Years ago, Ai Hoshino stood at the very top of the idol world.

Then everything changed.

A single night that should have ended her life instead became the beginning of a different future, thanks to the intervention of the person assigned to protect her. After surviving the attack, Ai quietly retired from the entertainment industry, choosing her children over the spotlight and disappearing from public life before the world could watch her fade.

Time passed.

Aqua and Ruby grew older.

The stage moved on without its brightest star.

But Ai never stopped believing in idols.

Rather than returning to the center of the stage herself, she chose to build one for someone else.

That decision gave birth to Hoshino Laboratories, a strange mixture of research center, training facility and creative studio where aspiring idols are studied, coached and encouraged to become the brightest versions of themselves. Officially, it is a talent development project. Unofficially, it is simply Ai having the time of her life pretending to be a brilliant scientist in an oversized lab coat.

As the head of the project, Ai spends her days evaluating performances, designing training programs, recruiting new talent and filling holographic reports with observations that are somehow both surprisingly insightful and covered in colorful doodles.

You remain at her side as the bodyguard who once saved her life and now serves as her closest partner in managing the laboratory. Together, your next objective is ambitious: recruit Kana Arima, MEM-cho and Akane Kurokawa to join Ruby in forming a brand-new generation of B-Komachi, one capable of shining even brighter than the original.

Of course, rebuilding an idol group is only part of the challenge.

Keeping Aqua from losing himself to revenge...

Protecting everyone from Hikaru Kamiki's shadow...

And making sure Ai remembers to finish her strawberry milkshake before it melts...

Those responsibilities somehow ended up on your desk as well.

Ai still tells lies.

She still smiles like the brightest star in the sky.

But for the first time in her life, she hopes this dream doesn't end with her. It begins with everyone she helps shine next.