We grabbed lunch and headed straight to our second class of the day with Instructor Knight.

“Good afternoon students, did you have fun this morning?”, Instructor Knight looks friendlier than the first day, “It’s Friday and we all are tired and waiting for the weekend to arrive, right? Besides, you must be dying to go call your family and have them send your companion”.

I see a few classmates nodding along, I too can’t wait to have Teddy with me, and well, there are some things I need to ask my mom.

“There is a reason we don’t allow you to start the first week with a pokemon accompanying you, first, young students get too distracted, and most are too focused on battling right away rather than hearing what the teachers have to say; second, is what we will be talking about on class today, how does a pokemon affect us and vice versa?”

“Previously, I talked about why pokemon trainers are necessary, today the question is what makes a pokemon trainer? Does anyone have an answer?”.

I’m tempted to raise my hand, extra points for good answers after all, but the question is quite hard. Because, of course, a pokemon trainer is made by raising pokemon companions to their full potential, but I don’t think that’s a good enough answer. Apparently, the others think so too because it can’t be that easy.

“Well, the answer should be obvious, a pokemon trainer is made by training pokemon, right? You all know that much, but it can’t be that simple, and it isn’t. Let me go with a different question, why do pokemon need humans to train them? After all, they can get stronger by themselves”.

Okay, that’s a more interesting question, do pokemon even need us? I believe they get stronger faster when being trained by a human, but I’m not entirely sure why or how that works.

Irene raises her hand and instructor Knight signals for her to speak.

“Pokemon raised by humans grow and improve faster than their counterparts in the wild, as I understand it, there is some sort of synergy produced between humans and pokemon”, her voice is very soft but at the same time confident.

“Very good, that’s where I’m going with this line of questioning”, explains instructor Knight, “This synergy Irene mentioned is the reason pokemon accept to train under humans, both humans and pokemon have an innate aura or energy, researchers are still debating what to call it and if they are different things or the same, but I’m not going to go into detail about aura, what you need to know is we humans are born with it and it grows slowly as we age, it’s mostly passive and we rarely see any tangible effect”.

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“But, when a human and pokemon create a bond, our auras seem to have an effect on each other, for the pokemon, they begin to improve faster, be it gaining levels or learning moves, that’s the reason pokemon accept to be caught and trained by us, their instinct is to get stronger, they realize that with a trainer they improve faster. What about humans? What do we get from this? Besides having an incredibly powerful creature to protect us from the dangers of the world, we get some of the closest friends we will ever have, because the bond between a trainer and their pokemon grows stronger the more time we spend together”.

“Yet, it isn’t all perfect, a decade ago it was discovered pokemon influence the development of our personalities during our youth. The more time we spend with our pokemon, the more our aura gets mixed with theirs and it slowly has an effect on how we perceive the world. What does this mean? For starters, younger trainers and their pokemon will begin to act in a similar way, for example, if your pokemon is quick to anger, you as its trainer will slowly begin to assimilate some of that anger and it will influence your day to day”.

I think this information isn’t well known, because I see a lot of people begin to get a look of realization after hearing instructor Knight explanation. Thinking about Teddy, I’m not worried, because he is very well behaved, we got along perfectly from the moment he hatched.

“That’s the reason we began recommending for parents to hand pokemon eggs to their children instead of baby pokemon, a pokemon egg has no influence on the children and the pokemon who hatches is born attuned to the aura of its trainer, meaning their auras are similar enough to have a minimal effect over each other at the beginning. It will still influence the trainer as the pokemon develops its personality and grows stronger, but it’s an easier process over time”.

“If you didn’t raise your first companion from an egg, there is no need to worry, that’s the reason we are having you raise your starter from their eggs instead of handing them battle ready. When you have added a second partner, your aura begins to integrate both of theirs, which means a trainer is influenced by both, but when one of them is from an egg it makes the influence of the first more manageable”.

“This is also the reason the league has implemented a restriction on the quantity of pokemon a person can carry. Every person, trainer or not, is allowed one pokemon, to get an increase in their carrying limit it’s necessary to get a trainer certificate, which allows for a second pokemon in the team. As students of our academy you already get the certification just by being accepted, and when graduating you are considered a Grade-6 trainer, which is the same as acquiring 6 badges from pokemon gyms”.

“I know this information is a lot for you to take in, but it’s important for you as trainers to understand the power of the bond with your pokemon.”

Instructor Knight pauses for a moment and looks around the classroom, everyone seems to be taking it rather well, but you never know.

“Now, there are different ways for this bond to affect a trainer, but it’s quite easy to understand when you consider pokemon types. Thanks to specialist trainers, researchers have discovered pokemon of the same type tend to have a similar influence over their trainer, for instance, fire type trainers have a tendency to be fiery and explosive, or electric type trainers tend to be very energetic and active”.

“Most types are not really harmful in the long term and it helps a trainer and their pokemon to get along better. But, there are exceptions, the big five: Dragon, Ghost, Psychic, Dark and Fairy types. These types usually have stronger influence over their trainers, especially when the trainer is too young to handle them. So, if your pokemon companion belongs to one of those types, I will need you to remain after class for an extra lesson on how to deal with their influence”.

“With that said, class dismissed, you can find me or Instructor Joy in the Pokemon Center in case you have any questions or concerns about this subject”.