Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria Wiki
Maria "Otonashi" Hoshino
Mariaotonashi.6
Kanji 音無 麻理亜
Age 15 (volume 1)

18 (the end of volume 7)

94 (Mental age)

Gender Female
Hair Color Brown
Eye Color Brown
Status Alive
Classification Box Owner
Box Type External
Other Information
Relatives Michishige Otonashi (father)
Yukari Otonashi (mother)
Aya Otonashi (sister)
Kyohiko Otonashi (extended)
Kazuki Hoshino (husband)
Spoiler warning!
This section contains plot details about the novels.

A beautiful but unsociable girl with a resolute personality. She transferred into Kazuki’s class on March 2nd — almost at the end of the school year. Right after her arrival she announces her intent to “break” Kazuki. Her birthday is July 2.

Maria is the main female heroine of the HakoMari series. Maria is a box herself. She once met 'O' who offered her a box. Her wish was to become a box herself so that she could grant the wishes of other people. Of course her wish could not come free of charge, so every time she uses her box she loses her memories. Her box is able to give people a place where they can be happy, however she knows that this place is only fake, and the happiness is only fake. 

Appearance[]

Maria Otonashi is described as a very beautiful girl with long brown hair, brown eyes, and a slender figure. Hoshino describes her mannerisms as being that of an older woman despite being younger than him. This is due to all the time she spent in the recurring classroom, equal to an entire lifetime, that she still completely remembers.

Personality[]

Maria Otonashi is very stern in her actions and beliefs. She expressed her wish to break Hoshino at the very beginning. There is, however, one thing that Maria is terrified of, and that is killing someone. No matter what the circumstance, she refuses to kill anyone even if it means saving Kazuki's life, and even refuses to leave anyone who needs help alone. Maria cares deeply for other people, due to her wish to become a box herself. She is willing to sacrifice her own memories in order to give other people a place where they can be happy inside of her box 

After Kazuki "kills" Iroha Shindou to save Maria who was supposedly kidnapped on Oomine's orders, she feels as though he had betrayed her and decides to live not as Maria Otonashi, but as the box Aya Otanashi. She saves Daiya Oomine after he gets stabbed by a former follower after he lost his box to Kazuki, but in turn forgets about him and everyone he knows, including Kazuki.

After she she watches Kazuki gradually losing his sanity inside of her box, she accepts the death of her sister, Aya Otanashi, and merges with the original zeroth Maria. She takes care of Kazuki after losing his sanity as well as the ability to speak until he gradually recovers. At the end of Volume 7, they get married.

Chronology[]

Volume 1[]

Maria is first introduced as a transfer student to Kazuki Hoshino's class, which is being affected by the Rejecting Classroom, a box that resets to March 2nd every 24 hours. Being a box herself, she is able to keep her memories each recurrence and spends years searching for the owner. During this time she also spent lots of time obtaining new skills, such as various martial arts and how to ride a motorcycle.

She eventually concludes that Kazuki is the owner of The Rejecting Classroom, after he uses the name "Maria", a name that no-one else should have known, in an experiment. Kazuki however is unsure of whether he owns it himself, and doesn't know how to give the box up even if he wanted to. Maria expresses her intent to break him, and declares war on him. Maria eventually realizes that Kazuki doesn't have the box after he gets run over by the truck himself and the box doesn't end. She then decides to team up with Kazuki in order to find the real culprit of the box.

On the 27,755th recurrence, Maria and Kazuki investigate inside the bag of a suspect, Kasumi Mogi. Upon searching, they discover a package of a Corn Potage flavoured Umaibou, Kazuki's favourite snack that no-one but himself should know. They plan a rendezvous between Mogi and Kokone Kirino, however, they walk into Mogi standing next to Kirino's limp corpse. During the encounter with Mogi, Maria is stabbed and murdered by the former, to be reincarnated in the next recurrence, with some changes to her position in the class.

On the 27,756th recurrence, Maria replaces Mogi's position in the class, as the latter has been stuffed into her own box by "O", and is referred to as "Mogi" by Kazuki and the rest of the class. To confirm her identity, Maria drags Kazuki away while the latter is talking to his friend, Haruaki Usui. She convinces Kazuki that she in fact is Maria Otonashi by showing him her box, the Flawed Bliss.

Per Haruaki's suggestion, Maria and Kazuki, along with Daiya Oomine, Kokone Kirino and Haruaki himself decide to gather at a hotel that Maria had previously brought Kazuki. They start discussing about the current situation, explaining everything about the Rejecting Classroom and Mogi's position as the box's owner. Eventually, they agree to preventing the accident that occurs every morning on March 3rd, the accident that turned into the wish, which in turn spawned the Rejecting Classroom.

On the day of the accident, Maria finds and breaks into the truck which caused the accident, as the chances of getting crushed will be lessened. During this time, she had actually been listening in on the conversation between Kazuki and Haruaki, the latter who has been revealed to be "O" in disguise. As per usual, the truck approaches quickly, but stops right in front of Kazuki and "O". She proceeds to threaten "O", saying that she will use her box, the Flawed Bliss, but instead of seeing her as an enemy, "O" takes pity on Maria, but eventually decides to hand the Rejecting Classroom over to Kazuki.

As "O" disappears, Maria and Kazuki stand in a small "dark chamber", which is the inside of the box. They discover Mogi, crouched and dead-eyed. However, upon noticing Kazuki, she sees this as a rescue. Mogi urges that before the box is destroyed, she wants to tell Kazuki something. Maria, in turn sees this as another attempt to kill Kazuki, as she is hiding her hands behind her back, however, Kazuki states that her assumption is incorrect, and she hesitantly steps away. Maria then sees what Mogi is holding behind her back and smiles sarcastically in amazement.

Maria is then given a request by Kazuki. To tell him exactly what he is going to do. She bluntly responds, saying that Kazuki will "trample it", that he will "destroy the box".

During the Epilogue, Maria no longer transfers to Kazuki's class, with the latter becoming a sophomore. At the entrance ceremony, as the school year starts in early April, it is revealed that Maria is the representative of the freshmen, revealing also that she is in fact younger than Kazuki. After giving the freshmen's speech, she steps down from the platform, and instead of sitting in her original seat, she approaches Kazuki. She states that she will always be by Kazuki's side, and how she declared war on Kazuki during the events within the Rejecting Classroom, continuing by stating that the "war hasn't ended yet". She then promptly introduces herself to Kazuki, not as "Aya", but as "Maria Otonashi".

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