To say that today had been perfect would be an understatement. The weather was perfectly sunny, as to be expected of a Japanese summer, and it seemed the inhabitants of the world had given up on trying to kill each other and instead settled their differences on a nice game of cricket.

Ask Miss Yukari Tanizaki's male students, however, and there is a good chance they would say the exact opposite. They had been given an excerpt from an English novel to translate into Japanese. Miss Tanizaki made the mistake of forgetting to mention that the novel was Twilight, the most dangerous novel to males everywhere. The novel's killer effect was soon revealed to the class, as one by one, the boys violently threw up blood and then fainting due to sheer horror of the novel. The girls questioned the fact of there being one male still conscious, immediately dismissing it as homosexuality. They didn't know that this human was a new strain of human, one who suffered a genetic mutation at birth that made him immune to the effects of Twilight.

Also beyond the girls' knowledge is that Twilight can have an effect on females, too, though cases are extremely rare. At a probability of one in ten to the power of a number far too large and mind-boggling to list here, six girls were affected. Their names were Chiyo Mihama, Tomo Takino, Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara, "Sakaki", "Kagura" and Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga.

All six went home nonplussed at the catastrophe that had taken place that day. All six had an uneventful evening. All six fell asleep at 21:42 precisely. All six had the exact same dream.

Here is roughly how the dreams folded out.

"...Where am I? All I see is a white void-"

"You are in the gap between dimensions", a disembodied voice bellowed. The voice was male and sounded pleasant, like a guide to the lost. "I am Azuma, also known as the Great Prophet Azuma, Grand Creator Azuma, among various... other names." After a pause, he continued. "Do not panic. You are perfectly safe inside this space. You and your five friends have been mutated by reading the novel Twilight, at a probability too small for humans to comprehend. These mutations are beneficial to yourself, they allow you access to hidden abilities within all humans."

"Such as?"

"Blowing stuff up."

"And?"

"Blowing more stuff up."

The girls were too tired and/or confused to complain.

"Allow me to explain. The text of the novel Twilight emits a fourth kind of radiation, yet to be named. This radiation somehow affects only the brain. What is even more confusing is that it only affects males. We do not know why, but it has something to do with-"

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"