Izuku Yagi: The Magician

The Beginnings of Magic

To those who don't know better, Izuku's life seems like a dream come true. Who wouldn't want to be the son of the number one hero? A quirkless kid that's who. When Izuku was younger he'd spend time with his family; it seemed like a perfect family. That is until Izuku turned four and he received the worst news of his life. Quirkless. He was quirkless. It was that day he lost everything.[a] Even if he didn't know his heritage it'd still affect him for the rest of his life.
His mother and father started to neglect him in favor of his sister, Izumi, who had a powerful quirk. Speaking of that sister, she bullied and abused him with their two friends Katsuki and Katsumi, the Bakugou twins. It was only simple name-calling, but it still stung every time he heard it.
Deku. That's what they called him; Deku, meaning worthless. Now Izuku never was a dumb kid, he was actually fairly smart for his age, a quick learner. When he realized the difference in the way his friends acted he did what any intelligent person would when faced with an unknown. He researched. He went to the library near his house to start his research. His parents didn't seem to notice or if they did, they didn't care. He didn't have a computer, his sister did though he didn't dare touch it. On their shared birthday his sister got a computer and he didn't get anything, when he asked his parents they told him not to be greedy.[b]
He didn't understand. He learned fast though. He started with his sister and friends, the people who started this train of thought. When he googled "what does it mean when my friends hurt me and call me names." A simple question designed by a 5-year-old.[c] It worked well enough for him to learn what they were really doing. They were bullying him.
He didn't want to believe it, they were his friends and sister, why would they bully him? He thought back to all the times he was called names and shoved to the ground and came up with a common word throughout the taunts. Quirkless. Was it because he was quirkless? He decided to look up "quirkless bullying" and got some not-so-nice results.
Multiple sites commenting on the treatment of the quirkless, overall they weren't good. One site caught his eye, "Quirkless suicide rates." A quick google search for what suicide meant lead to gave the previous site some context. It wasn't good. A large number of quirkless didn't make it to their 20th birthday. They'd take their own life before they got to that point. That combined with the decreasing number of quirkless kids being born every generation made it so that almost all of the quirkless were already elderly.
The thought alone terrified Izuku. Is this all that's in store for him? Death by suicide, orchestrated by his once friends. All because of one diagnosis! Izuku continued to do more and more research, desperate to prove his previous findings wrong. He had no luck. All the data pointed towards the same thing. Izuku was devastated and considered telling his parents but remembered how they'd been acting around him since he was 4.
He was nervous about what he'd find but he looked up "what does it mean when your parents don't care about you?" Neglect. Izuku was being neglected badly. He remembered all the times his mom would set out only 3 dinner plates instead of 4. All the times he'd have to serve himself, that is if there was food left. All the nights he'd go hungry, wondering if he did something wrong.
He didn't want to believe it, so he logged off the computer and went back home. Did anyone notice he left? No. He questioned if they even saw him arrive. He spent the next week looking for anything that would tell him that he was wrong, that his research was wrong. He found nothing but evidence confirming his suspicions.
The more he thought about it, the worse it got. He realized that his parents hadn't gotten him new clothes since his diagnosis, they never fed him, they let him leave the house at any time he wanted. They didn't even acknowledge his existence unless he did something to get their attention. His thoughts of his "friends" didn't fare much better. He hoped that they'd get better over time, that they'd realize they were acting like villains. They didn't, in fact, they only got worse. They'd gone from name-calling to shoving to hitting. Izumi has even started using her telekinesis quirk to throw rocks at him.
From then on Izuku changed. When he was out of school he'd immediately go to the library to do his homework, then spend the rest of the time reading. It was the only thing that helped him deal with the world around him. Escaping into another. A world where he could be a hero. By the time he was 6[d] Izuku had read through the fiction and nonfiction sections. With boredom, he considered reading the informational section but decided against it.
It's not like it'd help with anything, he was doomed to die by 20. With the way things were going, Izuku didn't think he'd make it past middle school. He decided to instead look online, maybe he'll be able to cure his boredom by browsing the online forums.
For two years he read through the online forums[e]. He made a few friends, none of them knew he was quirkless though. They assumed he had an intelligence quirk from how smart he was. He was determined to keep it that way.
That was his life: wake up, go to school, get beat up by Izumi and her friends, go to the library, read the forums, go home, go to sleep. That was how his life went on for the next half a year and he was okay with that. It's not the best life, but based on the statistics it's a lot better than what a lot of quirkless people had.
He continued his life like that until he stumbled across something online. A random forum, one that described the occult. Izuku had never been one to believe in things like magic so his first thought was that these people were crazy. Although seeing as he was extremely bored he decided to try it out. If anything he'd have a good laugh about how he was still looking for a way to manifest a quark despite still being the worthless Deku he is.
He wrote the instructions down in a page of his notebook before packing up and leaving; it was getting close to night. While he knew his family wouldn't care, he didn't like the idea of staying out after dark. If there were villains during the day, one could only guess how many would be out at night.
He got home without any problems. Getting to his room as quickly and quietly as possible he began to set up for what he was going to do. Looking through everything he had he figured logomancy would be the easiest and most versatile form of magic he could use.
Logomancy, also known as backward magic, is a form of magic based on speaking in reverse. That combined with some skill in manipulating the "natural energies" should produce a form of magic. He set himself up on the floor and held a hand out in front of himself and spoke a basic fire spell "Erif."
Nothing happened. He didn't know why he expected something to happen. He'd gone and gotten his hopes up for nothing. He was about to pack up and go to sleep for the day when he remembered something he read in the last part of the forum. "Those who do not believe in magic will not find it. -Roald Dahl." What if that wasn't an inspirational quote, but instead a part of how magic worked as a whole? Well... One more try couldn't hurt.
Izuku set himself on the floor again and tried his hardest to convince himself magic was real. At that moment, looking at his hand, he said "Erif," to see a small spark quickly form into a mini flame. Magic.