Hinata had managed to escape her abusive husband, she never saw her lover again since that day assuming the worst had happened to him. Running was all she could remember from the day she left, at some point she found a place far away where she worked as a maid at a local tavern in the Xianzu province where she first heard about Asahi dubbed the god of healing for his profound acclaimed healing abilities by the local people, her pregnancy had progressed too far being in her final month she was scared for the baby.
If Asuma found her while she was too weak to run they would both be dead. She was still thinking about the idea when a familiar group entered the tavern she worked at and sat at one of the tables, they were some of Asuma's guards she'd seen working around the mansion. "Maybe they don't work for him anymore" she muttered she felt her heart race at the sight, Asuma's family insignia plastered on their chests though suggested otherwise, luckily they hadn't spotted her or at least she thought they hadn't, she slowly backed away to the tavern's back door for staff only ignoring everyone she passed by and as soon as it locked behind her Hinata started running, and now she slept before Asahi.
"Her baby is due any day now" Asahi muttered to himself
He sat cross legged over Hinata who slept soundly her large round belly gracefully protruding upwards in a room they found for her in the pagoda. He healed her wounds and had one of his female disciples attend to her providing her with clean clothes and food. "She can't expect to go anywhere any soon, not in her current condition at least. He sympathized with her not because he had ever seen or experienced the same situation but because he wasn't new to human cruelty, fueled by their own petty reasons; greed, selfishness, hate and arrogance 'Why would someone pursue to kill a pregnant woman he actually never wanted in the first place?' Michael felt flabbergasted 'Claiming betrayal while it was his own neglectful actions that caused it all' Michael clenched his fists tightly imagining the horrors Hinata must have gone through at her husband's hands.
Hinata's loud scream snapped Michael from his thoughts, she clasped her hand over her belly "The baby's coming!!" she shouted after releasing another shriek, Michael flew into action.
After loads of pushing, screaming, crying and whatnot a baby girl was born, Michael took the baby in his arms all covered in blood and cut the umbilical cord with a clean sterilized knife, he gave her to Hinata to hold. She was covered in a mixture of sweat and blood, her hair lay in a disheveled mess despite all that she smiled while tears streamed down her face "My little baby girl." She said weakly as "my beautiful Eva" she held her baby proudly before losing consciousness,
Michael took baby Eva from Hinata and gave her to an old lady who was of the two attendants he called to assist him.
Then he noticed that the bleeding in between Hinata's legs hadn't stopped in fact blood coming out increased, on seeing this he didn't panic he had seen this kind of thing several times in other women. "Lin!" he called in a calm voice to the other attendant in white linen cloths assisting him "would you please got get me some more warm water" the male attendant bowed and quickly left.
Once Michael remained alone with Hinata he carefully placed both his palms on her shrunken stomach and closed his eyes. Bright beams of light emanated from his hands bathing Hinata's torso in a bright golden white color, then it was gone.
The light seemed to transmit through her entire body giving her skin a kind of gleam; it lasted for a few seconds then completely disappeared. "Well that's new" Michael said to himself looking at the weak gleaming light coming from her pale skin, the light lingered a bit before disappearing. Her skin turned chestnut with a tinge of pink, whatever paleness was there disappeared, and Hinata somehow became even more beautiful in Michael's eyes.
Hinata stayed with little Eva at Michael's pagoda at first she was just too weak to leave and having a new born baby was proved to be more perilous than she previously expected. The baby constantly needed feeding, bathing, she cried a lot and got sick very easily, Michael would constantly help her healing the baby, providing food, clothes to both of them and whenever she was too tired her would nurse the baby in her stead, she doubted they could survive on their own constantly on the road.
Secondly for the first time since she left her parent's home she felt safe, Asahi just naturally exuded a safe and peaceful atmosphere he was kind, courteous and unbelievably strong, once a bear wondered into the forest near the pagoda.
Three unfortunate hunters were looking for game when they encountered it, only one came out barely alive struggling and that was only because one of Michael's disciples found him at the edge of the forest while she was looking for herbs. When Kenji the hunter woke up he told Michael(Asahi) what happened to him and his friends, Michael stood up told Kenji to rest and then went outside and into the forest all alone none of his disciples protested so Hinata also kept quiet and waited for Michael's return.
Later that day Michael came out of the forest in his hand a bear's head hung its fur held tight in between his fingers, blood dripped from its neck where it was severed from the body leaving a trail of blood from the path where Michael came from. But that wasn't the most shocking part, Hinata watched as Michael left earlier that day wearing a white tunic under white robes with loose white linen pants as he mainly wore while at the pagoda.
At first Hinata thought she was hallucinating but the closer he got towards where she stood along with other disciples she noticed his clothes were as white as he had left not even a speck of blood touched him. In that moment she knew if the god of healing couldn't protect both her and her child no one else could.
Hinata lived there for five years working as One of Michael's disciples there were no signs of Asuma or his men finding them, life at the pagoda was very peaceful. People from the Xianzu province, hunters, people from the nearby villages, merchants and others came for treatment. Sometimes it was local nobles or even poor people came to Michael for treatment as his fame as the god of healing grew more people came for treatment, hence his disciples were very busy and were glad to have a helping hand.
Hinata got various skills in healing; she was in charge of helping the less serious wounds and ailments like most disciples leaving the gravest conditions for Michael. No one knew of Michael's light miraculous ability he kept it a secret fearing exposure would bring unnecessary chaos. Whenever an impossible condition was healed the disciples considered it a "Miracle" and didn't pry farther into the matter.
All the while Eva grew rapidly and happily, she was taller than most kids her age not that she met many except for the ones whom came in sick. She didn't have any friends her age however it didn't matter, everyone in the pagoda was her friend, her liveliness and lovable demeanor entranced anyone she met.
Out of all of them she considered Michael her best friend. Ever since he held her in his arms at birth Asahi or rather Michael loved Eva, maybe it was because he never held a baby in his life but for some unknown reason Michael felt compelled to protect the child as if she were his own, it felt eerie to him having such feelings but it didn't bother him in fact he relished them. 'Woe to anyone whom will ever hurt you little girl!' he thought angrily imagining all the ways he would torture Asuma if he ever tried anything against Eva and her mother.
"Asahi!!" she said loudly running, as Michael came from the forest her long brown hair swaying in the wind and jumped into his arms. Michael swept her up into a hug "How are you doing my beautiful child?" Michael said in a soothing deep voice with a smile Eva pulled at his long dark hair. "I am fine, did you get me a present" she giggled bating her big brown eyes "Straight to the point huh?!" Michael laughed as he put her back down "did you not trouble your mother?"
Eva's expression turned tense thinking, then brightened up "No I didn't, mother told me to come play while she took care of a patient, do you have it in the bag?" she said eagerly staring at the makeshift red cloth bag tied across Michael's chest from his upper left side to the lower right side of his torso.
Michael continued laughing and untied the bag, placing it on the ground careful not to spill the medicinal herbs inside and took out a wooden toy he bought from a village local market he passed by he gave it to Eva. Her eyes widened at her new present "Thank you Asahi!!" she said excitedly hugging him tight her head reaching Michael's thighs due to her small height "OK!" he said "Go play with it" Eva let him go then ran away merrily.
"Don't worry I won't let them hurt you…"
"My brightest star…