Well, if Lawson were to do it, things would work out because he likes 
Nabiki. 

Oh, I don't know about that.  I've read enough of Lawson's work
to believe that he has an honest inner critic.  You saw how the
first bit went - Nabiki turned out a lot angrier and more volitile
than he said he expected.  If he were to push through with writing
the story, it would probably go in different directions than he 
initially planned.  This is just guesswork, of course, but I think
a lot of writers find that stories take on a life of their own once
you start them.  I know mine do.

In reality, of course, Nabiki would simply get stomped on:

Reality?  Heh.  Good one.

Ranma:  Would die before he'd recognize her authority over him. He would 
fight her like a boy possessed; Nabiki would have to escalate things 
dramatically just to win a temporary victory.

I think so too.  He wouldn't fight her physically, but they'd clash
in all sorts of ways.  I think that could be the central source of humor
and conflict in a story like this one.

Kunou:  She may be able to get him to see the truth about the 
'pig-tailed girl', but nothing short of Akane directly telling him that 
she doesn't love him would have the least effect.

Even that probably wouldn't help.  I think, more likely, Nabiki might
decide to try to deflect Kuno's affections onto someone else in order
to help her sister (perhaps Ranma, perhaps not).  Then, of course,
she would learn (to her horror) about the "I must have them both!" 
principle.  That's the sort of thing I'd picture as going wrong when Nabiki
tries to solve things.  It could be funny.  There are other possibilities,
of course, but I think it would be a bit disappointing if Nabiki, for some
reason, could just talk Kuno out of his obsessions and fantasies.

Kodachi:  Nabiki would very likely wind up in a lot of pain, if not 
dead. She simply can't hope to fight Kodachi in any meaningful way.

I don't know.  I'm not sure where Nabiki would actually come into conflict
with Kodachi.  It would depend on how events went in the story and 
where Kodachi got involved.  If Nabiki is clashing with Ranma, she might
not have any reason to cross Kodachi's path directly.

Shampoo:  This amazon would kill her in an instant if she felt Nabiki 
posed a serious threat to her mission.

Have to disagree with you here, and this is just my take on the way the
Amazons (Shampoo and Mousse, anyway) actually work.  They talk
the talk about killing obstacles and such, but they never seem to get
around to walking the walk, for whatever reason.  I just don't think they're
killers at heart, in spite of the way they like to talk about it.  They have
a lot of opportunities in the original story to follow through with a kill,
but they always avoid it one way or another.  Anyway, I think you
could have a perfectly valid and in character story in which Shampoo 
doesn't want to stoop to physically threatening a non-fighter like Nabiki.

Ukyou: Least likely to physically harm Nabiki, she is far to stubborn,
canny, and strong-willed to let anyone influence her goal of marrying 
Ran-chan.

Again, it kind of depends on whether Nabiki ever thinks Ranma and 
Akane could be engaged at all.  And it would be kind of funny to see
Nabiki trying to deflect Ukyou's attentions away from Ranma and failing.

Ryouga:  The fact Nabiki is a girl would probably be enough to save her 

>from serious injury. Probably. She would be in a position to cause him 

an unbearable loss of face, so all bets are off on her chances of 
survival.

I can't say I agree on this one either.  Ryouga is dead-set against the
idea of picking on the weak.  In a battle of wits, he's got a serious disadvantage,
and given his heart-on-his-sleeve nature, I think Nabiki could learn to push
his buttons pretty handily.  I could see a story in which Ryouga becomes
Nabiki's unwilling catspaw for a lot of different schemes or ideas, given his
credulous nature.

The point of all this is that if Nabiki tap-danced with giants, she 
would likely be stepped on.

That's one interpretation, though I think there are other valid possibilities.
Nabiki's a pretty good manipulator, and she could probably balance the
scales with brains against brawn.  I think the "New Roles" Nabiki would
get more emotionally involved than the original, and thus she'd leave herself
open more, but it could be written plausibly without her ending up in the
hospital.  Or the morgue.  Or whatever.

I could even see a version in which she and Ranma end up being the ones
who fall for each other.  After all, Ranma and Akane thrive on their mutual
antagonism.  If Nabiki ended up respecting Ranma as an adversary, who
knows where it might lead?  

Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

http://www.rigroup.com/~grayson/relentless