Disable magic while still allowing Esper equip

In FF6ME it is easy to change the magic command to something like def. to remove a characters ability to use magic. However, this also disables their ability to equip Espers. Is there’s any simple workaround that would allow a character to equip espers for level up bonuses but not allow them to learn magic?

Thank you.

The place to start with this would be the menu bank, C3.

If you change C3/4D78 from 02 to 00 with a hex editor, it should make anyone with the fight command capable of equipping an Esper (except Gogo who has a special condition). That includes guests, though, but as far as I know there are protections to keep them from actually writing to the magic ram (which would otherwise corrupt configuration settings). You might run into a problem if a guest equips it and then leaves the party, though, but you can add an event to unequip them if that happens (or change C3/4D71: D0 04 {BNE} to B0 04 {BCS} so that all characters Gogo and higher can't equip espers).

EDIT: Branch if carry SET, not clear. Doh, I keep making goofy mistakes. Branch if carry clear would make it so that ONLY Gogo and guests could use espers, which is bad.