TheFirstMaster

In the middle of writing my ZenSachi fic(which by the way, I spent an obnoxiously long time writing it, so if you enjoy Sacchan finally getting a goddamn clue, please check it out), I realized that the background of both these girls has influenced how they approach Gintoki.

Both of them are in love with him. I say that, knowing that I'm inherently biased with ZenSachi, but it's true. Sacchan and Tsukuyo love him canonically, but their approaches are different.

Sacchan doesn't have as much exposition on her past as much as Tsukuyo does, but here are some things that are stated in canon:

She was trained by Zenzou's father to be a kunoichi in the ninja village and later served in the defunct Oniwabanshu, an organization that used to protect the Shogun and also to carry out the Bakufu's dirty deeds.

According to Zenzou in the Glasses Arc, she worked really hard and had a talent for becoming a ninja, despite her bad eyesight.

She's the number one assassin in Edo, and though you very rarely ever see her being serious - you can see elements of her deadliness in action here and there. For example, in the first scene of the Shogun Assassination arc, she prevents Shigeshige from being poisoned by throwing a kunai at his teacup, and she seems very proficient in using poison and needles in her job.

I think the part where she goes from being blind as a bat but still being Number One in Edo is particularly impressive.

So I think mentally, she has this idea that if she works harder, she will earn Gintoki's love. She puts a terrific amount of effort into her pursuit of Gintoki, which amounts to absolutely nothing, but it doesn't stop her at all.

Now, do I necessarily agree with her approach? No, because I also know she is an idiot. However, I think her inherent confidence in her own charm and abilities from the start speaks of why she believes she will one day gain Gintoki's love. If you're number 1 in something, then you probably have this false confidence that you can do whatever you like and it'll turn out for the best, because it happened the first time, right?

To me I've always viewed Sacchan as this hopelessly clumsy girl who really wants to be loved, but doesn't know how to go about it properly, because she's naturally crude and atypical of the usual yamato nadeshiko. Because she has all these masculine traits of being the very best or ambitious or ultra-ruthless - which, by the way, suit her very well in the gory world of assassins - they don't translate into feminine ability of understanding Gintoki as a man. She simply doesn't understand his body language, or ignores the subtext of what he's saying to or about her. Somehow, the female knowledge of not pursuing a guy who's very much not interested in her has completely escaped her.

The most damning thing is when Sacchan tries to entice Gintoki in the hospital by doing these stereotypical tropes of desirability - she's wearing a nurse's outfit (which she looks sexy in), she's tying herself up in shibari, she's trying to feed him. Basically, she's replicating an adult video stereotype, but she doesn't have the emotional intelligence to play it in a way that's believable. She's basically a little girl trying on different roles for fun, but you can tell she's not really all that experienced with love, and she is far from being a skilled seductress despite having the raw materials, so to speak.

None of it works because she's not registering that Gintoki doesn't like her. I don't even think she's willfully ignoring him, she's just so headstrong that she doesn't even realize that a man can ignore her even with these alluring clothes or blatant sexualization.

Gintoki, like a lot of men in my experience, wants to chase somebody. He gravitates towards prickly, serious, and easily irritated people. I think Sacchan just made it too easy for him to be interested, but that's okay, because Sorachi already told all of us in the last chapter that her future husband is already somewhat like Gintoki.

Now, let's move on to Tsukuyo, who as everyone knows, I ship with Gintoki. Bias aside, there are several factors why Tsukuyo's approach towards Gintoki is different from Sacchan.

Her background, for reference:

She was raised in Yoshiwara, but has remained a virgin. Her master told her to give up on being a woman and by proxy, the possibility of romantically loving or being loved by another man so that she can remain pure as the guardian of Yoshiwara.

She has seen Suzuran, a courtesan that has lived for many years, waiting for a man who never comes until Suzuran is on the verge of death.

She is inherently selfless and when Sacchan sends her Photoshopped pictures of a wedding between her and Gintoki, Tsukuyo wishes the two of them happiness even though it makes her sad. (Good thing it's fake, lmao)

Romantic love in Yoshiwara is seen as a "lie" or a reliable scam to make more money out of customers.

So when Tsukuyo says in the Love Potion Arc that Gintoki is the kind of man to never belong to anyone - I do not actually take it as something that Sorachi says definitively as a final obliteration of GinTsu. To be honest that line was pretty confusing because the chapters afterward gave mixed messages about the state of their courtship, but if I look at Tsukuyo's history, I interpret it like she's doubtful of her own chances of being able to gain Gintoki's love. She, like him, has self-doubt when it comes to people appreciating and caring for her because of her tough background. I believe she thinks that love is a pursuit that's not destined for her, because she was taught from an early age that she wasn't supposed to possess such a thing in the first place.

So that's a very complicated issue to unravel, and also the reason why I think she is perfectly content to hold onto her feelings without burdening Gintoki with them. She doesn't go out of her way to pursue him, but it's undeniable that she loves him for who he is.

Overall, I think their two different approaches towards Gintoki are partially responsible for the reason why they don't hate each other, even though they're in love with the same guy. They're good friends because, well, female friendship is great, but also - there's this sense of respect between each other, plus the fact that Tsukuyo isn't actively competing with Sacchan at all.