Sukume fans draw parallels between their ship and ItaKugi.

Currently ItaKugi is Nobara's third and Yuji's sixth most written ship on Archive of Our Own. ItaKugi is the third most written Jujutsu Kaisen het ship on AO3. Due to JJK having minimal romance, there are currently no canon-status rival ships involving either Yuji or Nobara, although slash ship ItaFushi and femslash ship NobaMaki are much more popular in the western fanbase. At the same time, in Japan, Yuuji and Nobara's pairing is the only ship with Nobara, which is included in the top 30 of the most popular ships in the franchise. As of June, 2021, ItaKugi had reached 369 works on Pixiv. Currently on Pixiv, Itakugi has over 29548 shipping numbers. Total views of the ship being 13657710, on 2021 3/28 it had reached 119016 total views. Itakugi is also on the list of the 30 most popular Jujutsu Kaisen ships in the Japanese fandom, scoring 21st place. Japanese fans are so enthralled by the ship, some of them write about Nobara liking Yuji romantically and explore their relationship in their personal blogs.

The reason why Itakugi is a loved ship in the Jujutsu Kaisen Fandom is because of the close bond Yuji and Nobara have with each other. From Nobara saying that Yuji took his own seat in her heart to Yuji saving Nobara and trusting her completely. Nobara also holds a great value of affection in Yuji, telling him that she's got his back mid-battle. The relationship between the two is formed on trust and true companionship.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TWITTER
 * Itakugi posts on Twitter
 * 虎釘 posts on Twitter
 * #ยูจิโนบาระ hashtag on Twitter

TUMBLR
 * 虎釘 posts on Tumblr
 * 虎釘 posts on Tumblr

PIXIV
 * 宿虎 tag on Pixiv
 * 虎釘 tag on Pixiv

Trivia

 * The two are often drawn side by side together in official arts.
 * In an official art for Yuji's birthday, Nobara is seen holding different kinds of daisy's as a gift for Yuji. White daisies symbolize innocence, spirituality, and purity; red daisies symbolize love and passion; pink daisies mean gentleness, love, and romance; and orange daisies mean happiness, joy and friendship.
 * Anne Yatco, the English voice of Nobara, described on Twitter Yuji and Nobara's team up with "fire" emojis.
 * Adam McArthur, the English voice of Yuji tweeted that the only official Jujutsu Kaisen merch he wanted was the pink Nobara shirt, Anne Yatco (Noabra's ENG VA) replied to his tweet with lenny face emojis.
 * During an interview, Junya Enoki (Yuji's VA) got asked about what he thought of Nobara, his answer was, "Out of the three of them, she is the manliest, she has the most grit out of all them. She's a very cool girl." he describes Nobara as a very feminine yet dominant girl, he also adds that Nobara is a very strong and dependable character.
 * During another interview with Yuji and Nobara's VAs, Seto Asami and Junya Enoki, the two got asked a question about what characters from Jujutsu Kaisen they would be friends with in real life. Seto Asami (Nobara's VA) replied with, "I think [it's] Itadori for me? Isn't he kind? Even though he always complains, he's always there for you." She later asks Junya Enoki, "Don't you think he has a strong heart?"
 * Junya Enoki and Seto Asami did a live reading of Nobara and Yuji's accomplices episode, during the reading Seto Asami when saying the line "And I don't want my heart to be swayed" used the word "kokoro" when referring to Nobara's heart not wanting to be swayed by those who didn't have a seat in her life. Kokoro is the word for the metaphysical heart, as in "heart, mind, spirit." Kokoro has a meaning related to the soul. Therefore the word is often used in Japanese literature and music to refer to "heart and soul" in one, meaning that when Nobara told Yuji that he had brought his own seat into her heart, it's taken in a way that she's saying that he had brought his own seat into her heart and soul.
 * David McArthur the English voice of Yuji, once retweeted an official Nobara action figure with the caption "Take my body, I mean my money."
 * In the original Japanese translation of Jujutsu Kaisen "Accomplices" When Nobara told Yuji about her heart not wanting to be moved by those who didn't take a seat in her life, she used the Kanji "心" which means heart but it also means "core" core is most familiar used as a noun referring to the central or most important part of something. So in that case, Nobara is telling Yuji that she doesn't want her core/heart to be swayed by people who don't have a seat in her life. But she follows that with saying that Yuji is the one who brought his own chair into her core/heart.
 * Yuji and Nobara are both Mahito's natural enemies.
 * Nobara and Yuji's ship name in Japanese is 虎釘 which means "Tiger Nail".
 * Yuji and Nobara go to the movies together.
 * In one of the Jujutsu Talk radio shows Nobara comes up to Yuji to show him her outfit, Yuji says that nobody can see it since this is an audio only radio. In which Nobara responds to him saying that he will have to buy her an outfit later in return.
 * In one of Gege Akutami's sketches of Yuji, Nobara, Gojo and Megumi, Yuji and Nobara are drawn as Luffy and Nami from One Piece. Although the two aren't a canonical romantic couple and are instead best friends, some fans believe that the relationship between Luffy and Nami is hinted towards being romantic at the end of the series. Therefore, fans compare ItaKugi to LuNa, since both pairings are best friends that the fans of the ships hope to become canon at the end of the series.
 * Nobara's name has the kanji «薔薇» (bara) in it which stands for "rose" Preferably, a red rose as she is seen holding them in official arts. Mainly in the one made by Gege Akutami where she points a bouquet of roses at Yuji, amongst the most popular flowers in Japan, the red rose — (Akaibara, 赤い薔薇), Is the most popular. In Japan, roses have a global meaning of romance and can be offered as a sign of love to your significant other. Red rose (Akaibara, 赤い薔薇) - means romance as well as in the Western meaning.
 * During a radio show with Uchida Yama, and Junya Enoki, Seto Asami (Nobara's JP VA) had to pick a scene that she enjoyed the most, she picked the scene of Nobara and Yuji's talk of them being accomplices saying, "I was drawn in so much I couldn't help but to choose this (scene)." Uchida Yama also chose this scene, saying that the word "accomplice" had left an impression on him. Seto Asami also mentioned that, "Nobara too... Nobara herself was being considerate of Itadori's feelings but also piercing through him, but if she pays too much attention, it feels like she'll be having a tantrum. I chose it because I thought that the care and the sense of distance between them was really delicate, while also being considerate of each other's true feelings."
 * In June 2021, Jujutsu Kaisen collaborated with Niigata Rice Cracker Museum & Bakauke Inari, on the rice crackers packages the two characters are depicted as Borin and Barin, who are boyfriend and girlfriend respectively. They were portrayed as Nobara and Yuji on multiple packets.
 * Yuji and Nobara's VAs did a comedy skit as their characters.
 * During a radio show with Uchida Yuma (Megumi's VA) and Junya Enoki, Uchida Yuma said that upon discovering that Yuji was alive, Nobara was angry since she was worried about him after everything that had happened.
 * In an interview with Gege Akutami, when the topic was switched to Nobara's death, Gege said, "I had decided from the beginning to not let Itadori win too much. I thought that I would definitely break his heart once in order for growing him up." The interviewer responded with, "You broke his heart too much", when referring to Nobara.
 * Gege Akutami drew a sketch of Nobara with tiny Megumi, Gojo, and Yuji's faces in her hands. In the second drawing, blushing Nobara is depicted with Yuji's little smiling face on her hand.