scary inu: I agree that Raitei is much colder than Ginji. I think he sees the world in very concrete terms-good, bad, destroy, don't destroy. He lays down the law in a way that Ginji never would. He does what Ginji can't or won't, and in this way, he protects Ginji, but he also hurts Ginji. That's my interpretation anyways. And yes, I see Raitei as a part of Ginji (just like Asclepius is a part of Ban), not the other way around. However, I also see Raitei as a separate consciousness, so I tried giving him a voice. As for whether he's good or bad...what do you think? ;)
Disclaimer: I don't own Getbackers in any way, shape or form.
Ginji's senses always tingled when he lived in Mugenjou, like a second skin enveloping him. It was a slight buzzing perpetually on his periphery. The first time he noticed this sensation was after the Incident, when he first became the Raitei. When the dust had cleared, he felt more than saw the crater around him. The residue from the destruction radiated up from the broken and charred rocks, even though all was still. He could feel how scorched the pavement was, even though the ground was cool. Nothing moved, but he felt the aftermath through the little hairs on his forearms and on the back of his neck, as if something was radiating and heating the air around him.
Even more so, he could feel the cooling pin pricks emanating from the girl in his arms. These were also from an aftermath, but one of a different sort. The destruction of inanimate objects felt like a warm dusty breeze. These sharp little pains pricking his arms and chest and face were the residue of life that has left the body. It was a sensation that Ginji wished he would never feel again.
After the incident, Ginji experienced the buzzing like he experienced his other senses, although it was more like a combination of touch and sound. Every subtle change in his surroundings he felt like a breeze across this invisible second skin. Every stirring, whether mechanical, animal or human, he registered as a tickle here, a brush there, or even a small pinch on the nape of his neck, at the base of his skull. A cat catches a mouse in the alleyway behind him, and he recognizes the cat's elation and the mouse's terror. A drunken brawl across the street breaks out and he feels the roiling tension like a puff of warm air on the back of his knee. All of the sensations of living and fighting and dying clash around him, resulting in the familiar buzzing sensation as he walks down a street in Lower Town.
Ginji never gave this added sense much thought. He thinks about it as often as one thinks about what it feels like to touch or taste or hear something. After a while, it is just another sense, as organic as a child in the womb feeling its mother's emotions.
One day, the buzzing on his periphery registered something he had never felt before. He knew that someone unusual was in Lower Town-unusual even for Mugenjou-before he even set eyes on him. There was a change in the air, as if an unknown energy had entered the area. That was how he found and met Midou Ban...
There is no clear demarcation between the outer edges of Mugenjou and the slums of Shinjuku, but Ginji knew the moment he crossed the border. That buzzing that had accompanied him for years, that had told him of his surroundings even in total darkness, died down to a barely distinguishable sensation. He couldn't tell if the tickle going down his spine was his own excitement or fear or if it was a warning from his sixth sense. He didn't know if it was mental or physical. Part of him was scared. It was like losing the ability to touch, as if his whole body was numb. Without the milling residue that usually blanketed him, he felt naked and insecure. But another part, a larger part of him was glad. For the first time in a long time, he felt human again. The outer layer that not only protected him, but separated him, from the inhabitants of Mugenjou, had fallen away. He felt like a newborn baby, cut free from the body that both fed and protected him, pushed into a new world of sensations.
Ginji paused mid-stride when he felt the change. What was this sudden quietness he felt? Was this what it meant to leave Mugenjou? Was this peace?
Ahead of him, Ban stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Changing your mind about leaving?"
"No," said Ginji, turning to look up at structure looming over them. "I just..."
Ban studied his new friend over the rims of his glasses. He knew he would never know what this moment meant for Ginji, but that didn't change this new sense of responsibility he felt for him. It was a life-changing moment for both of them.
"Come on, then. Let's go."
Much later, when Ban explained to him that all living things generated electricity in their brains, that thoughts were really electrical signals sent between synapses, Ginji nodded even though he didn't completely understand the mechanics of it.
Ban tried to explain his hypothesis that Ginji was able to directly affect what happened inside Mugenjou because of all the electricity that not only ran through the building itself, but also the electricity that made up the virtual parts of Mugenjou (and it was anyone's guess how much of Mugenjou was real and how much was virtual). Ban guessed that Ginji was organically connected to Mugenjou through the electricity. Ginji merely looked at Ban wide-eyed and dewy, scratching the back of his head. Ban sighed and told him not to worry about it.
Later that night though, while Ban was snoring in the driver's seat beside him, Ginji remembered the prickling buzzing sensation he had while in Mugenjou and wonders if that was connected to the electricity in the people around him. He wonders if souls are made out of electricity.