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Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria / The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria

myanimelist.net /manga/55215/Utsuro_no_Hako_to_Zero_no_Maria

This is the only Japanese LN that I've read, I'm otherwise mainly a manga reader. It kept popping up in my recommendations on MyAnimeList, and I was intrigued by the synopsis with the presence of the "romance" tag:

Kazuki Hoshino values his everyday life above all else. He spends the days carefree with his friends at school, until the uneventful bliss suddenly comes to a halt with the transfer of the aloof beauty Aya Otonashi into his class and her cold, dramatic statement to him immediately upon arrival:

"I'm here to break you. This is the 13,118th time I've transferred. After so many occasions, I have to say that this is all starting to grate on me, which is why this time I'm spicing things up with a proper declaration of war."

And with those puzzling words, the ordinary days that Kazuki loved so dearly become a cycle of turmoil and fear—Aya's sudden appearance signals the unraveling of unseen mysteries surrounding Kazuki's seemingly normal friends, including the discovery of mysterious devices known as "boxes."

I eventually got around to reading it when I'd gotten a craving for the "enemies to lovers" trope. It was quite good overall (I rated it a 9), though it does flirt with what I consider to be cheap rage bait at some points.

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