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( Now with more accurate timelining )
Rather than properly collecting TimeLord, the Chemy simply shows up after the Legend arc and sends both Houtaro AND Rinne back in time... to more than 121 years in the past! There, they have to avoid committing any terrible pitfalls of historical inaccuracy, try to make friends with time-period-local alchemists without spilling their identities or time period of origin, and locate Hopper1, who is supposed to know who Daybreak is!
Only... Hopper1 doesn't exist yet. Rinne and Houtaro do their best to nativize, grow up, avoid being caught up in acts of violence in the turbulence of the era, and end up adopting a kid after the deaths of his family.
As part of helping this kid (~5 years old at the time), they teach him alchemy, and a Chemy is born.
After absolutely (internally) freaking out, the two raise the boy and Hopper1 as siblings. Again, several years pass. But a supernatural storm is on the horizon - a xenophobic alchemist looking to ascend and unleash malice across the world.
Forging the Daybreak armor together, our two heroes tag-team the identity until the climactic fight - Rinne taking their child ahead to the future, Houtaro performing the first (known) double fusion and locking the human-turned-demon into a claudication itself within the Ouroboros Realm.
During the fight, Hopper1 intercepts a blow for its 'dad'... and comes back to life, but only after the fight is over, the battlefield deserted. Houtaro had warned it that they would be separated no matter the outcome of the fight - but also that they were destined to meet again, and that it need not be alone in the meantime. Thus, it goes to the then-current Academy, taking shelter among the other Chemies gathered there, vowing to look after them all until its family can be reunited...
Meanwhile, Rinne has made a stop in the no-longer-as-distant past by the Academy grounds, not expecting Geryon to be one of the first humans to spot them. She threatens to disembowl him if he ever harms her son; unfortunately, she can't stay in this time long, likewise promising to (Minato?) that they will each persevere and their hearts will find each other again in the not too distant future...
Rinne and Houtaro reunite in the present - met with a gathering of Chemies, their definitely-younger-senpais, and the Abyssalis Sisters: Atropos defeated and disturbed, Lachesis and Clotho both restraining her. The golden cube is gone-
And they don't get to register much more than that before Hopper1 tackles the both of them for hugs.
In 1960, a food industry worker in Gifu Prefecture who dabbled in alchemy, found himself surprised by an egg from one of his experiments - and not only did it not go away, but it hatched! Into a dragon, who he immediately realized he ought to keep safe.
The dragon - kept nameless for the time being - was endlessly curious, wanting to learn all it could about the world. At only a few years old, it came across a small group of kids playing ball - and one of them, noticing they were being watched, asked if the newcomer would like to play. This open-minded gesture, freely given, touched the dragon's heart, and while all the kids were surprised at there being a literal dragon, for real, in their midst, none of them turned it away.
One of those kids was of the family name Ryo; another of the family name Kudoh.
All agreed to keep the dragon a secret - also giving it the name Nijiga-chan, for the color of the flames it produced.
Years, largely peaceful and full of learning (particularly about what it was like to be human), passed. But this, as with all things, did not last forever.
One day, there came a particularly severe flood; the dragon's guardian perished, and his home destroyed. The kids, now teens, rushed to find a decent shelter that wouldn't ask questions, and were themselves happened upon by an alchemist.
The group was suspicious, yet Nijiga-chan unexpectedly spoke up on the man's behalf. "The man who made me - my father - was an alchemist. Do you know what I am?"
Not having expected to meet a Chemy that knew Japanese, and could speak it moreover, the stranger agreed to provide shelter for the dragon, and to introduce it to the others like it. Further, he'd allow the rest of the teens to visit - but only if they also kept the secret of alchemy to themselves.
Such is how future alchemists are often discovered, in the end.
Life with the Academy was strange, for Nijiga-chan, but not altogether unwelcome - still, a conclusion broiled within it, that it was different from the other Chemies in some way.
One day, something clicked; when it thought of himself as, not an it, but a he. And he made his first transformation: he became a dragon that could shape himself as a human.
This was not the only realization he had; that he did not have to be an it or a he to be a dragon, that being a human wasn't better or worse than being a Chemy, just different, that what mattered most was the heart of a person, and what they did with it.
Thus Nijigo-kun went out into the world, seeking adventures; but neither did he abandon the Academy. Keeping his human self a secret from the staff that had not already been his friends, he began the dual task of janitorial work for the school, and pursuing an education in the 'mundane' world. Inspired by one of his most stalwart supporters among the Chemies, he picked a family name of his own: Ichinose.
It was the 1980s, and Ichinose Nijiga had landed himself in cooking school, out of respect for the man who had created him. There, due to chance meeting, he made the acquaintance of a woman by the name of Tamami. She had happened upon him, seen that he was not male by birth - or indeed human... and she swore to keep his confidence, and not to endanger or trap him for her own purposes.
They went into partnership together, even as Ichinose warned her that there were people who would wipe her memories if it were ever confirmed how much she knew about him. Still, he wanted to share the truth of things with her - to make more friends, to have a life enriched by connection.
Even as they grew close, they never considered the thought of marriage - not until after the turn of the century, after a certain attack in New York. After that, it seemed silly to put things off.
Ichinose Nijiga confessed one uncertainty: whether the two of them could have a child. While Tamami would have accepted turning to alternative means - and while both would doubtless have loved such a child - he found meaning in seeing if such between human and Chemy was truly possible.
On his own, he discovered that such could happen - but he would have to sacrifice something, something of him, in order to have the ability to sire a child without direct alchemy.
In the end, what he gave up was his flame; he was still both dragon and human, Chemy and flesh - but his fire went into the making and birth of his son, and he found this exchange... acceptable. More than.
And his son Houtaro, he already loved more than life itself.
( Now with more accurate timelining )
Bonus: Extremely Detailed Timeloop Headcanon Edition
Rather than properly collecting TimeLord, the Chemy simply shows up after the Legend arc and sends both Houtaro AND Rinne back in time... to more than 121 years in the past! There, they have to avoid committing any terrible pitfalls of historical inaccuracy, try to make friends with time-period-local alchemists without spilling their identities or time period of origin, and locate Hopper1, who is supposed to know who Daybreak is!
Only... Hopper1 doesn't exist yet. Rinne and Houtaro do their best to nativize, grow up, avoid being caught up in acts of violence in the turbulence of the era, and end up adopting a kid after the deaths of his family.
As part of helping this kid (~5 years old at the time), they teach him alchemy, and a Chemy is born.
After absolutely (internally) freaking out, the two raise the boy and Hopper1 as siblings. Again, several years pass. But a supernatural storm is on the horizon - a xenophobic alchemist looking to ascend and unleash malice across the world.
Forging the Daybreak armor together, our two heroes tag-team the identity until the climactic fight - Rinne taking their child ahead to the future, Houtaro performing the first (known) double fusion and locking the human-turned-demon into a claudication itself within the Ouroboros Realm.
During the fight, Hopper1 intercepts a blow for its 'dad'... and comes back to life, but only after the fight is over, the battlefield deserted. Houtaro had warned it that they would be separated no matter the outcome of the fight - but also that they were destined to meet again, and that it need not be alone in the meantime. Thus, it goes to the then-current Academy, taking shelter among the other Chemies gathered there, vowing to look after them all until its family can be reunited...
Meanwhile, Rinne has made a stop in the no-longer-as-distant past by the Academy grounds, not expecting Geryon to be one of the first humans to spot them. She threatens to disembowl him if he ever harms her son; unfortunately, she can't stay in this time long, likewise promising to (Minato?) that they will each persevere and their hearts will find each other again in the not too distant future...
Rinne and Houtaro reunite in the present - met with a gathering of Chemies, their definitely-younger-senpais, and the Abyssalis Sisters: Atropos defeated and disturbed, Lachesis and Clotho both restraining her. The golden cube is gone-
And they don't get to register much more than that before Hopper1 tackles the both of them for hugs.
Bonus Round 2: Journey of Names
In 1960, a food industry worker in Gifu Prefecture who dabbled in alchemy, found himself surprised by an egg from one of his experiments - and not only did it not go away, but it hatched! Into a dragon, who he immediately realized he ought to keep safe.
The dragon - kept nameless for the time being - was endlessly curious, wanting to learn all it could about the world. At only a few years old, it came across a small group of kids playing ball - and one of them, noticing they were being watched, asked if the newcomer would like to play. This open-minded gesture, freely given, touched the dragon's heart, and while all the kids were surprised at there being a literal dragon, for real, in their midst, none of them turned it away.
One of those kids was of the family name Ryo; another of the family name Kudoh.
All agreed to keep the dragon a secret - also giving it the name Nijiga-chan, for the color of the flames it produced.
Years, largely peaceful and full of learning (particularly about what it was like to be human), passed. But this, as with all things, did not last forever.
One day, there came a particularly severe flood; the dragon's guardian perished, and his home destroyed. The kids, now teens, rushed to find a decent shelter that wouldn't ask questions, and were themselves happened upon by an alchemist.
The group was suspicious, yet Nijiga-chan unexpectedly spoke up on the man's behalf. "The man who made me - my father - was an alchemist. Do you know what I am?"
Not having expected to meet a Chemy that knew Japanese, and could speak it moreover, the stranger agreed to provide shelter for the dragon, and to introduce it to the others like it. Further, he'd allow the rest of the teens to visit - but only if they also kept the secret of alchemy to themselves.
Such is how future alchemists are often discovered, in the end.
Life with the Academy was strange, for Nijiga-chan, but not altogether unwelcome - still, a conclusion broiled within it, that it was different from the other Chemies in some way.
One day, something clicked; when it thought of himself as, not an it, but a he. And he made his first transformation: he became a dragon that could shape himself as a human.
This was not the only realization he had; that he did not have to be an it or a he to be a dragon, that being a human wasn't better or worse than being a Chemy, just different, that what mattered most was the heart of a person, and what they did with it.
Thus Nijigo-kun went out into the world, seeking adventures; but neither did he abandon the Academy. Keeping his human self a secret from the staff that had not already been his friends, he began the dual task of janitorial work for the school, and pursuing an education in the 'mundane' world. Inspired by one of his most stalwart supporters among the Chemies, he picked a family name of his own: Ichinose.
It was the 1980s, and Ichinose Nijiga had landed himself in cooking school, out of respect for the man who had created him. There, due to chance meeting, he made the acquaintance of a woman by the name of Tamami. She had happened upon him, seen that he was not male by birth - or indeed human... and she swore to keep his confidence, and not to endanger or trap him for her own purposes.
They went into partnership together, even as Ichinose warned her that there were people who would wipe her memories if it were ever confirmed how much she knew about him. Still, he wanted to share the truth of things with her - to make more friends, to have a life enriched by connection.
Even as they grew close, they never considered the thought of marriage - not until after the turn of the century, after a certain attack in New York. After that, it seemed silly to put things off.
Ichinose Nijiga confessed one uncertainty: whether the two of them could have a child. While Tamami would have accepted turning to alternative means - and while both would doubtless have loved such a child - he found meaning in seeing if such between human and Chemy was truly possible.
On his own, he discovered that such could happen - but he would have to sacrifice something, something of him, in order to have the ability to sire a child without direct alchemy.
In the end, what he gave up was his flame; he was still both dragon and human, Chemy and flesh - but his fire went into the making and birth of his son, and he found this exchange... acceptable. More than.
And his son Houtaro, he already loved more than life itself.
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