Heart of Darkness

"*„One of the most terrifying and horrific abilities in the world, which can deprive the affected person of mental health, and – in extreme cases – even self-awareness.”*"

## Ability Information

### Reference

Heart of Darkness (short novella by Joseph Conrad)

### Range

Close to Long (depends from subject hearing and Józefina’s voice)

## Appearances

### Light Novel Debut

„Skamandrites”

**Heart of Darkness** (闇の心, *Yami no kokoro*) is the ability currently owned by Józefina Korzeniowska.

## Overall description

A roughly unknown ability in various aspects revolving around manipulating the minds of people who are able to hear her voice. In the most basic form she can give orders to her target subject – the controlling subject will carry out the order given to them without much objection. Also can see that in the case of Heart of Darkness, willpower isn't a guarantee of breaking free from the influence of ability and Mickiewicz admitted that the only thing that can protect person from it’s destructive effects is knowing that person is under ability’s influence. It was also pointed out that Józefina's mental health would be in danger all the time if she used her ability frequently - in his notes, Mickiewicz noted that her well-being and general level of satisfaction dropped significantly after the first use of the Heart of Darkness. He was also devastated that her overall psyche could be completely ruined if she used her ability frequently. Also, her memories of the time she used the ability are very vague and unclear to her mind, and she often fails to remember the exact command or other things of significance. This may indicate that the use of the Heart of Darkness is very tiring, and may even be destructive to the holder if this ability is used too often.

There are also many hints as to the very sinister purpose of this ability - according to Mickiewicz's observations and notes, the ability may have the purpose of driving a controlled subject insane, but in its first, uncontrolled form it is supposed to benefit its possessor. After more observations, it was noted that the ability is not so dark and can even restore mental health to individuals, but only if the source of their madness has supernatural roots. Otherwise, the more positive side of the ability won't work, and in fact, the cruel side of the ability may resurface and can only worsen the condition of the person under the influence of the ability.

Depending on the command, the ability’s behavior can be different, for example, the ability can activate only when in front of a controlled subject appears specified in the order item, or when a person or controlled subject hears a specific phrase. Ability can influence behavior, but also to mind, by e.g. creating illusions. Everything is dependent on the will and order of Józefina herself. Despite of power and possibilities given by Heart of Darkness’ character, ability is burdened by side effects and limits. First, ability affects only the mind and nervous system, not physical abilities. So, if Józefina gives for controlled subject order, to do something they can't do, they can get furious and try to do, at all costs, what can end in tragedy. It’s also important the orders MUST be spoken in the imperative mood, the voice must be clear, and audible and the language used by Józefina must be understandable for the person, who will be controlled. If Józefina uses language, who controlled subjects know only to a limited extent, they do what they think she said.

The ability doesn't have the activation formula, and the subject of control doesn’t show marks of Heart of Darkness’s impact. Recorded commands also seem to work - it's important that it's still Józefina's voice and that it's hearable and understood by future controlled subjects. The controlled subject is under the influence of ability until Józefina doesn’t stop this by clapping thrice. Another known way of stopping ability is using No Longer Human on Józefina, but touching the subject of control won’t do anything. Moreover, if Dazai touches the ability user who uses their ability under Józefina’s ability influence No Longer Human doesn’t work to the ability of controlled subject too.

## List of controlled subjects

 **Chūya Nakahara** | around 30 minutes
Second order: *„Take me and Fyodor to a safe place.”*

## Moves

* Heart of Darkness: Supreme Command (闇の心: 統帥, ‘’Yami no Kokoro: Tōsui’’): Józefina is able to select the command's importance hierarchy, if the controlled subject, would have to carry out more than three of these within the next 30 minutes.

## Weakness

* A giant and bilateral mental impact
* Energy consumption
* Hard to control
	+ Requires enormous concentration
	+ Complex commands are less effective than simple commands
		- The same is with the subliminal commands

## Trivia

* It's unknown what would if "Heart of Darkness" and "No Longer Human" would be used at the same time.
* It’s also unknown how this ability works to controlled subject's mind. It may be quite possible that it causes paralysis or shutdown of the new cortex and prefrontal cortex, the parts of the brain responsible for conscious thinking and decision-making. Disabling them, therefore, makes the person vulnerable to the words of the ability user.
* The overall statistics of ability:
	+ Overall usefulness: 7/10
	+ The risk of side effects: 9/10
	+ Difficulty to control: 7/10