My Hero Academia: School Briefs V

My Hero Academia: School Briefs V (僕のヒーローアカデミア 祝 V) is the fifth School Briefs light novel spinoff, based in the My Hero Academia universe and the sequel to My Hero Academia: School Briefs IV. It is illustrated by Kohei Horikoshi and written by Anri Yoshi.

Summary
The light novel focuses on events during the Endeavor Agency arc, centring on the students' Christmas, New Years, and winter related activities.

Part 1: U.A.'s Underground Labyrinth
During the wintertime, Class 1-A does the typical end-of-year cleaning for each of their dorm rooms. Izuku Midoryia spends his time wiping down his All Might figurines and taking care of his collection; Shoto Todoroki peers in to return a pencil and thinks to himself about possibly collecting a figurine. Koji Koda is doing the usual of cleaning up after his pet rabbit, while Eijiro Kirishima is throwing out his punching bag he accidentally broke, passing by Tenya Iida. He comments that he still has some tiny corners to clean up, and that Katsuki Bakugo’s already completely done his. Mezo Shoji is taking his own box of junk to throw away, with Fumikage Tokoyami noticing a decoration of the character “Bat Boy” that he immediately draws attention to. As the five of them head to the middle of the forest for the temporary trash site, they notice Power Loader hanging around there, just eating outside as a change of pace. Fumikage asks the others if they’ve noticed the earthquakes happening at night lately, Koji also heard it but Tenya, Eijiro, and Mezo haven't due to sleeping in early.

While throwing away his trash, Fumikage’s “dark night crystal”, which he held onto so as not to dispose of, bounced off him leading him to follow it into the woods, with the four other boys accompanying him. Just as they all meet up, suddenly the ground under them caves in as they fall down and get stuck underneath. After recovering, they noticed a mysterious red light from a light bulb and realize they must be in some underground maze, with Fumikage theorizing the tremors came from the construction of this place. As they try to make their way through the labyrinth to find an escape, they suddenly discover a monkey doll with two cymbals moving on the ground. Eijiro, while using his Hardening quirk, picks it up to question what it’s doing there, only for it to start clashing the cymbals together, causing Eijiro to freak out and drop it. The others laugh about getting scared at that, until the monkey starts going berserk and shoots a laser beam out of his mouth. Running away, Fumikage tries to use Dark Shadow to attack it but isn’t able to reach it in time. Eijiro tries next, using Hardening to withstand the laser, but the monkey dodges his attacks. Mezo uses his Dupli-Arms to throw boulders at the monkey, successfully knocking it out, as the damaged doll creepily keeps saying “curse”. The monkey proceeds to start flying and chases the boys, causing Tenya and Eijiro in particular to shout at what exactly it even is. As they make their way into a corridor, more monkeys shooting lasers start showing up and attacking them, as they look for Tenya for advice on how to fight them. He tells Eijiro to be a distraction, using his Hardening to withstand the monkey beams, while the others take down the dolls, even though they are worried about whatever the “curse” might be. As they finish up checking if anyone’s hurt, they realize Koji has gone missing, and considering they are lost and have nowhere else to go, they head off to look for him.

Meanwhile, back in the dorms, Katsuki shows up to Eijiro’s room looking for his lint roller only to find him missing. As he enters the room and picks up the lint roller, he notices a bunch of dust located under his bed, annoyingly muttering to himself if he even cleaned his room, taking out the vacuum to clean the dust. After that’s done, he notices the wallpaper next to Eijiro’s posters starting peeling, so went to work trying to fix it. Hanta Sero walked by as this was going on, peering in to wonder what Katsuki’s doing in Eijiro’s room. He figured that due to Katsuki’s perfectionism, he was irriated at Eijiro’s half-assed cleaning and wanted it fixed. Hanta proceeded to tease him, saying if the hero gig doesn’t work he’ll be a great handyman, leaving Katsuki to yell back at him.

Back in the maze, as the boys continue to look for Koji, they come across a wall with a mysterious button on it, increasing the urge to push it. The boys start to question the button, and the whole labyrinth’s true purpose, with Fumikage suggesting it could be an emergency switch, while Tenya and Mezo seem convinced it may not be U.A. property due to how unfinished it is, and could possibly be a Villains underground base. Not paying attention, Dark Shadow emerges from Fumikage, noticing the button and pushing it, causing everyone to freak out. A crack in the ground starts to appear making a hole, which Eijiro says he recognizes from a movie, and just as they try to evade, a giant boulder drops from the ceiling heading right toward everyone as they try to get away. Fumikage uses Dark Shadow to fly through the corridor, while Tenya grabs ahold of Eijiro and Mezo to boost out of there. They notice a monitor on the ceiling counting down, causing them to panic and again try to escape, as the ground gives way for them to fall into another hole. They land in a slime pit, and Dark Shadow is able to make use of a big metal bird cage that lifts them to safety into a new corridor. Continuing down it, suddenly another giant boulder starts heading their way forcing them to run again. Eijiro activates his Hardening to split the boulder in half, as one half is about to hit Fumikage, Tenya quickly jumps in the way to cover for him, hitting his shoulder causing him to bleed. While Tenya doesn’t feel too bad about it, Fumikage becomes distressed with himself letting him get hurt like that, causing Dark Shadow to overpower him and go berserk. Tenya tries to use cell phone to shine a light and calm him down, but Dark Shadow grabs ahold of it and continues thrashing about. Just then, a swarm of bats show up and overwhelm Dark Shadow causing him to cool down; they realize Koji is controlling the bats, as a more controlled Fumikage thinks to himself, “Bat Boy…”

The other boys ask Koji where he was, saying he also got lost, but was able to find his way by talking to the bugs and bats, Fumikage thanks him and greatly compliments his quirk, causing him to blush. A giant hose then appears out of nowhere sending a huge rush of water straight towards the boys, as they grab ahold of Mezo who helps save them. Making their way further down the path, they mysteriously come across an underground hot springs, with several towels and shirts set aside. Confused, but still pretty tired from everything they went through, they decide to relax in the hot spring for a bit, before eventually getting dried and dressed in the extra clothes. Mezo then tells them that he hears voices in the wall, supposedly sounding like villains preparing to destroy the place. They get ready to fight as Dark Shadow busts the door down, only to end up in a small movie theatre, with a film currently being played. They proceed to enter several other rooms that include a line-up of nice cars, another full of weapons in development, and one of lasers that start shooting at time. As they try to evade them all, they suddenly run into Principal Nezu, who tells them not to worry. He explains that the whole area was an old U.A. training ground that was left unused due to being too dangerous. When Tenya asks about the hot springs and other rooms, Nezu claims they are for his personal use when he wants to relax, telling them to head back to the dormitories not to worry about anything else. Making it outside and realizing that it is evening, the boys breathe a sigh of relief at their little adventure as they head back to prepare for dinner.

Back in the labyrinth, it turns out that the area was not actually for Nezu’s own personal use, but was in fact Power Loader, who had been tinkering around with all the traps and added the hot spring and cinema to utilize while he worked on weapons and other inventions. Nezu tells him that he understands his need for personal space since he’s not a people person, but also reminds him to make the place safer if he wants to keep using it. He also teases him saying that he’d want to be able to use the hot springs every now and then too.

Part 2: Mismatching Santas
Principal Nezu meets with several of the U.A. staff, including Shota Aizawa, Present Mic, Midnight, Thirteen, Vlad King, Hound Dog, and Ectoplasm. He informs them that despite no suspicious activity from the students, indicating none of them are probably spies for the League of Villains, they decide to have each of the teachers escort one of the students back home over winter break for their safety. As the meeting concludes, Aizawa lets them know he’ll be bringing Eri to Class 1-A’s Christmas Party in the dormitory, bringing joy to the other teachers, while Nezu notes that he’ll tighten security around the dorms and around Eri’s room just in case.

After the Christmas party, Aizawa and Eri head back to the teacher’s dormitory and to her room. Aizawa wonders what to do with Fumikage’s giant sword that Eri won from the gift grab, but Eri insists on keeping it since it was her Christmas present. Eri mentions how surprised Mirio might be to see her with the sword, while Aizawa thinks about just how big an impression Izuku and Mirio have left on her. She thinks about all the good food she had at the party and gets hungry again; Aizawa asks what her favourite food was, and she said the chocolate covered apple slices. She then asks him if Santa will visit her and Izuku, having learned about Santa Claus from the 1-A kids, as Aizawa reassures her he will come.

Later that night, Aizawa waits outside Eri’s room for Present Mic, with the intention of acting as Santa and leaving her a gift to find in the morning. Mic arrives completely dressed in a Santa getup, to Aizawa’s bewilderment, which he claims is in case Eri accidentally wakes up. Due to the last disastrous time when Aizawa tried to get clothes for Eri, he had Mic choose to present, which turned out to be a DJ set for kids, reluctantly accepting. As they are about to quietly enter the room, they’re suddenly surprised by two figures already in the room dressed up as Santa as well; Thirteen wearing a suit over their space suit, and Midnight in a sexy Santa girl outfit. They’re both there to give Eri presents as well, wanting to help make her smile, Thirteen got her a teddy bear, and Midnight a picture book; Mic laughs at this assuming Midnight to get her something more adult-oriented, which she defends herself saying it’s not until she’s much older. As they are about to leave the presents by her bedside, they notice an angel doll above her bed not having seen it before, but are distracted by the presence of the sleeping Eri.

Just then, they hear tapping at the window, leading the four to act on guard, only for it to be Vlad King, also dressed as Santa, accompanied by Hound Dog, dressed like a reindeer and pulling a sled, who also wanted to give Eri presents. Another figure suddenly shows up in the darkness, freaking the teachers out, revealing it to be Ectoplasm (dressed as Santa as well) with a present too. Vlad and Hound Dog, with assistance from the 1-B girls, get her a cute hair piece and hand mirror, while Ectoplasm gives her a CD (which she can play in Mic’s DJ set). Right as the teachers decide to place the gifts around the bed, they notice the eyes of the angel doll suddenly turn red. A shield barrier surrounds Eri and her bed, as the doll starts shouting “intruder alert!” while shooting lasers at the teachers. They recall Nezu mentioning tightening security, and realizing this is what he meant, are forced to spend the rest of the night fighting the angel doll.

The following morning, Eri wakes up to see all of presents at her bedside. She runs into the longue to see Aizawa and is surprised to also see the rest of the teachers all sleeping on the sofas, having been too exhausted to get back to their rooms. As they start to awaken, Eri tells them about Santa leaving her a ton of presents, as her beaming smile infects the rest of the teachers, making them feel all happy too.