Izumi Curtis

Izumi Curtis (イズミ・カーティス, Izumi Kātisu), (née Harnet) is a master alchemist and skilled martial artist 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 take them on as her apprentices and instructed them in alchemical theory and practice for six months. In that time, she grew to love them as deeply as she would her own children and became a long-term source of guidance and support for the Elrics' future endeavors.

Appearance & Personality
Izumi is a rather attractive and deceptively young-looking middle-aged woman with a curvaceous yet well-toned figure, fair skin, long black hair worn in microbraid dreadlocks, dark eyes and a Flamel tattoo on the left side of her collarbone, the design of which appears to be her personal crest. The 2003 anime depicts the tattoo as red, but the manga and 2009 anime series depict it as a darker color such as black or the more likely dark blue. Edward and Alphonse would later use this design to some degree, as their personal crests as well.

Although Izumi takes apparent pride in being a simple 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".

History
In the year 1897, when Izumi Harnet was 18 years old, she ventured to the northern region 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 Briggs mountain range 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). In her time there, Izumi would eventually come to forge her own belief in "All is One, One is All", an alchemical concept of life she would follow as well as pass on to her two students. Though she was never captured, the rumor of a mysterious "mountain woman" raiding Fort Briggs for supplies would continue to circulate in the region 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 is a self-taught alchemist. After meeting a young Sig Curtis (whom she immediately fell in love with after he wooed her with a giant grizzly bear kill), the two married and moved to the southern town of Dublith.

Once settled into her new life there, Izumi became pregnant. The child, however, died soon after birth and Izumi fell into a deep depression. In a desperate attempt, she tried and failed to revive it through Human Transmutation. 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.

Meeting the Master
Izumi makes her first formal appearance when Edward and Al head to Dublith to ask their former teacher for clues about the Philosopher's Stone, where she then berates Ed for becoming a State Alchemist. She discusses with the Elrics about the Stone and also about their father, Van Hohenheim, whom she had briefly met in one of her cross-country journeys. 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 while staying with her into how they met, the Elrics witness Izumi performing alchemy to easily set up a dam to stop flood waters of the Rain River from overflowing into Resembool. Impressed by her skills, the young Elrics beg her to train them. Initially Izumi declines, stating that she does not accept students, but after learning that the Elrics are now orphans, she agrees to train them. She starts off by dropping off the brothers at Yock Island, a deserted island in the middle of a lake, and instructs them to survive for a month alone while finding their answer to "One is All, and All is One" -- mirroring her own early quest. After one month, Izumi returns and is pleased to hear their correct answer to it. Izumi eventually figures out the two boy's secret -- their missing limbs, and confronts them about it. She furiously yells at them for using her passed-on knowledge to do something so foolish before confessing to them that, "Both master and student have made the same mistake". For breaking the ultimate taboo in alchemy, they are both expelled from being her students.

When Izumi find out that Alphonse has been kidnapped, she tracks down the ones responsible to The Devil's Nest. After fighting through hordes of chimera bodyguards alongside her husband Sig, she finds Ed deep in battle with a Homunculus named Greed. She then proceeds to attack Greed, breaking down his "ultimate shield" and literally kicking him into the wall, but not before comically throwing Edward into a wall himself for failing to follow her orders. 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. Before they have an opportunity to chase down the Homunculus, they are found by the State Military, who have begun a mass raid on the pub. After the incident at The Devil's Nest, Izumi is at home when she is personally greeted by King Bradley. He offers Izumi the chance to become a State Alchemist, yet she declines, saying that the Military doesn't need someone like her. With a final note saying that she can still change her mind, Bradley leaves, prompting her to show concern about why he personally came to visit her for such a seemingly trivial thing. The next day, Ed and Al leave Dublith.

The Human Philosopher's Stone
Izumi isn't again seen until mid-way through the story, when she and Sig are on a train and once again encounter her students' father, Van Hohenheim. After leaving the train, they talk about Hohenheim's sons and what they have been doing when Izumi's internal injuries cause her to cough up blood. Concerned, 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 simply rearranged her damaged 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 -- and one who is in the form of a living Philospher's Stone. After this, Hohenheim presumably informs them both of everything that has been happening in the country, including the Promised Day as well as the Nationwide Transmutation Circle, and the Curtises head north. Once there, Izumi intentionally lets herself be captured by northern troops to inform a "trusted Ishvalan man" and a "large man with a Mohawk" of the Promised Day. This message runs through a trusted network of informants all across the country to reach Roy Mustang himself.

The Promised Day
Trusting the Briggs Troops for the coming events, Izumi and Sig are taken by them to the Armstrong mansion, where they are to hide under orders of Olivier Milla Armstrong until Mustang's uprising in Central City. When the Promised Day arrives, and the battle begins, Izumi along with Briggs' forces storm through the city wreaking havoc. Arriving at Central Command, she encounters the Armstrong siblings, who have been struggling in their battle against Sloth. Along with Sig, Alex and Olivier, the four face off against the Homunculus, who is eventually impaled and killed. Soon after this, Izumi is spontaneously teleported away from her husband and allies to an underground lair -- a move on Father's part to gather the five Human Sacrifices (humans who have opened The Gate) for his final task. Reunited with Edward, Alphonse, Hohenheim and a newly-captured Mustang, the five humans are forced into once again opening The Gate of Truth under Father's behest. After the massive transmutation, the Homunculus returns in a body which "harnesses the power of God", and Izumi (along with the remaining rest) unleash their combined efforts in taking him down. She is seen transmuting alchemic spikes to shoot and even collapsing a full column on him, both to little avail. Eventually, Father is forced into a hasty retreat, and Izumi is quick to follow.

2003 Anime
In the first anime series, Izumi's past is considerably different. At a young age, she became the apprentice of the illusive master alchemist Dante. Their distinctive views of alchemy and life lead them into an estranged relationship, with Izumi leaving her old teacher behind as soon as she could. In her attempt to bring back her still-born son, Izumi inadvertently created the Homunculus known as Wrath. Because of this, Izumi is constantly haunted by regret and spends the entire series trying to gain the Homunculus' forgiveness and love. She sees nothing short of her own death at his hands a fitting punishment for her foolish act to bring back the dead. In Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa, it is revealed that in the two-year-gap, Izumi has finally succumbed to her illness and died. Wrath can be seen sleeping by her grave. When Alphonse sacrifices a willing Wrath to once again open The Gate of Alchemy, Izumi is seen hugging her son, the two reunited in peace at last.

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 possessing strong life philosophies.
 * Similar for Ed, who hates being called short, Izumi hates being called old.
 * While Izumi's Flamel tattoo is red in both the manga and the 2003 anime, in the 2009 series it is changed to a deep shade of blue.
 * Arakawa has stated that, while Izumi's hair appears to be in dreadlocks, each dread is actually a microbraid.