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- The next day, Hikari remains taciturn, but abruptly moves into Karen's dorm room and plots to remove Karen from the auditions. Junna lashes out at Karen for interloping, revealing her desperation to catch up to elite performers like Maya and Claudine. This stirs competitive urges in Karen to remain in the auditions for the sake of her promise, over Hikari's objections. Karen wins again in a rematch with Junna , but the two become friends after Karen encourages Junna to carry on. (en)
- Karen spends an entire day wandering Tokyo in search of Hikari, who has left campus unannounced. By phone, the two gradually open up to each other after reaffirming their childhood promise: to perform together in Starlight. They finally meet up at Tokyo Tower, where Hikari hints at terrible consequences for losing in the auditions. Karen assures Hikari that they can find a way to win together.
The two receive a warm welcome upon finally returning to the dorm the next morning, even after earning punishment for everyone who helped hide their overnight absence. (en)
- With Hikari's help, Karen begins working harder in classes and daily life, relying less on roommate Mahiru Tsuyuzaki. Mahiru grows jealous of Hikari for spurring Karen to become independent from her. Summoned to a revue against Karen, Mahiru admits her feelings of inferiority and attachment to Karen . Karen defeats Mahiru, reminding her of her own talents and admirable qualities; back at the dorm, Mahiru finds self-affirmation in bringing happiness to everyone. (en)
- Karen rouses Hikari from an endless solo performance of Starlight, in which she is repeatedly battered by red stars hoisted from far above, but Hikari still resolves to condemn herself for falling to the temptation of becoming Top Star. In a final revue recreating the ending of Starlight, Hikari takes on Claire's role, casting Karen, as Flora, out from her stage . Karen forces the revue to continue, conceiving a new ending in which Flora reunites with Claire, and reaches Hikari by summoning Tokyo Tower onto the stage as a bridge. Hikari gives in to Karen, and together they perform the revue to its conclusion.
Later, Karen and Hikari play the leading roles in Starlight at the 100th Seisho Festival, acting out Flora and Claire's new, happy ending. (en)
- In the wake of the 99th class's first-year production of Starlight, Nana Daiba became deeply attached to that performance and all her experiences with the rest of the class. The following school year, Nana joined the giraffe's auditions after learning that the Top Star can stand on any stage across time itself. Nana defeated even Maya to win the auditions, and wished to relive the first-year Starlight, causing time to rewind to the start of the previous school year.
Intent on protecting the 99th class from growing up and changing, Nana happily repeated their first school year time and time again by becoming Top Star every time. When Hikari arrived at Seisho, however, Nana recognized that the course of events had changed for the first time ever. (en)
- Hikari reads to Karen The Starlight Gatherer, the English-language book that Starlight was adapted from. In the tragedy, two girls, Flora and Claire, ascend a tower to seek out a star, but are forever separated in the end.
Distressed by seeing the 99th class revise Starlight, Nana confesses her secrets to Junna before understanding that Karen was the impetus for this new course of events. With only one more chance to take the Top Star title, Nana fights Karen . Karen rebukes Nana's fear of change with the admonition that Stage Girls must constantly improve, and wins. Junna helps Nana confront the changed performance to come, and they see new sides to each other for the first time. (en)
- On the final day of the auditions, Karen and Hikari revisit Tokyo Tower, recalling how they embodied their promise there by trading hair barrettes. Claudine is surprised when Maya acknowledges what she had believed to be a one-sided rivalry. With these four as the only potential winners remaining, the giraffe allows them to fight two-on-two. Together, Karen and Hikari overcome Maya and Claudine's teamwork, defeating Maya and winning the revue . A distraught Claudine tries to assume Maya's loss, but Maya takes the outcome in stride and accepts Claudine as her partner.
The giraffe pits the winners against each other in one more revue , dashing their hopes of winning together. Thanking Karen, Hikari defeats her and says goodbye. (en)
- While studying in London, Hikari diligently worked to fulfill her promise with Karen, but was tempted by the giraffe into an audition where she ultimately lost to a fellow classmate. Afterwards, Hikari realised that the intangible "brilliance" that propelled her stage performances had been taken to fuel the winner's Top Star role. Fearful of forsaking her promise, Hikari accepted a second chance to compete in the auditions in Japan.
In the present, Hikari struggles to battle Nana with a much-diminished blade , but overcomes this handicap, drawing on her remaining brilliance to augment the weapon's form and function. Even so, Hikari remains haunted by the dilemma that her promise with Karen would be broken if either of them lost. Defeated, Nana warns Hikari that she cannot avert the tragic parting written into Starlight's ending. (en)
- Claudine, deeply affected by having faced Maya in the auditions, bonds with Futaba Isurugi, who is pursuing newfound ambitions in the auditions to become a performer after habitually playing keeper to longtime friend Kaoruko Hanayagi. Hikari holds Karen captive to, unsuccessfully, keep her from the auditions, and is unable to intervene as Karen is greatly outmatched and beaten by Maya, who jealously lays her sole claim to the Top Star title . Hikari chastises the defeated Karen. (en)
- The other Stage Girls watch on as Hikari refuses to take their brilliance, to spare Karen. Hikari is crowned Top Star, and disappears entirely, ending the auditions.
As Karen tries in vain to contact Hikari in the months that follow, Maya and Claudine are cast as the Starlight leads. Though her brilliance was spared, Karen's passion for performance wanes with Hikari gone. Seeking clues, and supported by the other Stage Girls, Karen painstakingly translates the entirety of The Starlight Gatherer, learning that Claire was imprisoned for seeking the star. Deducing that Hikari wished for the same punishment, Karen laments their unfulfilled promise, causing the entrance to the underground theatre to reappear. Karen descends into the theatre as the other Stage Girls appear by her side, bidding her and Hikari to return to the stage . (en)
- After Kaoruko fails the initial Seisho Festival auditions while Futaba passes, Futaba rebels against Kaoruko's dependency to prioritize her own success. The two fall out, going to drastic lengths to spite and guilt trip each other.
Their grievances continue into a revue , where Futaba vents her disappointment in Kaoruko's underachievement after lifelong admiration of her talent. Though moved, Kaoruko feigns contrition to elicit Futaba's affection, then dazzles Futaba with a display of her full talent, winning the revue. They reconcile, and Kaoruko becomes more motivated and more considerate in her continued reliance on Futaba. (en)
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