Gigalomaniacs

7 out of 9 of the Gigalomaniacs of ChäoS;HEAd

Gigalomaniacs (ギガロマニアックス, Gigaromaniakkusu) are people who can see DI-swords and other “errors”, are capable of wielding them, and can interfere with the Dirac Sea. Using their DI-swords and “realbooting”, they can convert delusions into reality by blending “errors” into reality and making people recognize them.

Awakening

Natural Gigalomaniacs do not start out with all their powers fully developed, although it is typical for them to have some amount of psychic abilities before awakening their powers, and even a Gigalomaniac without any training at all can see delusional “errors” that are invisible to most people. A Gigalomaniac who has not yet awakened their powers can see DI-swords of other Gigalomaniacs, but is unable to manifest their own DI-sword. Natural Gigalomaniacs also tend to have quite vivid hallucinations, typically referred to as delusions, on a regular basis.

Gigalomaniacs must awaken their powers in order to fully utilize them, which involves going through difficult ordeals that cause extreme stress and very fast biorhythms. This means that Gigalomaniacs also can be purposefully awakened by a third party, such as by being subjected to torture or simply by the local GE rates being raised.

Eventually, natural Gigalomaniacs can awaken their powers after their biorhythms become fast enough for enough dopamine to be produced by their limbic systems. Awakening specifically means being able to manifest a DI-sword out of the Dirac Sea. Once this feat is accomplished, a Gigalomaniac is capable of realbooting delusions into reality using their DI-sword. Additionally, any psychic abilities they had in the past are likely to get much stronger, and they can develop new psychic abilities, too.

Abilities

Realbooting

The main ability of Gigalomaniacs is realbooting, the ability to turn delusions into reality. While all Gigalomaniacs are capable of realbooting, the strength of the abilities and the ways in which they tend to use them varies from person to person. For instance, Ayase Kishimoto specializes in precognition, Kozue Orihara specializes in telepathy, and Shogun is an extremely powerful Gigalomaniac capable of realbooting an entire new law of physics. Using this ability comes with a cost, however. Realbooting causes antiparticles to accumulate in Gigalomaniac's body, leading to premature aging and a shorter lifespan; Shogun, as a result of having realbooted the Ir2 equation as a child, is one such example of this. It also put a tremendous toll on Shogun’s body when Shogun realbooted an actual human being with free will into the world, not just shortening his lifespan further but also putting himself in a coma for around a year.

DI-sword and Delusions

DI-swords are the weapons that a Gigalomaniac can manifest out of the Dirac Sea. A DI-sword can be in one of two modes, either “error” mode where they are only perceivable by Gigalomaniacs and are intangible except for being able to be held by its wielder, or “realbooted” mode where anybody can see them. This is signified by the DI-sword changing the light it emits from blue to a bright red (as described in-game).

The Dirac sea is also used to manifest other things from it, namely particles and antiparticles sent into the dead spots of the brains of other people in order to make those other people perceive the delusions too. Since in quantum physics, the endless possibilities of a wave function are collapsed into a single outcome when it is observed, the outcomes of events are then determined by the people who observe them. In practice what this means is, if a Gigalomaniac gives everyone the same delusion, it ceases to just be a delusion, and becomes a part of material reality, just as real as anything else.

Mind-Reading

Additionally, certain Gigalomaniacs are capable of reading minds, which is different from realbooting, and more resembles the ability to see delusions that are not realbooted. Kozue Orihara, Ayase Kishimoto, Sena Aoi, Rimi Sakihata, Shogun and Takumi Nishijou are shown to be capable of using this power.

Artificial replication of Gigalomaniac abilities

Noah II

While some people naturally have Gigalomaniac powers, most do not have this ability. However, the Noah II device under development by N.O.Z.O.M.I. can give ordinary humans the same abilities as a natural-born Gigalomaniac. The Ir2 equation is essential for developing this artificial Gigalomaniac technology. Porters, who carry around terminals for Noah II, are able to utilize some of the same powers, although they do not have DI-swords.

Visual Rebuilding

Visual Rebuilding is an earlier technology that is able to give multiple people sensory delusions, but lacks the realbooting capabilities of the Ir2 equation that Gigalomaniacs have naturally once they awaken their powers.

This section contains spoilers for Robotics;Notes

Noah IV

Despite the loss of the Ir2 equation and its ability to realboot, Robotics;Notes and Robotics;Notes DaSH feature the Noah IV, which can project false visual images into people's minds.

Known Gigalomaniacs

All female Gigalomaniacs

Most major ChäoS;HEAd characters are Gigalomaniacs:

• Ayase Kishimoto
• Gen'ichi Norose
• Kozue Orihara
• Nanami Nishijou
• Rimi Sakihata
• Sena Aoi
• Shogun
• Takumi Nishijou
• Yua Kusunoki

Albert Einstein is mentioned to have been a powerful Gigalomaniac who realbooted the equation E = mc2.

While the authenticity of the Gladioul Saga is unclear, it is possible Gladioul and the 7 Black Knights were Gigalomaniacs.

This section contains spoilers for ChäoS;Child

Multiple ChäoS;Child characters are Gigalomaniacs as well, and more information on them can be found on the ChäoS;Child wiki.

Etymology

The word "Gigalomaniac" comes from multiplying the word “megalomaniac” times a thousand, starting with giga- instead of mega-.

Trivia

• One of the earlier names for the game ChäoS;HEAd during development was “Gigalomaniacs (provisional)” (ギガロマニアックス（仮）, Gigaromaniakkusu (Kari)), before the creators decided to go with the name “ChäoS;HEAd” (カオスヘッド, Kaosu Heddo) and have a signature naming style including semicolons in the middle for the Science Adventure Series.