@Meopat: hm, I'm not sure if we ever explicitly discussed the two as 20y-olds here, but a lot of people seem to assume that they reunite at around age 20 (because it'd leave 4 years between their meeting again and we know from the novels Nezumi isn't back after 2-3 years). So basically any reunion discussion would revolve around them being around 20? If that's what you meant?
@Weisel: now you've made me curious too though XD Do you think they'd grow apart or that Nezumi would just never return, or do you have way worse things in store and are we going to regret asking?
@AoYokai, thanks for starting this thread! You're right, people usually focus on the canon events and straight after reunion. It's fun to explore the time after that.
By Jove though, I hope Shion will have quit the committee by then, at least the full time part of it. I just don't think it's really his thing and he might possibly collapse from stress after almost a decade... He could still be involved, just not full time. I don't think he could ever fully let it go, if only because of his promises to those who are gone, but if he saw the city was in the right hands, it'd help him relax I bet. And yeah, Karan did mention a couple of times how he'd like to work with kids, so I can definitely see that.
Nezumi - hm, tough one. He could do a lot of things, but what would he want is another question. Then again, I do feel that acting is something he loves doing, considering how disappointed he seems by the not quite amazing West Block settings and how he has Shakespeare memorized. (And pretty much every single reunion fic I've read that goes beyond the actual reunion has Shion build him a theater, so I might have gotten influenced there, haha.)
I do always wonder, though. They're 16 in canon, tastes can change...
Which also relates to whether they'd be together or not after being apart again, but the optimist in me (gasp there is one! Apparently!) likes to think they'll have a lot of conversations, A LOT, where they figure out how they both felt at the time, how they both needed that time apart, and how they can start getting to know each other again under normal circumstances and fall back into sync. But there will still be times even long after reunion when it becomes very obvious that they're different, and they need to work with that. I for one don't think either of them is ever going to get rid of the nightmares completely, but at least they know what the other is going through, or at least better than anyone else does. But this is dangerous territory and I don't feel remotely adequate to talk about trauma or PTSD or related topics, so I'm just gonna... not...
Ahh fun things! I wonder what Inukashi would end up doing? Still run the hotel or branch out? In a more recovered No. 6 where there's less need for the dog hotel, maybe a dog café or something else wild like that, idk. Dogs are involved at any rate XD And little Shion seemed to be growing up nicely, so he can help. I do really think he likes his big namesake a lot, even if he can't see him all that often (since Inukashi's letter suggests that Shion doesn't have time to come over all that much some years after the events). And he'd grow up with lots of different wisdom around him at least, in between all the main characters. I wonder how Nezumi would like the kid - I mean, he is being raised by Inukashi, haha.
I am super fond of the idea that Lili ends up helping out Karan in the bakery a lot. I have no idea how old she's supposed to be either... 7-8ish in canon, maybe? That would make her old enough to work there in the weekends or something when Shion is 25. That'd be nice. And maybe Renka and Lili's little sister can help, too. I'm not sure if it was mentioned what Renka was doing in the first place (since she lives in Lost Town, I'm gonna assume she had to make her own money for a while before she ended up together with Getsuyaku), but I like her being friends with Karan.
(And maybe said little sister can run after little Shion while Lili perhaps-not-so-silently crushes on the bigger one XD ahem.)