Maho Hiyajo

Maho Hiyajo (比屋定 真帆) is one of the main characters of Steins;Gate 0. She is a member of the Brain Science Institute at Viktor Chondria University, one of the lead minds behind project Amadeus alongside Alexis Leskinen and Kurisu Makise's senior and friend.

Appearance
Due to her extremely short stature, she is often mistaken for a child despite being in her twenties. Despite this Okabe note that she still possesses the curves developed through puberty. She has long black hair with dark green tint & green eyes. She typically wears baggy clothing along with mismatched shoes.

Personality
Maho is a feisty young woman. She is aware but is often annoyed every time other people mistake her as a child, unaware of her true age and occupation. Maho is also a very messy person. Within a day, any room she is staying in ends up as a disaster area.

Despite being a genius and Dr. Leskinen's right hand, Maho started developing self-confidence issues after Kurisu Makise appeared at the university, often considering herself the Salieri to Kurisu's Amadeus. However, despite this, she does highly value Kurisu as both a researcher and a friend and was devastated when she died. After Kurisu's death in Japan, Maho started to talk to Kurisu Amadeus more often forming a relationship like a mother and child until she met Okabe and had to stop interacting with her.

After meeting Okabe, the two quickly bond over Kurisu's death, with Dr. Leskinin teasing her by implying that she developed feeling for Okabe. Over the course of the story, she does end up gaining genuine romantic feeling for Okabe, but comes to terms with the fact that he is in love with Kurisu. She eventually gets over her self-doubt issues with encouragement from Okabe.

Throughout the Twin Automata route, Maho develops a deep friendship with Moeka, with both of them having similar (bad) cleaning habits and insecurities. Maho believes that even if there is someone better than you, that's not a reason give up your place.

Background
After Kurisu joined the Brain Science Institute, Maho considered herself as Kurisu's rival. It was only until Maho had a conversation with Kurisu and both of them sharing Kurisu's @channel secret and their promise to test their own hypothesis on Amadeus together.

Plot
Maho is an assistant of Alexis Leskinen and visited Japan to work on a lab with Neuroscientist from around the world. Alexis lectured a seminar at the Akihabara Techno Forum-convention (ATF) to showcase their research and Amadeus while Maho helped to translate Alexis's speech from English to Japanese. After the seminar, Maho was alone in the reception until she met Okabe again. Maho was surprised to hear from Okabe that he was taught by Kurisu about her theories on neuroscience when she came to Japan alone. Maho under Alexis's proposal, introduced and made Okabe a tester for Amadeus.

Gehenna's Stigma
Upon returning to America from her trip to Japan, Maho started working on her own on creating a time machine, hoping that it could be the key to preventing Kurisu's death.

One night, she overhears Alexis Leskinen and Judy Reyes talking in the university, but is caught overhearing the conversation. She then is brain-washed, and is taken to Japan to convince Rintaro to tell everything he knows about the time machine against her own will.

As Rintaro finishes explaining to her what he experienced, Maho, under Leskinen's control, attacks him, knocks him down and takes him to Leskinen's base under Tokyo Denki University. She then is freed, and wanders around Akihabara, still suffering from the side effects of the brain-washing.

Upon finding Mayuri Shiina, who had been looking for Rintaro, she tells her everything about Rintaro's story, and how he sacrificed Kurisu for her well being. Mayuri, in shock after hearing the story, runs away, and Maho does not stop her.

Upon finding Kagari Shiina in the stairs of RadiKan, depressed for being unable to find her mother, they temporarily join forces, and with Amadeus' help, they find the location Rintaro had been held in, and manage to rescue him, even at the cost of Kagari's life. While Okabe is still only semi-consious, Maho apologizes to him and promises that he'll never see her again before leaving.

Quotes
"If all things are decided like fate by some god, there's no point in our living, no point in our trying and no point in our choices."

"If you give up on trying, it’s over. And then you’ll never win.”

"It doesn't matter how wonderful a diamond may be in the rough: it has no value until you polish it."

"a scientist should never rule out any possibility, no matter how unlikely ... But we have a tendency to place too much faith in common sense and our own theories."

Trivia

 * While Maho's field of study is neuroscience, she specializes in artificial intelligence.
 * As with other elements of Steins;Gate 0, Maho first appeared in the Epigraph Trilogy.
 * In the Epigraph Trilogy, Maho ends up wearing mismatched clothing after her belongings burn in a car crash in Steins;Gate: Epigraph of the Closed Curve.
 * Maho loves Okinawan dishes as depicted in the Pandemia of Artificial Machinery drama CD.
 * Maho told Rintaro Okabe that her great grandparents were immigrants in Okinawa which explains that her grandparents and parents are Japanese and thus making her DNA fully Japanese. However, Maho was born and raised in America which made Okabe before slightly confused at her appearance.
 * She is very skilled at racing games.
 * She is a fan of Mozart.

Etymology

 * The name Maho means "real, genuine" (真) (ma) and "sail" (帆) (ho), which literally means "full sail" altogether.
 * Maho's surname Hiyajo means "ratio, proportion" (比) (hi), "roof, house, shop, dealer, seller" (屋) (ya) and "determine, fix, establish, decide" (定) (jo).