Ranma in Ash: Finally getting with the spirit (animal) of things.  (This time for sure.) [Episode 120612]

“Maybe it’s over with,” Nanako said.   “First we have to see if there’s any adverse reactions.   Anyone feeling ill yet?”

Brock immediately went into the long drawn out convulsions of a ham actor.   “Ack, ack, I’m dying.   I’m dying!   Quick, nurse me back to health!”

“Okay then, anyone actually feeling ill?”

“I can’t believe they had to keep us overnight to make sure we didn’t have any adverse reactions!” Misty complained over breakfast.   “Nobody mentioned any adverse reactions when I signed up for this!   I can’t believe they waited until they gave us the shots to tell us about it!”

“Well, I can’t believe that turning bright green and having purple steam come out of our ears wasn’t considered an adverse reaction,” Ranma added.   “(At least it only lasted a few hours.)”

“Ash, Misty, stop complaining,” Brock ordered.   “We had the lovely nurse Nanako to care for us!   Such an amazing girl, so dedicated to her patients, so caring, so sweet, so gentle!   What a wonderful pa–, er, personality!   I meant personality.   I never noticed her pa– aiheheheh!”

“Says the boy who passed out into dreamland ever time she bent over him to check his temperature,” Ranma smirked.

“Hurumph!” Misty hurumphed.   “Brock, you pervert!   Anyway, her body’s got to be artificial.   (Cosmetic sorcery or something.)   It can’t be for real!”

“For sure it’s magical,” Brock agreed with a sigh.   “It’s a heavenly body!”

“You idiot!” Misty grumbled.

“Whatever,” Ranma said.   “It’s all over with now and we can finally get our spirit animals.”

“Oh, I can’t wait!” Misty squealed excitedly.   “I wonder what magic I’ll get and will it be cute?”

“They’re almost always sickeningly cute when you start out,” Brock observed sourly.   “At least they get over that as they bigger get tougher.   ’Course, some people don’t ever get passed that stage.”

“Let’s see,” Ranma considered.   “Despite what the Professor said about being able to change focus, most people get attached to their spirit animals and rarely do, so the first one you get is really important.”

“Oh, I hope I get a water type spirit animal,” Misty exclaimed gleefully.   “All my sisters have water based magic, and they’re so cute!”

“Give me rock or metal elementals any day,” Brock grumbled, “or a nice combat conceptual.   Something tough and manly to impress the babes!   Wait, did you mean that the critters were cute, or the sisters?   Nah, I guess they’d all be uncute tomboys like you.”

“Brock, you jerk!”

‘Why is this so familiar?’ Ranma wondered.

“Alright!” announced the Professor as he barged in.   “Are you ready?   Today is the Big Day!”

“I thought yesterday was supposed to be the ‘Big Day’,” Ranma observed.

“Again with the mouth, huh, Ash?   I shoulda had Nanako leave you to sleep in instead of waking you up.”

“I wish Nanako had woken me up,” Brock moaned and drifted off again.   “Oh the missed opportunity…”

‘What kind of salacious fantasy is he having now?’ Misty wondered.   “Yo, Brock, you dummy, keep up or you’ll be left behind!”

The tubes of jelly blurbled away in the background as the Professor led them passed.   “Come, come now,” the Professor ushered them on, “don’t dawdle.   There’s no time to site-see.”

“Wait,” Misty exclaimed.   “Isn’t that Nurse Nanako floating naked in a tube?”

“What?   Where?” Brock craned his head.

“Aheheheh!   Don’t be silly!” the Professor laughed and pushed them almost forcibly into the next chamber and locked the door behind him rather hastily.   “It’s an optical illusion, that’s all!   Okay, the important thing to focus on is getting you your spirit animals.   We’ve assigned them to you based on your tests and personality scores so you should be able to bond easily.”

“And this bonding process involves… what exactly?” Ranma asked, expecting something else they hadn’t been told about in advance.

“I’m glad you that asked, Ash,” the Professor answered.

“Why?   Would you have forgotten to tell us?”

“Hurumph,” the Professor hurumphed.   “You weren’t always this much of a jerk, Ash.   What’s gotten into you lately?”

“Ahehehe!” Ranma temporised.   “I’m just nervous I guess.”

“Whatever.   Alright, I’ll release the spirit animals into the next chamber one at a time.   It will be perfectly safe.   I’ll be standing right here, behind this nice armor-plated bulkhead, so no worries, right?   Okay, Misty, you’re up first.   In you go!”

“…” Misty ellipsed.   Ranma echoed her.   Brock tried to peer back into the room with jelly filled tubes.

“What are you waiting for?” the Professor demanded.   “Go on, your spirit animal is waiting.”

“Er, you haven’t told her what to do yet,” Ranma reminded him with a sigh that virtually said: “I knew you’d forget.”

“It’s no big secret,” Professor Oak answered defensively.   “All she has to do is go in and earn her spirit animal’s respect, then it will assimilate itself into symbiosis.   It’s really quite simple.”

“Do what?” Misty demanded.

“Defeat the animal, get its magic,” Ranma explained in simple terms.   “Feh, it figures.”