A series of excerpts from A Study of the Psychosomatic Bonds between Humans and Pokemon, by Professor Oak, Professor Juniper, and Doctor Fennel. (unofficial annotations by Professors Kukui and Burnet)


A picture is printed on the inside cover of the book. It is of Professor Oak, Professor Juniper, and Doctor Fennel. Doctor Fennel is holding a Munna in her arms. All of them are smiling. The caption reads: 'Doctor Fennel's work on Pokemon Dreams proved essential to mapping the mental patterns of both Pokemon and Trainers'.

Professor Kukui has drawn himself and his wife, Professor Burnet, into the picture. Burnet is standing just behind Juniper and Fennel, her college friends, with an arm over each of their shoulders. Kukui is standing beside Professor Oak, holding a hand and two fingers up behind the distinguished Professor's head in the form of 'bunny-ears'.


Trainer's Bonds – Known but Never Understood

There is not a Pokemon Trainer alive who does not, in some manner, understand the bonds between them and their Pokemon. Even so, if asked to describe those bonds, most would struggle to express any more than the basic concept – that they share power with their trusted partners. In truth, the phenomenon known as 'Trainer's Bonds' are psychic links established between people and Pokemon which connect the two together – providing the partner Pokemon, in exchange for a toll of their Trainer's physical and mental energy, with a special awareness of the Trainer's thoughts, as well as a significantly enhanced growth rate.

But how have these links come to be? What is the catalyst for establishment? How does the transfer of power from human to Pokemon operate? What determines the number and power of these bonds an individual can support? These questions have never truly been answered before, and so this study began with a single question:

What creates a Trainer's Bond?


Trainer's Bonds in History

Awareness of Trainer's Bonds has existed since the beginning of documented history – countless references from all cultures and ages describing the powerful connections forged between human and Pokemon partners. Originally referred to by terms such as 'partnership', 'soul-bonding' and, directly translated, 'two-hearts-as-one', these bonds are as old as the relationships between people and Pokemon itself.

As old, but far less noted, are the limitations of these bonds – the point at which a Trainer can no longer support the number or power of the Pokemon with them. By lesson from elder to younger this information has perpetuated, age to age, generation to generation; the understanding that a new Trainer will be unable to support more than a single Pokemon, that only with age and experience will the ability to maintain more and stronger Trainer's Bonds develop. Yet in spite of this, few direct references exist throughout documented history.

Perhaps most famous of these references, wherein the author muses on the sharing of power between Pokemon and human partners, are a series of journals written during the Warring States Period, in which the author provided a clear, if somewhat hyperbolic, set of observations of those at the head of each faction, and the unnaturally powerful Pokemon that fought alongside them.

Consider the excerpt from one of the latter of these journals below, and how it describes the need of the Lord in question to surrender one of his Trainer's Bonds in order to maintain one with a far more powerful Pokemon (discussion of the likely veracity of this account and the Pokemon in question is best saved for another paper).

A moustachioed figure has been sketched between the end of this paragraph and the block of text from the journal mentioned, with a three-headed draconic Pokemon drawn next to him. Professor Kukui has written in the margins 'Iconic moustache! Do you think it'd look good on me?'

In response Professor Burnet has drawn a small depiction of her face and crossed arms, with the word 'no' emblazoned above it.

`And so upon the hill looking over the thousands upon thousands aligned against him, Lord Nobunaga claimed victory by terrible surrender. His loyalest partner, she of Brutal Fury, took flight, unbound and once more alone.

In return it descended, from the heavens the Black Then Gold Dragon, and the sky and earth and all upon it burned under its light. Our Lord maintained such power for a day and a night and when the sun rose again the battlefield itself was unmade.

Yet when the Lord collapsed and the Dragon returned to the skies above, his true partner did not return. It would be three moons before the Lord and she crossed paths once more.'

Professor Kukui has doodled a large, serpentine dragon Pokemon underneath this excerpt.


Brainwaves and Dreams – from Psychic Scans to Delving the Subconscious

It is well understood that a Pokemon Trainer of significant skill has the ability to identify other Trainers of note. For a long time this was believed to be an instinct honed by experience, the specific mechanical reasoning left unexplored. Today it is understood that what a Trainer senses is the powerful Bonds between another Trainer and their Pokemon, the number and power of those Bonds indicating the number and power of Pokemon that Trainer has with them. The degrees of sense an individual has varies by that individual – with distance, precision, and minimum amount of power detectable differing on a case by case basis. However it has been observed that Trainers with strong Bonds to Pokemon of the Psychic typing display far stronger sensory abilities than those without. (Like how that police officer in Hau'oli with the Oranguru can tell a Trainer's skills really well!)

Printed next is a picture of a number of people and Pokemon, Professor Oak amongst them, taken in front of a large building. The caption below it reads:

The initial stages of research into Trainer's Bonds were conducted in collaboration with the Saffron City Pokemon Gym in the Kanto Region, which has over the decades remained a pre-eminent destination for Psychic-type Trainers the world over.


In consultation with the Gym Leader of Saffron City, attention was moved quickly from Trainer's Bonds themselves to what she believed were their source – unique 'patterns' she claimed people and Pokemon alike to have. Bonds proved useful for identifying a Trainer's current potential but, she claimed, those patterns were the key to understanding them.

With efforts from her and her partner Alakazam, a number of these mental patterns were produced, drawn by the Pokemon while scanning the individual before it. The patterns render as jagged, monocolour geometrical messes, yet the Gym Leader insisted they were accurate portrayals. The first sketches are printed below.

A set of three drawings, labelled 'Bulbasaur', 'Charmander', and 'Squirtle', follow the paragraph above. Each appears to be a mess of straight and curving lines of black on white, with little to be understood of them. Professor Kukui has sketched each of Alola's Starter Pokemon above the patterns of their Kanto equivalents.

It was at this point, pursuing these 'mental patterns', that contact was established with the Dream Laboratory of the Unova Region. Doctor Fennel, introduced by Professor Juniper, displayed similar understanding of mental patterns to the Saffron City Gym Leader, and had been identifying ways to produce accurate scans of the patterns from her work with Pokemon dreams.

A back-and-forth communication between Kanto and Unova resulted in numerous trips from those involved, and with the assistance of the Saffron City Gym Leader and her partner Pokemon, the first Dream Scan was successfully performed.

A new set of three far more detailed patterns have been printed, labelled in order, 'Oak', 'Juniper', 'Fennel'. A piece of paper is folded in half between the pages at this point, with two more patterns printed on it, labelled 'Kukui' and 'Burnet'.

With the advent of the Dream Scan, which could produce digital representation of human and Pokemon mental patterns, a series of discoveries were made in rapid succession about the way these patterns relate to the bonds between people and Pokemon. While there is still more yet to identify, including the nature of how patterns are determined, this is still considered one of the greatest breakthroughs in understanding the relationship between humans and Pokemon to date.

At the bottom of this page Professor Burnet has sketched a small caricature of Doctor Fennel with abnormally large eyes filled with sparkles. Professor Kukui wrote 'A Dream Come True!' next to the figure, which Professor Burnet followed with a simple 'boo'.


Pokemon Typing Patterns and Trainer Biases

This section is headed by a set of three images, this time labelled 'Grass', 'Fire', and 'Water'. The images are a large volume of mental patterns superimposed over one another, yet they all bear enough similarity that an aggregate image results. Professor Kukui has helpfully labelled the diagram "so cool!"

Despite the shock of those who first observed the similarity between patterns of the same Pokemon type, the Saffron City Gym Leader remained frustratingly unsurprised by this. The concept that Pokemon of the same type have similar patterns did not seem out of the ordinary to her, and indeed she was quick to point out that her own mental pattern bore a similarity of its own to the aggregate for the Psychic type.

Typing Biases for Trainers have long been known of: many Trainers display a proclivity to raising Pokemon of specific types – are capable of maintaining bonds with more and stronger Pokemon of that type than others. It is now believed that these biases are created by similarity between a Trainer and the archetype of a Pokemon type's mental pattern. The result is that, for example, a Trainer with a mental pattern similar enough to the Fire-type of Pokemon would be better able to support Trainer's Bonds with Fire-type Pokemon. (The Fairy-bias being an actual real thing might explain Captain Mina's entire situation with the Tapu then)

Over the next series of pages, archetype patterns for every Pokemon type, consisting of a number of superimposed patterns, have been printed. At the end is a chart with the following statement:

A survey conducted at the Unova Pokemon League Tournament recorded the mental patterns of all willing Trainers, comparing them to Pokemon archetypes. Through this, we can see a rough estimate of the number of Trainers that match each type, and thus the likeliness of finding a Trainer with that specific bias. (is anyone at all surprised that Dragon is the rarest?)

A footnote, at the end of the chapter reads:

The ability for all Pokemon to establish psychic connections with their Trainers is a significant topic: indicating that on some level all Pokemon possess some form of psychic ability, another of the rare few commonalities across all species. (Psychic bonds, Toxic, ... what else?) (They dream the same) (Oh yeah!)


Ongoing Mysteries of Trainer's Bonds

While the study of mental patterns has led to greater understanding of Trainer's Bonds, the core limits of those Bonds remain poorly understood.

The limitations of an individual's Trainer's Bonds vary by that individual, with some people only able to maintain a single, low-power Pokemon, while others can support six high powered partners. Research indicates these limits exist on a bell-curve, with the majority of trainers able to support three or four well-trained Pokemon by adulthood.

However the reasons for these limitations are yet to be understood, no common thread in the mental patterns observed. Neither understood is the growth rate of a Trainer – while time and experience allows many to support more and more powerful Pokemon, the Trainer's mental patterns show no change to reflect this.

Similarly the reason for the six Pokemon limit remains unknown – no Trainer in recorded history ever having displayed the ability to consistently maintain more; those few who have attempted to do so quickly severing the seventh Bond due to described 'severe mental and physical strain'.

The Pokemon Storage System, which acts as a digital stasis for Pokemon stored within it, also prevents Bonds from being maintained, allowing Trainers who deposit Pokemon within to successful sever their Trainer's Bonds, often done so when a Pokemon's growth has exceeded the Trainer's ability to maintain that Bond. However the need to sever and re-establish Bonds when changing Pokemon, when combined with the automatic release program designed to prevent the inhumane and illegal act of placing a Pokemon in indefinite stasis, has led many Trainers to keep at most one or two extra Pokemon, while many more will simply eschew the system altogether.

Research into maintaining a muted version of Trainer's Bonds through the PSS, which do not take a demand to re-establish, is on-going.


A new paper rests next to the open study, sitting upon a desk in Professor Kukui's lab. It is presently blank, bar for the title written across it.

Observations of the Limitless Phenomenon, by Professor Kukui