Hatsu hushed himself at Death's response. It had been too easy to upset him for a while now. The boy hadn't meant any disrespect, and he hoped it hadn't seemed like he did. Thinking about it though, Death had probably already considered what he just brought upâ€”he'd probably already considered everything they'd complained about thus far. Maybe that was why he was so frustrated? Death new his own limits better than anyone. He'd probably already run through every option and already chosen their current situation as the best one available. Hatsu would be frustrated too, if he'd done the best he could at something and others criticized him on it, suggesting improvements that he'd already considered and determined to be impractical. The master of death would know exactly how long their oxygen would last, and that they needed more training before they could take on Lucifer and the Reverend. He knew that time was of the essence, and that the element of surprise was their greatest weapon. Yes, he'd fully considered the options of food and water, and had planned out exactly what he would do about it, and exactly when. And they, short-lived and worrisome as humans are, continued to pester him, remind him of things he knew better than any of them, and insist that he make adaptions to his already perfect plan.<br/><br/>The boy felt almost ashamed that it had taken him this long to fully come to grasp that concept. All it would have taken was a brief moment of thought, but he didn't bother with it. Well... now he understood. There was no more need for the useless rehashing of ideas as he'd been doing with all the others. Hatsu was a surprisingly smart person for having grown up on the streets, but he was also capable of that mild, instinctual understanding that comes with intellectuals, that when they realized how shallow their thinking was compared to those more versatile of mind, they became faced with the infinite expanse of swirling knowledge, nearly tortured with the idea that while they were conscious enough to know it was there, they had not yet reached the level where they could reach into it with ease and pull out the answers to all the world's questions, as those more versatile of mind always seemed to do.<br/><br/>After a few extra moments of gawking, the hunters began to shuffle their way back into the void. With the lack of a crowd, a sweeping wind came and cut through him. It smelled clean, like it had come from far away, where there were no demons or conflict. Something came to him, and he absolutely had to share it with Sam; at that moment, when they were nearly alone here and protected by Death's veil.<br/><br/>He returned the squeeze she was giving back to her own hand to get her attention, then he leaned down and spoke quietly to her. â€œTilt you're head up, just a bit, so you can't see the ground as clearlyâ€”so it will look farther away. Now,â€ he said as she obeyed in a slightly confused/amused way, â€œpretend you can't feel your feet. There's nothing under them and so it's like they don't exist.â€ He looked up at the sky then, â€œWith the wind rushing past you and an endless horizon on all sides, that's exactly what flying feels like. Trust me,â€ he smiled. â€œI'll take you flying for real sometime,â€ he said, giving a slight tug on her arm to see if she was ready to go back â€œinside.â€<br/><br/>-----------------------------<br/><br/>Vaan quickly turned his attention to Merle as she expressed pain at the wound on her face. It certainly should have stopped bleeding by now, but it hadn't. Concern tugged tightly on the Ex-Lead Silencer's heartstrings, nearly choking him, but it was an emotion that no longer new how to express itself in his face. The slightest light could be seen deep in his ebony eyes, but only upon a close look.<br/><br/>Vaan turned himself around and knelt next to her, reaching out to touch the wound, but stopping just short, afraid of worsening her pain. "It must be something the Reverend did," he reasoned, emotion still managing to leak into his voice freely as it used to. "A normal hit like that shouldn't have hurt you so badly in the first place. Perhaps the same ability that is making it bleed is also what made it take hold in the first place." He looked at the snack-sized girl lovingly in his blank-faced way. He'd cared about her before, but his eyes were opening a bit more now to everything--including how much she meant to him.<br/><br/>The man eventually reached forward and wrapped the girl in his arms, hugging her gently, and reaching up a hand to stroke her head, as she did his. "I'm sorry," he said sadly. "I don't know how to heal you yet. I'm only part way through the lesson and Abaddon says I must take a break. If I tried to use the power now I might accidentally hurt you instead. I'm sorry. I have no right to ask you this, but could you bear the pain just a little longer, Merle?"