Eiichirou 'Henry' Arakawa/History

"old shit TLDR: born from affair → circumstances cause siblings to take it upon themselves to raise him → struggles with dyslexia and his rapid growth and the consequences → family gets him through tough times → starts attending Nishigaoka"

Childhood
Born out of an extramarital affair, Eiichirou's family history can best be described as one thing: messy.

His father, Hitoshi, was a half Japanese, half Scottish pilot based in London, who frequently travelled back and forth between Japan and the UK due to the advantages his proficiency in both English and Japanese (and more) brought him. Although he had three children with a woman names Catherine, who was his wife at the time, he was rarely ever home. During one of his stays in Japan, he met a rather lovely nurse by the name of Fumie. Long story short, the two partook in an affair, eventually resulting in Eiichirou's birth and his father leaving his wife for Eiichirou's mother when his oldest child was only 17. Although they were content for roughly 7 years, his father eventually ended up leaving his mother for yet another woman only a few months after his birth.

Distressed and unwilling to be a single mother, Eiichirou's half-siblings' arrival came like an answer to the prayers of his mother. Wanting answers, Catherine arranged for her and her children to seek out her ex-husband's whereabouts and confront him properly, only to find out he'd already moved on. Feeling a strange sense of responsibility, the eldest sibling, Russel, offered to take in Eiichirou and raise him in her stead. Catherine was at first fiercely opposed to the idea, but after seeing the sorry state Fumie was in, after hearing her desperate pleas and confessions of guilt and regret, she begrudgingly complied. That is, on the condition that Russel and the other siblings would be his primary caretakers. Although there were many struggles as the siblings had no idea how to raise a child, their mother eventually warmed up to him and certainly helped out more than a little. After throwing around several names, they decided to give him the alternative name Henry.

Henry was a very easy child. He rarely cried unless it was to communicate something, but was otherwise a very calm and friendly child. He had few problems learning how to walk, ate his food at a proper pace, and gradually increased his motor skills. The only 'problem' they found was how late he'd started talking. To their surprise, little Henry did not enjoy reading nor drawing. In fact, he struggled harshly with anything that required him to recognise shapes, and struggled to comprehend simple phrases and rhymes. Russel, now almost done with his studies, found that these signs, in combination with some others, could point in only one direction: dyslexia. After getting positive test results, Catherine insisted on holding him back at least a year to work on improving his literary skills, to which Russel agreed. Henry wasn't very fond of it, being unable to join his friends in grade school, but nonetheless complied as he believed in the efforts of his caretakers.

With that being sorted out, another problem reared its head. His growth. Henry had been only a little heavier than most babies at birth, but his growth rate was alarming. At age 4, he'd already hit the 120 cm mark, and as he grew more and more, he was starting to complain about pain in his limbs and back. Taking him to the doctors again, it turned out that Henry was fine height wise - he'd just probably grow into a rather tall adult, but this growth of his did come with a few minor issues. On top of that, after further research it came to light that a part of his pain was due to his hypermobility. While he luckily did not have the syndrome, his oddly shaped bones did stress out his already pressured joints even further. He was prescribed NSAIDs to relieve some of the cramps that kept him up at night, but even to this day he dislikes taking his tablets. Russel suggested exercise could help with strengthening his body, and so he's been trying all sorts of things, with his siblings making sure that whatever he participates isn't too harmful for him.

Henry was expected to be more mature by his peers, and to some extent, he was. However, he was very much still a child, and the way others viewed him definitely didn't go past him. He was teased for various things and often called names, and even though he had a strong heart, such words definitely broke down his self-esteem. Of course, he did have friends and people who loved and appreciated him, but the negatives always seem to outlast the positives in memory. He's never felt that there's anything particularly great about being tall, especially not with his joint problems, but he did enjoy being helpful and getting things that are out of reach or lifting things that are too big for the other kids. With the encouragement of his family, he was slowly getting eased into the mindset that even if he might be different, that's okay and he doesn't have to be anyone else but himself.

When it came to finally attending grade school, he was already out of touch with most of his former friends, but he made a few new ones and the years passed by quickly.

Nishigaoka
One thing that came as a surprise to much of the makeshift family was that Henry's birth mother was a mutant. Henry started showing signs of some sort of supernatural power at age 11, and it was at this moment that he received a mysterious invitation to a Japanese school, Nishigaoka.