whoa!that was so cool

Nihao Demi-Saiyan Prodigy,
Goodness. It has been a while, hasn't it?. Almost didn't recognize your profile here, you've branched out so much. An adventure for Dende, a little drama for ChiChi and what appears to be a near Goten-centric horror/suspense story... Well. *smiles* The Gohan fandom may be a few fics shorter for all of this but their loss is definitely our gain. And, hopefully, your gain as well.
It's extremely nice to see someone approach the subject of ChiChis background, if only in passing. There's so much unexplored territory with her. To the vast majority of fans, ChiChi is nothing but a wife and mother that's been reduced to the lifestyle of a grumpy and/or lonely maid. But then... The sad truth is that the vast majority of fans do seem to be DBZ fans who don't seem to be terribly informed or curious about the original Dragonball series. *sighs* And by DBZ, especially in the anime... ChiChi has more or less become what these people so often make her out to be.
I'm sure that you know all this, Demi. What you might not realize, though, is how important works like this one are insofaras enlightening people. When someone actually takes the time give a serious yet plausible explaination on who the character really is deep down and WHY a character is the way they are... It makes the readers pause, question their assumptions and begin to appreciate aspects of the the character that the official series never really mentioned. We can only hope.
You have, as usual, considerable talent. In this original work, you manage to shine a spotlight on the subtle layers of character depth and revive a subject that's been ignored for far too long. This is the kind of writing that can make people change their minds about a character. That is both an awesome power to wield and a heavy responsibilty to bear - but you handle it well, Demi and you make it look so simple. Such a good role model for aspiring artists.
The story... Much as I enjoyed the entire work... Really, it was the finer aspects that touched me. The implied ideas, the unspoken layers of meaning and consequence.
For example, the inclusion of seasickness was both practical and brilliant. Nice of Ox King to anticipate it because most readers and authors wouldn't have. Far too many people tend to skip the journey. Characters go from point A to B without much through or emotion. You're one of the great exceptions Demi.
I appreciate the idea of ChiChi having this dark little secret in her past, this murder on her conscious. I've had a similiar unarticulated theory about her for ages. It makes her character development so much more understandable this way. Now that she's had to fight for survival, perhaps that ruins martial arts as a sport and form of exercise for her. Perhaps this is part of why ChiChi chose to give up fighting after the 23rd Budoukai. And it only adds to her list of reasons for not wanting her sons to battle. True, Gohan and Goten were each fairly young at their first real battles. ChiChi was worried - as any decent mother would be - because she didn't want her boys to get killed. But with this idea dropped into her background... This rite of passage... Another, less obvious, angle is revealed. Maybe ChiChi didn't want her boys to battle because she didn't want them to have to kill anyone else. It's likely hard enough for ChiChi to live with the knowledge that she has killed - to say nothing of how awkward/scary it could be to live around Goku - but to live with the knowledge that your child has killed... That would be hard.
Another topic you deftly brushed: public perception. It hurts to admit how much perception can matter sometimes. The people on the boat in your story didn't percieve ChiChi as a warrior at first. Didn't percieve her as a danger. She didn't match their narrow, stereotypical definitions of what 'warrior' meant. It's really very sad. Because perception is something that carries over to shape and limit the character. To people reading Toriyamas manga, ChiChi didn't 'look like' a warrior either. Thus she gradually became an oft-forgotten background character. I sometimes wonder... If ChiChi had looked - or even dressed - just a little different... Would people have found it more acceptable for her to remain a warrior? Would the other warrior characters in the series have been more inclined to include her or value her opinion? *sighs* Alas, we may never know.
Furthermore... Your inclusion of Android 10 is quite intriguing. The idea that Red Ribbon would have had an android ready for the tournament and programmed for revenge is actually fairly plausible. I suppose most fans tend to overlook this possiblity because of the presence of a certain Cyborg, Tao, whom you mentioned in passing. Good of you to pick up on this discrepency. Tao may have been hired and built by Red Ribbon but odds are, they didn't program him. Thus Android 10 would represent Red Ribbons interests while Tao pursed his own agenda.
Brilliant moments of speculation on the creation, function and likely inevitable of inner conflicts androids. Interesting, also, that Android 10 was female and that she generally seemed to consider herself more human than machine. All in all.. The character was crafted so well that Android 10 managed to provide a sense of balance for the story, without stealing the spotlight from ChiChi. Fantastic. And mind-boggling, as well. Despite the fact the story stands well on it's own, the sheer number of 'what if' scenarios that could branch off from this one-shot of yours... *shakes head* People don't seem to realize how very fragile the official series is. How very brave Chichi was to go against all odds - hoping to find Goku, hoping that she could last long enough in the tournament to get a battle against him, hoping that he would remember her, hoping that he was still interested in her, hoping that he wouldn't have already met someone else...
Really, when you think about how easily ChiChi could have just stayed home to watch the Budoukai on television, Gohans existence is nothing short of a miracle.
Enough from me for now. Take care Demi! And please contemplate the continuance of your somewhat-neglected 'Inversion of Shadows' in the near future!
~DoraMouse

Well, I can't say that I've ever been a huge fan of Chi-chi, but I think I like her a bit more now. She's truly a neglected character, which is odd I think, being the wife of the main character. It was nice to see her portrayed as something other than a rampaging ** with a frying pan. *gag*
Definitely felt bad for Kin. I feel sort of bad for all the androids, at least for the ones that didn't clearly gives themselves up to everything. But then, do we really know if any of them did? *shrug* 17 and 18 always had this "We did this to be different and rebellious but we got burned" feel to them. I dunno.
Overall, I say very good. You didn't go nutso on trying to explain every passing face and plank of wood. I liked how it just focused on the two main characters without a bunch of useless extras making noise. Kept things simple and to the point.

Wow that was way different from any story I've read about chichi. She's my favorite charcter but I thought she was going to meet goku. If I could make a request, could you write a goku and chichi fic. Their my favorite couple. This was an awsome story you wrote very detailed which is what is good in stories. Keep it up, hope to see another one.

Nice. Very nice.
You do such an awesome job at protraying Chi Chi's character. I think we forget sometimes that she was a warrior at heart just as much as the rest of the guys. Good insight into the android perspective, too.