Izumi Curtis

Izumi Curtis (イズミ・カーティス, Izumi Kātisu), (née Harnet) is a skilled martial artist and alchemist living in the southern Amestrian town of Dublith where - with her husband Sig Curtis - she runs a butcher shop. Though she doesn't usually take on students, Izumi accepted Edward and Alphonse Elric's plea to accept them as her apprentices and instructed them in alchemical theory and practice for six months.

Although Izumi takes apparent pride in being a housewife and introduces herself as such to anyone who asks, her attractive and humble exterior belies a fearsome disposition such that Ed and Al become terrified at the mere thought of her. She is prone to swift acts of violence and is often seen doling out physical harm, though most acts of overexertion on her part are followed by a regurgitation of blood linked to an internal injury from a failed Human Transmutation several years before. As a result of this, she is one of the few characters able to perform alchemy without the aid of a Transmutation Circle. Izumi is among the strongest women (and indeed characters) in the series.

She also appears to enjoy travel (a trait she may have passed on to Edward), as many of her appearances in the series find her journeying outside her hometown. She even announces herself as a "traveling housewife".

Appearance
Izumi is a young woman with a curvaceous yet well-toned figure, fair skin, long black hair in dreadlocks, dark blue eyes and a Flamel tattoo on the left side of her collarbone, the design of which appears to be her personal crest. In the 2003 anime series and the manga, the Flamel is red, but the 2009 anime depicts it as being a shade of blue. Ed would later use this design to some degree, as his personal crest as well.

Background
According to the Fullmetal Alchemist Perfect Guide 2 Gaiden manga: In the year 1897, when Izumi was 18, she ventured to the northern moutains of Briggs in order to learn alchemy as an apprentice to the famed alchemist Silver Steiner. She was told that she would not be accepted as Steiner's apprentice unless she survived for one month alone on the fearsome Mt. Briggs with nothing but a machete. She braved the elements, nearly dying several times from the extreme cold, wild animal attacks and assaults from Briggs Mountain Patrol (who assumed that she was a Drachman Spy) and discovered the philosophy "One is All, All is One" from her experiences there. Though she was never captured, the rumor of a mysterious mountain woman raiding Fort Briggs for supplies would continue to circulate for nearly twenty years. After the month was up, she ventured back into town and declared to Steiner that she was now fit to be his alchemy apprentice. It was at this point that the man told her that he was, in fact, Gold Steiner - the older brother of the alchemist Silver Steiner (who had died several years before) - and that he was known for hand-to-hand combat techniques, knowing nothing of alchemy. Izumi, in fury, assaulted him and knocked him unconscious, setting out to continue her alchemy training on her own. It may be inferred from this that Izumi Harnet is a self-taught alchemist.

She agreed to train Elrics to hone their alchemical abilities after their mother died, through an unorthodox regiment of philosophy, martial arts, and survival techniques. Her methods are derived from her own alchemy training: in the anime she was taught by Dante, whereas in the manga she was forced to survive in the northern region surrounding Briggs Fortress for a month. She thinks of the Elrics as her own sons, and although she severs her student-teacher ties with them after learning of their attempts with human transmutation as well as Ed's joining the State Military though she continues to do all she can to help them.

Sometime before the start of the series, Izumi had a son with her husband Sig Curtis. The child died soon afterwards, and Izumi tried and failed to revive it through human transmutation (an act that created Wrath in the anime). Although the failed attempt took some of her internal organs, such that she could never again give birth and coughs up blood when she gets too worked up, Izumi could thereafter perform alchemy without a transmutation circle. Throughout the anime she tries to get close to Wrath to repent for his creation. She dies between the end of the anime and Conqueror of Shamballa, but during the movie her spirit reunites with Wrath in the afterlife. In the manga, because she was able to survive a failed human transmutation, she attracts the attention of the State Military. As she and her husband travel around Amestris to keep out of the military's clutches, they meet Ed and Al's father Hohenheim. He rearranges her insides to ease the blood flow, and then gets her to help collaborate in bringing down the State Military.

Anime
In the anime, Izumi's human transmutation attempt (costing her half of her inner organs) to revive her dead baby resulted in the birth of Homunculus Wrath, and most of the anime episodes featuring her concentrate on her attempts to make Wrath accept her. In Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, it is revealed that she died at some point of the two year gap it is possible Wrath accepted her as his true mother during this time as he see's her at the gate and not Sloth.

Manga and 2009 Anime
Izumi first appears when Edward and Al head to Dublith to ask their former master for clues about the Philosopher's Stone, where she then berates Ed for becoming a State Alchemist. She then discusses with the Elrics about the Stone and also about their father, Van Hohenheim. When the Elrics bring up the topic of witnessing childbirth, Izumi comments that childbirth is a wonderful thing, a reference to her deceased child. During one of Ed's flashbacks the Elrics witness Izumi performing alchemy to easily set up dam to stop flood waters from entering a village. Impressed by her skill,the Elrics come to and asks her to train them. Initially Izumi declines, stating that she is on a trip with her husband, and that she doesnt accept kids, but after learning that the Elrics dont have parents she agree's to train them. She starts off by dropping off the Elric brothers at a deserted island in the middle of a lake, telling them to survive for a month and find the answer to 'One is All, and All is One.' With that, she leaves the Elrics. She is then later shown talking with her husband Sig Curtis about if it was wise leaving the Elrics all alone. She then states that she had to survive in Briggs for a month, and that if they cant survive or find the answer to her the question then that means thats all they are able to accomplish. After the one month Izumi returns asking them for their answer. Pleased that they answered correctly, she decides to train them in actual alchemy. It is then that Edward wakes up from his flashback that Izumi can perform alchemy without a Transmutation Circle and thus has seen the Gate. The next morning Izumi also find out about Ed's missing arm and leg, and Alphonse's entire body missing. She then yells at them for performing Human Transmutation, but then says that 'Both master and student made the same mistake'. Later that day Izumi tells the Elrics that for breaking the taboo, they are both expelled.

Later, when Izumi find that Ed is missing, her husband comes home holding the broom Edward was using before. Thurther more, someone tells her that a person matching his description was seen at the Devil's Nest. Hearing this, she goes to the den to find Ed and a Homunculus named Greed fighting. She then proceeds to attack Greed, shattering his ultimate armour and literally kicking him into the wall, but not before comically throwing Edward into a wall for failing to look after other peoples property'(her broom). Ed and Izumi are about to take on Greed together when her injuries cause her to cough up blood, giving Greed an opportunity to escape. She tells Ed that she's fine, and to go after Greed and to rescue his brother. After the incident at the Devil's nest, Izumi is at home when she is greeted personally by King Bradley. He offers Izumi to become a State Alchemist but she declines, saying that the Military doesnt need someone like her. With a final note saying that she can still change her mind, Bradley leaves. After this, she then shows concern about why he personally came to visit her. The next day, Ed and Al leave Dublith.

Izumi isnt seen until a lot later, when she and her husband Sig Curtis are on a train and encounter her students father, Van Hohenheim. After leaving the train and talking about Hohenheim's sons and what they are doing, Izumi's injuries act up again. When her husband leaves, Hohenheim then proceeds to reach inside Izumi's body, rearranging her insides. Thinking that he stabbed Izumi, Sig Curtis furiously punches Hohenheim, knocking him a few meters. Asking her wife if she is alright, Izumi maintains that she is fine, and that she can actually breathe better. Finding out that the wound where Hohenheim stabbed her is gone, he states that he cannot bring back her organs, but rearranged her insides to allow her to breathe better. Izumi then fearfully asks Hohenheim what is he, to which he replies he's just a human called Van Hohenheim.

Trivia

 * She and Olivier Mira Armstrong are the only people Ed and Al fear to the point of not wanting to anger them.


 * Both Olivier and Izumi share many personality traits including being hostile, violent, and posessing strong life philosophies.
 * Similar for Ed, who hates being called short, Izumi hates being called old.