OOC || Information
Canon: Full Metal Alchemist.
Character: Izumi Curtis
Timeline: Chapter 75, after she meets Van Hohenheim, and he rearranges what remains of her internal organs.
Personality: Although Izumi usually introduces herself as being a housewife, therefore implying that she is not special in any way, she is actually a complex individual. On the surface, she tends to act like your typical devoted housewife and mother to those around her, even if they are not directly related to her. She is kind to children, usually going out of her way to do small things for them such as fixing their broken toys.
On some level, Izumi is a very devoted person. She loves her husband Sig very much, although she expresses that love differently than one would imagine, preferring to tease him and poke fun at him rather than openly displaying affection. The others who are recipients of Izumi’s devotion (again in a different way than one would expect) are the Elric brothers Edward and Alphonse. Even though she was reluctant to take them on as apprentices, and was scornful of their abilities and maturity as children, over time, Izumi’s opinion of them softened, and she eventually came to regard them as her adopted children. Even though at one point in canon, she expelled them as her students, Izumi still helped them out when they needed it, demonstrating the depth of her love for them.
When Izumi is not being a loyal wife and mother-figure, she tends to be harsh, strict, and rather fearsome. She has little tolerance for nonsense and disorder, which is displayed most frequently in her interactions with the Elrics, who happen to be very afraid of her and her explosive temper. When she is angry, or disgusted with someone’s actions (usually those of Ed and Al), she is quick to mete out physical punishments such as hitting, punching, or kicking. The fact that she can become enraged so quickly is one of her weaknesses, although her explosions of anger are usually understandable because they come from frustration because of mistakes the Elrics have made and because of her overall concern for their safety. Even so, controlling her anger is not something Izumi is very good at.
But aside from her outbursts, Izumi is a caring woman who won’t hesitate to lend a hand or her knowledge if someone needs it. And even though she might get angry and slap you around a bit first, she has a good heart, and genuinely cares for people.
Background: Regarding the information about Izumi’s early life and training to become an alchemist, the manga doesn’t directly address this, but there were several Japanese Full Metal Alchemist guidebooks released that were translated by fans, which is where the majority of this information comes from.
Izumi Curtis’ date of birth is said to be 1879, but there is nothing known about what her life was like before her 18th birthday in 1897. Who her parents were, or if she had any siblings, are both unknown. But in that same year, Izumi Harnet (as her name was then) left her home, going off by herself to the northern mountains in the Briggs mountain range, desiring to learn alchemy and become apprenticed to the famous alchemist Silver Steiner. But after making the journey through the harrowing and harsh environment of the Briggs range, and finally reaching Steiner’s place of residence, Izumi was told that she would not be accepted as Steiner’s apprentice unless she survived for one month alone on the mountain, with nothing but a machete.
Unsurprisingly, Izumi agreed to do what she was asked, and went out to the mountain alone. For one month, she battled with the harsh weather conditions (temperatures in the negatives, frequent blizzards, limited food supplies, and threats from bears and other wildlife), coming close to dying from overexposure, animal threats, and the occasional attack by members from the Briggs Mountain Patrol. The Patrol thought that Izumi was a spy from Drachma, a country located to the north of Amestris. The two countries had had many conflicts in the past, and so tensions were very high at that particular time. But Izumi managed to survive those attacks from Patrol members, and everything else the mountain threw at her. Interestingly, even though the Patrol outnumbered her, Izumi was never caught by them, and as time passed, she began to gain the reputation of being a mysterious “mountain woman” who fearlessly raided the forts and outposts on Mt. Briggs for supplies. These stories would persist for nearly twenty years as a result of Izumi’s stubbornness and bravery.
Finally, after enduring a wide range of hardships, Izumi finally returned to the town, as the month was over. She went back to Steiner, and informed him that she had survived one month on Mt. Briggs, and therefore had proven that she deserved to become apprentice. But life threw another curveball at her; the man who had been calling himself Silver Steiner revealed that he was actually Gold Steiner, the older brother of the famous alchemist. In reality, Silver Steiner had died several years before, a fact his brother had not divulged. In any case, Gold Steiner told Izumi that he wasn’t an alchemist at all; he was skilled at hand-to-hand combat and not alchemy. This enraged Izumi, who lashed out angrily at him, leaving him unconscious on the floor of his house.
But again, Izumi refused to give up, even though there was no one to teach her alchemy now. She set out from the Mt. Briggs area, going off by herself, intending to learn alchemy on her own.
Years later, sometime after she had taught herself alchemy, Izumi Harnet met and married a man named Sig Curtis. After some time of enjoying married life, the two had a son. Tragically, however, Sig’s and Izumi’s son died shortly after birth, leaving Izumi distraught and heartbroken. In a desperate attempt to bring her son back, Izumi performed a human transmutation, only to have the effort fail, resulting in some of her internal organs being permanently taken away as punishment for her sinful actions, however well-meant they were. Because of the loss of her organs, Izumi’s health was compromised, and thus whenever she became too worked up or stressed, she would begin to cough up blood. But an unexpected benefit of the failed transmutation was that now Izumi could perform alchemy without needing a transmutation circle (which serves as a medium that allows channels energy from the object being transmuted and the person doing the transmuting) because she saw the Gate and the truth about alchemy that was contained inside it.
It was sometime after all this happened that Sig and Izumi moved to Dublith, and eventually crossed paths with the young boys Edward and Alphonse Elric. The Elric brothers came to Dublith looking for someone to teach them alchemy so that they can bring back their dead mother. At first, Izumi was reluctant to take on the boys as students, because she made it a rule that she did not teach children. But eventually she agreed, and began teaching them about alchemy. She also taught them about martial arts, philosophy (including her personal philosophy, “one is all, all is one”), and survival techniques. By the time they were finished with Izumi, the boys had learned a lot about alchemy, and eventually went off on their own to finish what they’d started.
But Izumi and the Elrics crossed paths several times throughout the story. The first time that she saw them again, she was horrified to see the changes that had happened to them: Ed had lost his arm and leg, and Al had lost his entire body. She grilled them for answers, and eventually learned that they’d transmuted their mother which resulted in the loss of their bodies. After characteristically erupting and yelling at them for breaking the laws of alchemy, even though she had done the very same thing, Izumi told them that they were no longer her students.
Of course, this still was not the end of the relationship between Izumi, Ed, and Al. Later on, Ed ended up missing, and Izumi went to find him. She came to a place known as the Devil’s Nest, where she saw Ed fighting a Homunculus named Greed. She intervened, attacking Greed herself, but her effectiveness as a fighter was limited by a sudden attack of coughing. While Ed was occupied with looking after his former teacher, Greed seized his opportunity and escaped. Ed eventually went on alone to find Greed, while Izumi returned to her house.
In an unexpected twist, Fuhrer King Bradley showed up at Izumi’s house, where he told her that he was impressed by her abilities (transmuting without a circle) and that he’d realized that she’d seen the Gate and the Truth. He offered her a position as a State Alchemist, but Izumi refused, telling the Fuhrer that the military had no use for someone like her. After realizing that she would only continue to refuse his offer, the Fuhrer left, leaving Izumi wondering why he came to visit her himself. Because he left so suddenly, she did not get a chance to question him further, and so she was forced to just move on and try not to think about the “why” behind his actions.
What happened to Izumi next involved a rather unexpected meeting with the long-absent father of Edward and Alphonse Elric, Van Hohenheim. Izumi and Sig were on a train leaving Dublith, when they met Hohenheim on that same train. Izumi and Hohenheim were amazed that circumstance allowed them to meet, and soon began talking about the past and the Elric brothers. But when the conversation turned to more serious matters, Izumi’s condition flared up again, and she began to cough. This attracted Hohenheim’s attention and his concern, and he revealed that he had some experience with medicine. As he was examining her, he asked her if she’d seen the Truth (which exists in the Doors of Truth, the principle source of alchemic energy; the being known as the Truth meets all alchemists who have attempted human transmutation). Hohenheim also asked her what she sacrificed, to which she responded only with silence. When Hohenheim urged her to tell him, she revealed that she’d tried and failed to transmute her dead child, which resulted in some of her internal organs being taken away and leaving her unable to have children again.
After hearing this, Hohenheim inserted his hand into Izumi’s body, and rearranged her damaged insides. By the time he had finished, although her organs were still missing (the ones she’d lost were symbolic of the sinful act she’d committed by performing human transmutation, as Hohenheim pointed out), he had succeeded in improving her blood circulation, thus allowing her to breathe easier and making her less susceptible to the fits of coughing that had plagued her up to that point in her life.
Shortly after this encounter, she found herself in Adstringendum.
Abilities/Additional Notes: Izumi is skilled with martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, and is able to hold her own in a fight. She also is a skilled alchemist, being one of a few people who can transmute objects without requiring the use of a transmutation circle. She gained this ability after being sent to the Gate and meeting the Truth (i.e. God). This meeting gave her insight into the inner workings of alchemy (again, the ability to transmute without circles) in exchange for her internal organs.
Izumi also uses her alchemic abilities to repair small objects, such as broken toys for the children who live near her house in Dublith, but that seems to be as far as she is willing to go. But given what is known about the extent of Ed and Al’s abilities as alchemists (using alchemy to transmute weapons out of the earth, for example), it can probably be assumed that Izumi has this ability as well; she just chooses not to use it very often.
Another one of her abilities involves the ability to survive. In her early years, when she was around eighteen, she survived a month by herself on the harsh Mt. Briggs, in spite of frigid temperatures and threats from wildlife and nearby soldiers who thought she was a spy.
Additional note: Even though the canon point I’m pulling her from is after Hohenheim’s fixed the problem of her missing organs, making it so she won’t have a chronic cough anymore, those organs will still be missing.