Michiyo was born as the only child to two caring, if overbearing, parents. When he was younger, Michiyo was rather sociable and did remarkably well in school. He did amazingly in math classes, in particular. His favorite courses, though, were always those that combined formulas with practical applications. Because of this, statistics and science courses became a big interest for him. He would focus on and think about these outside of class as well as in them. He never had many close friends, only acquaintances, and they accepted this as a sign that Michiyo was simply a hard-worker, something that many of them would strive to emulate. One of the things Michiyo has always struggled with, though, is a sense of identity. He had trouble finding a place for himself in most social situations; he never felt like he “belonged” with others who tended to be near the top of the class, nor was he a particularly cheerful person despite his optimistic viewpoint on life.

As he grew older and progressed in school, Michiyo found himself becoming more and more reclusive as pseudo-friends drifted away in favor of relationships or divergent interests, or simply better friends. He felt like something was wrong with him, with his love for math and his inability to keep close friends, so he decided that he didn’t particularly care to have friends, anyway. He began presenting a much more closed-off persona, something that bellied his naturally open and helpful attitude, as he felt that it was better that his place in life be self-imposed as opposed to something that was a result of happenstance. He took to speaking up less in class and loved thinking about hypothetical scenarios or creating his own formulas. He piled on clothes to make himself seem larger, as in reality he was rather scrawny, wanting to appear as a less weak target. This, and his penchant for pitching his voice down, made some strangers call him a “he,” and he found that he much preferred it to “she.”

Some of his ideas were discovered on the back of an assignment that he turned in, just simple ideas to him, causing him to be called in by his mathematics teacher to discuss what he was doing. His teacher was so inspired and pleased with his work that she recommended him to a local professor, who gave him a university-level test that he passed with ease. When asked about his ideas for formulas or problems or theorems, he provided much more than was expected of him, and he managed to get funding for private study. He’s adept with technology and loves using--and improving--programs for formulas. He enjoys making distributions and tables by hand, though he sees the practicality of using software to do so as well.

He lives with his parents and cousins, and though he’s not particularly close to any of them, there isn’t any overt animosity there either, even when he started becoming less outgoing at school. In fact, at school, he was almost bratty at times--he knew that people who wanted to hang out with him one day wouldn’t the next, so why even bother with the one day? He’d rather make them stop bothering him, hardly even admitting to himself that he craved the companionship.

He tried his best to avoid the pseudo-fame offered to him by his acceptance to Hope's Peak, even trying to appear blase about it despite his excitement and nerves. He was ready to go through the rest of high school with no friends, especially since any new friends would only like him for shallow reasons. Still, he was ready to hold his head high, work hard, and be safe--until the killing game began.