Bonus Chapter: Tales of the Master

A extra telling the story behind the Alchemy training of Izumi Curtis (Izumi Harnet, at the time), considered to be a "unique" alchemist for being self-taught. This story tells of the time she went to the mountains of Briggs at the north of Amestris to subject herself to an alchemy master.

Synopsis
Izumi is found in the middle of a snowy forest, during a snow storm and about to die. The story flashback to when Izumi arrived at a building by the mountains, presenting herself to an old man, who she calls "Silver Steiner". Izumi presents herself to him, saying she has heard a great deal about his alchemical knowledge. It appears as if the man is a little deaf, as Izumi has to repeat what she said to him. He confirms to be Steiner, and she asks him if she can become his apprentice. He accepts her, giving her a knife and saying her test to become his apprentice is to survive for a month in the mountains with nothing but that knife. Izumi finds that odd, but complies.

The story moves back to Izumi in the snow, waking up to see she's still alive and coming up with strategies to survive. A Briggs soldier approaches her and points a gun at her, believing her to be a spy from Drachma. As the soldier doesn’t yield, Izumi knocks him unconscious and steals his food and equipment. After a while Izumi is once again cold and hungry and says she has no strength to run from the mountains, nor to fight. She starts thinking about how small her existence is and how things would continue with their balance whether she lived or died. It wouldn’t make a difference to nature, who would continue with its course. She comes to the conclusion that nature has a powerful strength in its flow, that is formed by the combined existence of small things like herself and that, if she learned to use such a flow, she would be doing Alchemy. She then institutes the principle of “One is All and All is One”.

One month later, at the same building, a group of soldiers are mentioning about some of their colleagues being attacked in the mountains by a mysterious woman. Izumi walks in carrying a dead bear, that she leaves in front of Steiner. She asks him again to teach her alchemy, and he retorts that she must be talking about his “younger brother”. He says he’s actually Gold Steiner, elder brother to Silver Steiner and known in the arts of wrestling. He announces his brother has died a while back. Even though he realizes Izumi was not interested in his abilities of wrestling, he’s willing to take her as an apprentice, since she’s shown to be worthy and could survive a month in the mountains. Izumi is furious, beats up the old man and walks away.

Chapter Notes

 * In this chapter, Izumi doesn't have box braids.