Izuku wouldn't pretend he understood everything that was going on.
Some people out there insisted that Quirks followed some kinds of laws, some kind of logic. Izuku knew that they were just the feebleminded, struggling to make sense of a world that had taken logic and hurled it out the window.
The cashier at his favorite corner-store had great big studio microphones that popped out of his wrists and a large speaker in his neck. The poor guy had a personal and perpetual bass-line going in tune with his heartbeat.
On the other hand, he was also apparently a star on the internet because he did improv rap in his free time.
So, Izuku knew that Quirks didn't follow logic. Instead, after a lot of observation and time spent trawling and trolling the internet, he'd decided that Quirks followed -Themes- instead.
Some, like transferable Quirks, were extremely rare. As in, before Izuku had heard about One For All he'd known of three. Total. In all of Quirk history.
Two of them had time limits on how long they could be loaned out before they would return to their actual owner. The other one was an oddball Quirk that would let the current holder do things like party tricks but didn't seem to touch on the current holder's original Quirk. That one had been around for something like a hundred and fifty years and in that entire time it had remained in the hands of the World Clown Association who had jealously guarded it since they'd gotten their giant, inflatable hands on it.
Or it wasn't an actual Quirk and was instead a joke... Izuku wasn't sure about that.
"The thing about magic..." Alec had insisted that he could teach most people how to do some of what he did, once when Izuku had been mumbling about how cool his Dragon Transformation ability had been. He'd even offered to teach Izuku if he was interested. "Is that just about anyone can do it. There are some who can't, of course, just like there are some people who can't do any pull-ups."
"Is that because you can't do any pull-ups, Mister Alec?" Eri asked him.
Eri, Izuku and his mother Inko had all joined Alec on an excursion to one of the local parks. He'd said that he wasn't intending on teaching them anything dangerous but he'd also admitted that connecting a person to their magic could have... Interesting results.
"It was intended as an example, but yes." The small dragon admitted to the horned girl.
Izuku had noted that her horn had been growing. He had a lot of questions about it, like if it needed Calcium to grow, if it was an indicator of how much temporal manipulation she could manage, if the skin around it would itch because of its changing shape.
"Magic may be unique to the individual but its use rarely is." Alec continued, reaching into his tiny jacket and carefully extracting a large bundle of papers. "You can think of it like ice-cream. There are a thousand and one flavors of ice-cream but underneath of that it's all still water, sugar and cream."
"What about sherbet?" Izuku asked while the dragon sorted the papers into coherent bundles.
"Or sorbet?" His mom asked, a hand over her mouth as she giggled.
"Pudding!" Eri didn't shout, the girl was far too quiet for that even with her Guardian Dragon nearby. "I want mine to be like pudding!"
"All good options." Alec grumbled good naturedly, rolling his eyes at them. "Let's think of those as being alternatives that some people have. Maybe unique skills. Maybe Spell-Like Abilities. Could even be Quirks. All of them fall into the category of being special but they aren't all the same thing."
Izuku flashed a grin at his mom who smiled back at him over Eri's head. It was easier to get Eri to be outspoken around Alec but the fragmented memories and impressions he had suggested that any victory was a good one, there.
The de-aged boy looked down at the packet that Alec handed him, then glanced over to the one in his mother's hands. Eri, instead of being trusted with any papers, had Alec sitting directly in front of her.
"We're going to start small." Alec told them all. "This is one of the easiest spells to learn. It is also one of the most useful, in my experience."
The pamphlet in Izuku's hands had a single word on the front page. In large, bold letters it said 'Cure'.
His mom's said 'Prestidigitation' instead.
"Eri, I know you can't read yet. That's okay. There are a few different ways to learn how to use magic and I'll show you one." The dragon held his claw up to the white-haired girl, his palm up and fingers splayed apart. "Here, take my hand and close your eyes. I'm going to teach you the spell 'Protect'."
Izuku flipped over the page as Eri grabbed on to Alec's hand. Beside the girl, Izuku's mom was doing the same. The instructions inside were...
Gibberish.
Izuku had no idea about any kind of 'Internal wellspring of strength'!
"Oh!" But his mom sounded like she understood? "Huh. That's... Huh."
"Alright, Eri. Do you feel that?" Alec asked the girl in between the Midoriyas. She had her face scrunched up in concentration. Her eyes were closed and she actually had her tongue peaking out from the side of her mouth. "That's magic. I have a lot, more than most people. You've got some, more than enough to cast the spell. Just grab on to that feeling and coax it along, do what I do. Don't force it, though, okay? It'll be like you're grabbing water if you do."
"I can't feel anything!" Izuku didn't quite whine. He didn't!
"That's alright." Alec said, opening his eyes and craning his neck to face Izuku. "Some people have a harder time finding it. Nedzu couldn't get the same spell I gave your mom figured out for a long time. Once I get Eri squared away, we'll get you sorted out. Okay?"
Izuku flipped through the pages on Cure, turning them a bit more harshly than he normally would. He was frustrated, he knew that, but he was usually better at controlling it...
He exhaled heavily, his mom looking at him with worry, as he finally realized what the issue was.
He was eight again. He was a -child- again. He hadn't been prone to outbursts like yelling or screaming but he'd always been told he was a bright, clever child and it had frustrated him immensely when he didn't understand something.
Because that made him feel stupid. Because that made him worry that the one thing he had going for him, wasn't ever going to be good enough. Then he'd get sullen and depressed, hiding in his room. Surrounded by the All Might action figures and posters, many of them with brilliant smiles and slogans.
Having met his hero... Izuku's room was a lot more bare, now. He still respected the Number One hero, he really did but... The worship was just, well, it was just gone.
"I did it!" Eri shrieked, pulling Izuku out of his maudlin thoughts with her sheer, unexpected volume. "I did it, I did it, I did it! See? Look!"
She pointed her fingers at Izuku and had a look of concentration on her face for a moment before Izuku felt like he was being wrapped in a warm, snug jacket.
"Very good!" Alec praised, reaching up to ruffle her hair with one claw. "Why don't you go show it to Inko, see if she needs any help? I promised Izuku I'd help him with his spell, too."
The girl, in a bout of excitement that surpassed anything Izuku had seen from her so far, ran to his mom to start talking at her excitedly. When Izuku looked back, though, he found the small dragon sitting directly in front of him.
One hand raised and his fingers splayed apart.
"Here. Go ahead and grab my hand." The dragon told him. Izuku reached out with his right hand, his fingers awkwardly intertwined around claws. "Now, just close your eyes and focus on your heartbeat. It's not quite the anchor point of the soul but... Well, it's close enough."
"...Does it have anything to do with the chakra theory?" Izuku asked, an odd feeling forming behind his eyes.
"It... Might? I've never really studied much about the eastern philosophies. I was never actually interested in drinking mercury." Izuku knew he wasn't hearing the dragon's actual voice. His mouth never moved when he talked. "If you feel something, anything, focus on it. Feel it. Experience it."
"...Alright." Izuku did feel something. It was light, almost wispy. But across from it was something else. Something massive. Something that... Felt like the number seven? And Izuku could swear he could taste oranges. "I definitely feel something but I'm not sure what."
"That's your magic." Alec told him, his voice quiet. "It's yours and yours alone. I think you've actually got a decent amount, at least for someone without training. I'm going to show you how to turn it into the Cure spell. Just follow along as best you can, alright? We can take our time."
"Okay." Izuku watched, he felt how the magic shifted. How it was imprinted with... Izuku didn't know how to describe it. The little bit of magic that Alec had broken off, that was formed in between them, changed. The identity to it shifted, the color changed. The idea, a feeling, a name... Became Cure.
It was absolutely fascinating.
"The hell is this, Deku!?" And it was interrupted by the screeching of someone that refused to be ignored.
Izuku opened his eyes and schooled his features, hiding his frustration. From his sitting position he leaned backwards. And back, and back and even further back until his head was tilted upside down and he could see Bakugo Katsuki. Izuku was about to speak when he heard something that sent chills down his spine.
"I would appreciate it, young man, if you could watch your language." Izuku could see Alec stepping around him and squaring up in front of Katsuki. The small dragon had to look up to meet the explosive boy's eyes. "There are children present."
"Tch." Katsuki glared down at the dragon, clicking his tongue in frustration. Izuku could smell something, burnt caramel in the air and saw sweat glistening on Katsuki's brow. "What are you gonna do about it, shrimp?"
"Rude." Alec raised one claw and snapped his fingers. "How about you go and rain on someone else's parade, hmm?"
There was a sound akin to thunder and... A tiny cloud formed over Katsuki's head?
Which quickly began to release a downpour on the confused, angry boy.
"What the- The hell is this?!" Katsuki shouted, his hair dropping from the spiky, cemented hairstyle he preferred and clinging to his forehead. The sudden, concentrated downpour also worked to dilute the boy's explosive sweat. "The hell did you do!?"
"I'm a dragon, kid. Be one heckuva trick for me to have a Quirk that could do that, too." Alec explained slowly. "But you? Actin' like my personal raincloud, kid?"
"You're really draggin' me down."
