hi talk about megumi and connection to his shikigami! emotional, ability wise, whichever comes to mind first.
send me things to meta about !! ♡ @shikkotsa ♡
picture this : teeny little eight year old megumi, two newly tamed puppies staring up at him while he grumpily orders them around. AH!! i know it’s not practical, but i really really love the idea that the demon dogs were little when they were first summoned/tamed, reflecting his own age and naivety to cursed energy at the time. the dogs are by far the most well behaved shikigami, as he’s spent the most time with them (and though he shouldn’t get attached as if they’re pets, he mourned the loss of white dog quite a lot).
i wanna say he first got a true handle over the dogs around 11 or so, spending a lot of time perfecting just how to summon them, and instill them with different commands and such. the next to be tied down was nue, aka my baby my love aka the second most well-trained. followed shortly by the easier-to-tame gama (toad), and then the more difficult orochi (great serpent). the most recent three are the ones with the least practice put into them : banshou (max elephant), datto (rabbit escape), and eight-handled sword divergent sila divine general mahoraga ( but that last one is a WHOLE other can of worms, mans is not tamed or able to be used, obviously !!! )
in terms of emotional importance to him, nue and the demon dogs actually carry quite a bit of emotional importance to him that he doesn’t even realize. (one very self indulgent hc is the thought that at least once in his life he’s accidentally summoned the dogs while asleep and woken up with them curled at the foot of his bed. they’re his protectors as well as weapons.). i don’t think he even realizes it, as they’re so naturally a part of him and his cursed technique, but they do at some point begin to feel like pets after months and years of training them and learning through them. at times, they feel like tools - at other times, he finds himself dropping a treat to a dog formed out of shadows. it’s really a tricky concept even to megumi himself. there’s panels like this one :
where he isn’t so inclined to praise the dogs as yuuji and nobara. it gives a teensy impression that he sees them not as pets, but i take it more like . . . a police dog, almost ? he sees it as the shikigami are at work, and not to be treated like pets at the current time. proof ? THIS FUCKING PANEL
ALL TOGETHER, the majority of what i’m saying is they feel almost more like trusted colleagues than pets.