Last night after a particularly bad day at work this idea came to me. 
Having no time for it myself I thought I'd throw it out to the list.

	This would take place sometime late in the manga.  

An 'accident leaves Ranma and shampoo in each other's bodies, 

A magical thingy, no doubt.  You might want to consider how the
curses would react - whether they're "bonded" to the body or the
soul.  Either way has possibilities...

Having a hard time dealing with Akane's caustic remarks, as well as 
Ukyo's snide Comments.  

This sounds like a very ungenerous portrayal of the characters in
question.  That they might give up on the idea of marrying Ranma
in such an instance seems plausible enough, but that they would
turn on him so thoroughly does not strike me as very likely.  To
portray them as doing so would paint them as being very shallow
and superficial people.  

The greater likelihood is that they would want to help Ranma find
some way to reverse his affliction, I think.  That seems more 
consistent with the way they feel about him.  Perhaps if they were
convinced the change was irreversible, their disappointment would
turn to bitterness towards Ranma, but a long period of cure-seeking
would still be in order.  

Only Shampoo and Cologne offer any sympathy as well as the
fact Shampoo wants her body back.  

I can't see any reason why everybody would turn on Ranma so
thoroughly.  They might want to help Ranma for their own reasons
(Genma because he wants a man amongst men for a son, Soun
because he wants to marry Ranma to Akane, Ryouga because he
wants his friend/rival back or because he sees Akane is unhappy
about it, Kasumi or Tofu for altruistic reasons, Nabiki because she
could get Ranma in her debt if she can sell him info about a cure),
and they may go about it in some wrong-headed or ill-advised ways
which make the matter worse, but the idea that they'd just reject
him outright seems way too harsh.  

Unfortunately The Amazons have to go
back to China because their visa's have expired.  Ranma having no choice
but to go with them has to adjust to a life with the amazons, and is
given a way to get back his own body.  Marry Shampoo.  

So much for sympathy.  I can't see Ranma knuckling under to 
this kind of blackmail.  As many people have pointed out, one of
Ranma's defining characteristics is his unrelenting stubbornness.
I would envision him as being willing to wander the world in search
of a cure rather than marry Shampoo under coercion.  And I don't 
know that it's a bluff that Shampoo would be willing to run to the 
end.  Could she really stand living in Ranma's body?  

It leads to an amusing idea for a scene, at least.  Ranma and Shampoo
are butting heads about the matter.  Both of them are keen on getting
their real bodies back, but neither wants to give in to the other's position.
They begin threatening each other with things they're going to do with
each other's bodies.  "Maybe I'll just shave these eyebrows off!"  "Oh
yeah?  Shampoo get ears pierced!  How you like that?"  "You do that
and I'm gonna get a tattoo right across your butt!"  And so forth.

One bonus of this
Is that he will be the first Male with a recognised status in the
village as well as his phobia's cure from Shampoo's curse.  The down
sides are having to deal with learning to live in a new culture as well
as the trauma of learning just how racist the japanese people can be at
times.  

I think you would have to have a great deal of first-hand familiarity
with Japanese culture to render those kinds of judgments and 
condemnations.  It's not to say that there isn't racism, but that 
it's too serious a topic to write about from a standpoint of ignorance
and hearsay.  

Besides, the Amazons don't seem to have a whole lot to teach about
cultural tolerance.

Adding in learning to survive in a village ruled by women with
his arrogance would be a trial.  The angle I was going to use was the
time spent in Shampoo's body teaching Ranma just how wrong his views of
women are as well as learning to deal with things he's had an out on up
until now.  That time of the month, and other such things.  

Confronting Ranma with his sexism is an idea that has some potential.
One feels that Shampoo might be equally guilty of sexism, however,
especially if the Amazon tribe is constructed as you're depicting it.  A
mutual learning experience might be in order.

Onenote on Mousse in this story He was Sent back to china two 
weeks before this started.
The real reason he had come to Japan was to help test and see how strong
Ranma's children could be.  

I don't get this.  

An other route I thought of Taking it was Ranma is forced to live out
his life as a woman when Shampoo is killed on the way back to the
village, and going from there.

A body switch story might be a lot of fun to do, but I would recommend
a slightly different approach if somebody wants to write it.  If you want
to send Ranma to China with Shampoo, perhaps it would be more 
reasonable to suggest that they are going together in order to try to
find a cure, rather than throwing in the marriage blackmail thing.  If
Ranma thinks Shampoo is working with him (or if she really IS primarily
focused on a cure) then he's more likely to accompany her, rather than
if he is being strongarmed in some way.

I think this story could be REALLY funny if Shampoo and Ranma decide
they want to try to keep it a secret after it happens, hoping to find a cure
before anybody else figures it out (perhaps Shampoo will get in deep 
trouble for messing with an artifact she shouldn't have touched, and 
Ranma's just plain embarrassed).  Scenes in which Ranma and Shampoo 
try to imitate one another could really be a riot, if done cleverly.  

The curse thing is another matter worth considering.  It might be amusing
to have the curses stick with the bodies.  That way, one might rationalize
having Ranma drop into the Nekoken whenever she's changed, becoming
the Demon Cat from Hell until she gets turned back.  That could be pretty
funny too.

Since I was talking about Shampoo-friendly fics in another thread, it's 
worth mentioning that this would be a nice way for a Shampoo-friendly
writer to arrange a very plausible pairing with Ranma.  If each of them has
to spend time in the other's body, this gives them a mechanism to get
to know each other better, to come to respect one another.  Shampoo
has to deal with Ranma's life, Ranma has to deal with Shampoo's.  
It might be interesting, for instance, to have Shampoo have to deal with
Ranma's enemies while pretending to be him.  

I really don't recommend writing the other characters as cold-hearted
harpies and gargoyles who abandon Ranma to his fate, whatever course
the story takes.  I also would counsel against writing Ranma in such
a way that he knuckles under to the problem rather than fighting to 
set things right.  But if Shampoo is fighting alongside him rather than
against him in this, it would be a very sweet way to bring them closer
together.

I hope this sparks some inspiration out there, however large or small.

Grayson Towler
grayson@rigroup.net

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