Brylissa merely rolled her eyes in response to Sora's epic three-point landing before dashing into melee range with her. In the first critical seconds Sora was able to land several damaging hits. Brylissa couldn't use her whip effectively at such close range to attack or defend at first. But, like all worthy foes, she had more than one trick up her sleeve.

Practically dancing across the sand the false princess found a window where she could distance herself from Sora. In one swift motion Brylissa snapped the whip to her right. Oddly the whip lined up abnormally straight. It held for just a second for just a second before most of it fell away in a thick shower of rose leaves. The rest of the weapon had changed! While still green and thorny this new tool looked in shape like a lance but only about the length of a short sword.

Great. But when did anything every stay easy?

They came to blows. Apparently being a versatile warrior was one of her many skills. This actually suited Sora better as he had more experience with the up close and personal ways of combat. Dealing damage was much easier one-on-one and, blessedly, without the moving vines. The fight felt much more even without worrying about that element. Not to say Brylissa was helpless without them by any means.

Out of the corner of his eye Sora could see the moving mat of green covering most of the beach. Occasionally a friend cried out to another amidst the declarations that made magic come to life. As terribly as he wanted to look Sora kept his focus on his own battle. If he could weaken or keep her busy then maybe her control over the plants would be lessened. With that achieved his friends would be able to help themselves.

There was something else about Brylissa Sora noticed and found unsettling: the lack of emotion. And, maybe it wasn't even emotion but just how little anything put before her seemed to matter. There had been no 'we shall be victorious!' confidence or arrogance since they'd met. A lot of foes he'd faced in the past couldn't wait to put him in his place. Others would taunt his insignificance claiming he wasn't worth their time. Brylissa hadn't done either. But it didn't feel like laziness or true boredom. Indifference was the only word that seemed to best fit. He knew a Nobody would eventually grow into a Heart of its own. Other than a few Heartless of the truest Darkness such as NeoShadows and Dark Sides, the state of being heartless is not naturally. A form does what it can to eventually fill the space and create a semblance of being whole. It had been several years since the Princesses had their Hearts taken. And that was from his timeline! This was the future. Was Brylissa so devoid of, well, anything because perhaps the process varied by person? Or was this the personality that grew in the empty space? Sora couldn't help but feel a bit sad if the latter was the truth. But such contemplations wouldn't give him an edge in this fight. Until then, Plan A: Attempt to keep busy/defeat if lucky.

"Why even fight us at all?" Sora said. "We weren't even paying attention earlier. You wouldn't have had to deal with us at all. We would probably still be wandering in circles trying to figure out the mystery of the abnormal plant growth. Why bother yourself?"

Brylissa half-rolled her eyes impatiently. "Those were my instructions if I met any of you. I thought it foolish the key bearers of this time calling for their less-experienced selves to 'aid' them against us. I still do. However, some of you have proven strangely damaging to our final plan. With that in mind I cannot let you leave in the bizarre event you also prove more than a nuisance."

Suddenly the beach flashed bright orange. A column of flame raged upward. Rapidly the cylinder of fire widened greatly. It vanished nearly as quickly as it appeared. In its wake the vines on the outer edge recoiled and writhed like beheaded snakes. Lea stood at its center, Donald on the ground next to him and a tangled mass of crispy foliage. Awesome. Lea was perfect for a job like this.

Brylissa sighed and shook her head slightly.

"Speaking of nuisance,"

Sora went for whatever window he had for her to possible put down her guard. The display and burning didn't actually throw her off but it was worth a try.

"Yeah, nuisance. You have to stall us and can't even have the satisfaction of finishing us off,"

"I believe you and your friends will be of little concern very soon. Now a truly tire of you. Remember what I said before. Prepare to have the limit of yourself tested. I do not need to destroy any of you. I just can't let you leave."

Before Sora could respond Brylissa waved her whole arm and thrust her hand in his direction. A thick tangle of vines of all sizes slithered rapidly out of the jungle straight for him. Sora tried to parry the vines as they neared. Only this was not a singular entity. The end split apart into a dozen different sized vines like the maw of some alien monster. Before Sora could try anything else the vines had wrapped around his chest and shoulders. The momentum pushed him off his feet. It didn't stop. He heard someone yell his name before getting pushed into the water not far from where the waterfall poured into the sea.

Naturally Sora did all he could to break free. The vines had pushed him to the sand. The water wasn't terribly deep but technically you only need a few inches to drown. But she couldn't do that! Brylissa acknowledged she couldn't inflict lasting harm on them.

Prepare to have the limits of yourself tested.

She wasn't going to drown him. All she had to do was push him to the edge of the brink then pull him back. As an islander he'd been through a lecture or two about drowning. It could actually take several minutes to reach the point of no return. He had to get free before that.

Easier said than done. He wasn't held down by one restraint but several. Most held him around his upper torso and shoulders. It's not easy getting rid of something that close with a very long tool. On top of that Sora wasn't in his aquatic form. The rules of water drag around a moving object still applied.

Wait, water! Hadn't the spirit of the ocean been guiding them this whole time? Would it help him now if he called to it? Then again, what would be the point of that? He was already in the water. Of course the ocean spirit would know he was in trouble. So why wasn't it helping him?

Lungs burning. Lungs burning! As a child who spent half his life in or near the ocean Sora did possess the skill of holding his breath for an extended period. Unfortunately that skill was rendered null and void when also expending energy trying to cut away from a restraining plant mass.

Brylissa wouldn't let him drown. But what good is that fact when the painful process is getting to that point? The worst part about suffocation is that it involves the whole body. The lungs cannot oxygenate the blood. However, the heart doesn't know that and continues its never-ending delivery job. Blood with little to no oxygen has nothing to give the muscles that need it. Without their oxygen stores muscles burn and ache. Then there is the brain, prone to kick into panicky survival mode when in extreme distress. If that does work to get the air it needs the next step is complete shutdown. All functions are at their most minimal for survival. However, this emergency state can only be sustained for a matter of minutes. After that chances of revival without lasting brain damage drop significantly. She would pull him out right before that.

Desperate strikes became weaker. There was no strength to call upon magic.

Have to do…something. Have to…keep trying.

Boy, that sun reflecting off the surface looked pretty. Sparkling gold never moving quite the same way twice. Lovely. Sora was barely aware when his head lolled back. Didn't matter really. Even upside down something distant still glittered gold in the sunlight. Sparkling, sparkly and…getting bigger?

In his current state Sora only picked up on the basics of the very rapid succession of events that happened next. A surging push of water. Something grabbing and pulling him. Or was it pushing? Water falling away. Himself falling. Soft yet grainy landing. The impact pushed the last bubble of air out of Sora's lungs. The most basic survival reaction made him gasp. He could gasp. Now he couldn't stop. Air. Sweet, precious, life-giving air. After a few long seconds the desperate gasping slowed into heavy panting. His senses came back though the strength of his arms and legs took their time. Calling his Keyblade Sora plunged it into the sand and heavily leaned against it. Not at all ungrateful but what in the worlds just happened? The ocean? Donald's magic? If that was Brylissa pulling him back, what was that pressure surge just before it? Wait, there weren't any vines on him anymore at all. Wouldn't Brylissa still want him restrained?

"Be gone from here, creature. The business conducted here does not concern you."

Who was she talking to? The commanding tone was the most voice inflection he'd heard from her yet. Curiosity peaked and strength slowly returning Sora turned to see who or-WHAT THE-!?

It had gone unnoticed until then but Sora found himself covered by a massive shadow. He looked up. And up. And up! Standing somewhat over him was a massive crab! Massive enough to look a Dark Side in the eye! Was it *gulp* friendly? At the edge of its shell Sora caught a glimpse of something gold sparkling in the sun. That had to be the same glisten he saw in the water! Wow. Sometimes help comes in the most unexpected ways.

Sora gasped, remembering. "Donald! Goofy! Lea!"

The young Masters' gaze darted around the beach. The vine mass had recovered quickly. A stunned Donald was being dragged into a leafy pile. Others slowly coiled around the legs and torso of a very dazed Goofy. Next to both of them a different colored flower scattered a puff of pollen in their faces. Sora couldn't see Lea at all.

"I'm coming, guys!"

Sora shakily got to his feet. Yeah, in a minute. If all three of them couldn't best the magic vines and flowers, what could he do with jelly legs? Giving up wasn't an option. Wait. Sora looked up at the giant crab. It was looking with bulbous eyes at Brylissa. Clearly she was the aggressor in this situation but the contempt expression was probably from being called a 'creature'.

"Hey!" Sora shouted up to it. "I don't know if you can understand me but please help me one more time! I can't free my friends and defeat her myself. Please help us!"

The crab looked down at him. Something in its face told Sora it could understand him. There was another thing too: surprise? A few other things too but now wasn't the time to decode expressions.

"Please!" Sora begged.

Again the crab looked to him curiously. Then it looked between the mass of vines, Brylissa, then back to Sora.

"Which one?"

Sora's face widened into a grateful smile. It did understand and it was going to help!

"I need to help my friends. She's a danger to your entire world."

Sora took off, Keyblade held at the ready with a fire spell preparing. Behind him he could hear giant footfalls hitting the sand.

Fire had to be the answer. Alone, however, Sora knew he couldn't call upon enough of it the way Lea could to free them in one fell swoop or even two. He had to come up with a different plan fast. The vines had full range of movement and didn't take long to regrow. Avoid the flowers. Wait, stupid. Sora plunged a hand into a small pouch on his belt. An indispensable tool that was always the first to be forgotten. Golden dust showered over Sora. The rest of his dash was released from the hold of gravity.

With new ideas cooking the young Master flew to the edge of the jungle and beach. Awakened palm trees twitched expectantly but didn't attack. Interesting. Before they couldn't wait to hammer them all into a pulp. A suspicion grew in Sora's mind. Aiming to the vines in range of the trees he finally released the Fire spell. As soon as the blast hit the ground the palms smashed down on the spot. Sora created a ball of concentrated Wind magic and shot it down. Once again the nearest trees bashed the impact area. Sora grinned. The plants responded to disruptions on the ground. No doubt they could feel the vibrations of footfalls through their roots. This was a point of advantage they could have used earlier. Unfortunately genius doesn't always strike when you need it. There was another added benefit to this development too; the trees were also smashing vines.

Did I say smashed?

Forgive me the weak use of adjective. What I should have said first was pulverized. Ever accidentally step on a string bean? The vines ended up looking up like that.

Like a rapid-fire machine gun Sora cast his Fire spells until he felt like he would run out of magic. His damage to the tangled mass paled by comparison to the pummeling that followed. It didn't matter. In the end it still meant less work for him. The fruits of such labors became apparent almost immediately. With their bases and connection point to their roots lost the smallest vines became limp and listless first. Good. That far back it would take a second for replacements to grow in and be a problem. That is, if Brylissa could shift her focus long enough to keep the plants growing.

With his focus understandably elsewhere Sora could only hear the sounds of combat and snips of dialogue from the false princess and her giant opponent. He caught bits like 'Leave now, fool, this isn't your fight', 'Hold still', and something about being 'annoyingly honor bound' but was largely too focused on freeing his friends.

All three of them had been cocooned by layers of large leaves. A flower of a different color grew tangled amongst the other vines. Each shook a puff of pollen. However what came out this time wouldn't have been enough to salt popcorn. For good measure Sora heavily frosted them with Blizzard. Thankfully the vines lost much of their constriction power. Sora still had to struggle a bit getting the layers off Donald, Goofy and Lea.

"Are you okay!" Sora exclaimed as soon as he saw Goofy's face through the tangled mess.

"Gnnn,"

"Better than nothing."

Sora cut, pulled and heaved Goofy to at least the top of the dying foliage. Donald was released next. Getting him out was strange as he seemed to have gone very stiff. But as Sora began jostling him about Donald showed signs of coming out of it.

"What happened?"

"'Un uhst."

"What?"

"'Uhn usht."

"One more time?"

"SUHN UHST!"

"Sun ust? Stun dust! Got it."

Naturally the next step was to shake Donald silly to loosen up the stun. The response was about like blow-drying a wet cat.

"Cut it out! Cut it out! I'm okay."

"Great. Slap Goofy back to his senses. I'll get Lea."

"AHH! What is that!?"

"Huh? Oh. At the moment, helping us. Now get Goofy! Those vines could grow back any minute."

Getting to Goofy to snap out of it only took a few swats to the face. Turns out the dust of the white flower induced a heavy daze. Fortune was in their favor on two points for speedy recovery. One: the effect of the pollen remained potent with repeated application. Two: when not focused on anything in particular, lightly dazed or slightly zoned-out was pretty much Goofy's state of being. After helping a recovering Goofy to his feet Donald assisted Sora with Lea. Now, Lea was a little trickier to get to come around. The purple flower induced sleep. Even with the dusts potency fading fast he didn't show any signs of waking up. After all, a lullaby might put you to sleep but once you're out it's not necessary to stay asleep.

"Hey! Wake up! C'mon, Lea!"

While he was responding Lea was taking a bit longer to come around.

"Goofy, help me get him to his feet. You make sure the vines stay back."

"On it!"

Donald took a defensive stance. Goofy shook his head very rapidly to shake away the rest of the daze.

"But Sora," Goofy said as he draped Lea's arm over his shoulder. "Where are we supposed to go? The jungle will swallow us whole."

"We can't go anywhere yet. Ughn! Why does he have to be so tall? We have-."

"Not my fault you're short,"

"Good, he's coming to,"

"What happened?"

"Flower put you to sleep."

"Am I still dreaming?"

"No, why?"

"Because that looks like an eighty-foot crab."

"It is. Don't worry. He's helping us."

"Uh-huh."

"He helped me get away from Brylissa and now he's fighting her. This whole thing has just taken a turn in our favor and I'm not going to repay that by walking away."

With Lea now awake Sora stepped away then took off to where Brylissa and the monster crab were still dueling.

Meanwhile the other side of the fighting had escalated quite brutally by the time Sora joined in. Brylissa still had the short thorny blade in one hand and a newly grown whip in the other. She looked to have taken quite a beating. A line of six new Harvesters stood between her and her opponent. The crab looked to be, well, enjoying the combat. Across its huge claws were a few long scratch marks but none went deep. A few golden trinkets from its shell had fallen into the sand but otherwise it looked completely unhurt. It looked down to the Harvesters and chuckled.

"Adorable. After our last dance these ants are what you expect to protect you?"

"I will only warn you once more: Leave."

"Yep, mnh-hmn, let me think. That'd be a no. You see, I've figured out who you are. When the Heart of the Mother Island went missing there were plenty of whispers and rumors of great rewards for its return. Fascinating. But who is making these promises? Fair maids with powers like a demi-goddess? Why do they want it? Return it out of the goodness of their Hearts? Yeah, sure. Now that's a short list. Monsters talk. I listen. I never believed for a second anyone would try to get the Heart unselfishly."

"We have great plans for it now that-."

"We have great pans for it nyii-nye-nee!" The crab mocked squeakily. "I really don't care why you want it. I'm already more involved in squaring a debt than I ever wanted to be. Let's get this over with."

"Let's!"

Sora and company gathered and took their battle stances.

"Thanks for the time you bought me," Sora said without turning around. "Now we can take her on together!"


Title Translation: Close Shave