Mayoi Hachikuji (八九寺 真宵, Hachikuji Mayoi) is the ghost of a fifth-grade elementary school girl who was killed in a traffic accident while trying to reach her mother's home. Since her death, she has been haunting people who possess an urge to avoid going home as an oddity. She is the titular protagonist of three arcs: Mayoi Snail, Mayoi Jiangshi, and Mayoi Hell.
Mayoi is a young girl with long black hair and dark red eyes. Her hair is tied into two ponytails and she wears a white headband with a white swirl on each end. Her outfit resembles an elementary school uniform: a white blouse with two straps connected to a dark blue skirt; white socks; and pink shoes.
One distinguishing part of Mayoi's overall look is the large pink backpack she always carries on her back. It is an unusual piece of baggage which looks like a large chick, containing different things such as large paw and several small plush dolls. Araragi once noted that Mayoi looks different if she takes off the backpack, as if a snail was turned into a slug.
Name
At one point, Koyomi gets revenge by making fun of her name in return, calling her "Hachihachiji" and "Hachishichiji". Mayoi complains that her name is losing a temple and several temples when he says it. He then calls her "Hachirokuji".
In doing this, he substitutes for the "ku" (number 9) syllable in her last name (between "Hachi" and "Ji") other numbers: "hachi" (8), "shichi" (7) and "roku" (6). Effectively devaluing her each time he names her.
Due to this, one could think of her surname as being shortened to "89ji".
Her name is spelled 八九寺 and the "temple" reference refers to her name meaning "89 temples".
Personality
Befitting her age, Mayoi is cheerful, energetic and inquisitive. She makes a lot of spelling mistakes and has a habit of mispronouncing Koyomi's family name. In the end, it is revealed that she purposely mispronouncing it. On the other hand, she does not easily trust strangers, and will even fight back against them if they become too nosy. She also shows a timid side around people whom she finds frightening (e.g. Hitagi, who admitted her dislike for younger girls).
Background
Mayoi came from a broken family, with her mother divorcing from her father at an early age. After the divorce, her father was granted custody over Mayoi, and because of this, she eventually became unable to remember what her mother looked like. Longing to see her mother, Mayoi decided to travel to look for her mother's house on her own. Sadly, during her search for the address of her mother's home she was accidentally hit by a truck, killing her.
After becoming a haunting spirit, Mayoi continues her quest to look for her mother's house, not knowing that she was turned into an oddity.
This section contains content from Bakemonogatari. Koyomi left home early in the morning, to avoid celebrating Mother's Day. However, his sister found out, which led Koyomi to go to a park. He sees a young, lost girl, Mayoi Hachikuji, who he does not know, who later leaves. Later after several talks with Senjoughara, Koyomi spots the lost girl looking at the map again and, leaving Hitagi behind, he goes over to her to see if he can help her. After she refuses his help, and later ignores him, Koyomi surprises her by hitting her head into the sign, during a hostile exchange Mayoi introduces herself. They get into a brawl, ending with Koyomi as the winner. Koyomi proceeds to get aid from Hitagi about helping Mayoi find her way. After a question from him Mayoi admits that she is not a lost child, but is in fact a lost snail.
After talking with Mayoi, Koyomi discovers that the young girl is trying to get to a relative's house. However, as he, Mayoi, and Hitagi try to make their way to the address, they keep getting inexplicably lost. Koyomi then decides to send Hitagi off to find Oshino while he stays behind with Mayoi. Mayoi reveals that the relative she is trying to visit is her mother, and mentions that she has always been trying to get to her mother's house, but can never seem to get there. She and Koyomi get into an argument and briefly fight. Tsubasa then arrives, saying that she was passing by. She asks Koyomi about his relationship with Hitagi, but he isn't able to give her a definite answer. After Tsubasa leaves, Koyomi receives a call from Oshino, who says that he has given Hitagi instructions on how to solve Mayoi's problem.
While waiting for Hitagi to arrive, Koyomi begins to find out more about Mayoi's life. She is the only child of a couple that had undergone a bitter divorce. Mayoi was put under the custody of her father, and had any contact with her mother deliberately cut off to the point where Mayoi could barely recognize the face of her mother. Hitagi then arrives and apologizes to Koyomi. She reveals that Mayoi does not exist, as she is actually dead. As a ghost, she can only be seen by those who have a subconscious desire not to return home. As a result, Hitagi could not see Mayoi and didn't say anything because she feared that she might be "different" again. The information Oshino provides helps them find Mayoi's mother's house, but it is now a vacant lot. However, Mayoi is happy and disappears, saying she's finally home. Later, Koyomi runs into Mayoi again, who states that she has been "promoted" from an earthbound spirit to a wandering spirit and that she'd like to visit Koyomi from time to time.
When asked to describe herself, a Detective Conan anime reference is made.
This section contains content from Nisemonogatari. Mayoi was seen by Koyomi while he is on his way towards Nadeko Sengoku's house. After she is harassed a bit by Koyomi, they have a serious talk about his plans regarding him secretly being part-vampire. Mayoi advises that it is much simpler to leave his sisters in the dark regarding everything supernatural, including his vampire blood, and to prepare to lead them out of the world of oddities if the need arises. She also reassures Araragi, who is still depressed after Meme's sudden disappearance, telling him that she will make sure to say goodbye to him when that time comes.
In Mayoi Jiangshi, Koyomi and Shinobu accidentally travels back in time 11 years, the day before Mayoi's death. Koyomi, wanting to prevent Mayoi from turning into a wandering spirit, helps her travel to her mother's house. After they returned to the present, they found out the whole town was being infested with zombies. In this history, Koyomi has not met Mayoi, so in the events of Tsubasa Cat, he didn't get the information on Shinobu, or went near Mister Donuts, so Black Hanekawa killed him, causing this timeline's Shinobu to vow to destroy the world and make zombie vampires, or 'Jiangshi'. On a search for a power spot, Koyomi and Shinobu manage to attract the zombies but managed to be saved by a grown Hachikuji. It was revealed that zombie vampires can't stand rice. Mayoi also revealed she was sent by Oshino to give Koyomi and Shinobu a letter.
Later after coming back from the alternate history, Koyomi and Shinobu met Mayoi. It seems that Mayoi was not happy that she became a spirit, but was happy that as a spirit, she was able to meet Koyomi.
Koyomi also stated that he's the happiest when talking to Mayoi.
In Shinobu Time, right after meeting Mayoi, Koyomi went back home to return Mayoi's backpack. They suddenly came across a mysterious darkness that starts chasing them down. The darkness cannot be seen but can be sensed by them. Koyomi and Mayoi escaped in a bicycle. They managed to escaped with the help of Yotsugi.
They ended up in the abandoned cram school. Shinobu reveals that during her first visit to Japan, 400 years ago, she saved the local people from a severe drought by accident and was revered as a goddess by them. She then spent the next years living as a goddess in Japan until all the villagers started disappearing mysteriously, until only Shinobu and a demon hunter she befriended remained. Soon after, the same being that Koyomi met attacked them and Shinobu barely escaped alive, taking with her the demon hunter's hand by accident, which she used to revive him as a servant of hers just like Koyomi. However, the man blamed her for all that happened and unable to reason with him, Shinobu watched him committing suicide by exposing himself to the sunlight. Since then Shinobu never returned to Japan until six months ago, when she and Koyomi first met.
After Shinobu tells Koyomi her story, they realize that Yotsugi was overhearing their entire conversation and after Mayoi awakens, they start discussing ways to deal with the darkness being before it appears before them. Koyomi, Mayoi and Yotsugi manage to escape again, but Koyomi is knocked out cold by the shock of Yotsugi's jumping just to awaken several hours later and learn that they unwillingly left Shinobu behind. As Koyomi's vampire powers had not disappeared yet, they conclude that Shinobu is still alive but with Koyomi's powers weakening, it means that they have to find her before she is killed for good. Having no clue about what to do, they decide to contact Izuko Gaen who might provide some advice and when they decide to take shelter in a house, Izuko herself opens the door for them, much to their surprise.
In exchange for her help, Koyomi listened to Gaen's three requests. After Koyomi accepts, Gaen shows the darkness' true motive - it is a manifestation of the natural order, and means to destroy apparitions not behaving as they should—in this case, not Shinobu, but Mayoi. She exposes Mayoi as a "ghost of a ghost", who should have passed on on Mother's Day, when she finally found her way home; she also stopped leading people astray, neglecting her duty as a lost cow. Gaen leaves to allow Koyomi and Mayoi to process this, and Mayoi realizes she has to pass on, rather than be eaten by the darkness. Bidding Koyomi farewell, she kisses him and confesses her love for him before vanishing. Four months later, Koyomi tells the story of the incident to only one person - Ougi Oshino. On his way home, he realizes he never told Mayoi one thing he should have said - goodbye.
Trivia
8m50s into Jiangshi ep 2
Mayoi's first name can be read in a number of ways. Reading the original kanji of her name gives the meaning "true" and "evening". Alternatively, it can be read as "迷い" which means "to lose one's way".
Likewise, Mayoi's last name Hachikuji has alternate interpretations. Although the name consists of the characters for "eight", "nine" and "temple", the kanji for "eight" and "nine" can also be read as "yaku" together, which means misfortune (厄).
Her family name before her parents got divorced was Tsunade (綱手).
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