Johnny rubbed his temples as he tried to focus on the book in front of him. He had a test to study for, and assumed the library would be a good place to get some quiet time to focus. Unfortunately for him, there was an event happening there that was a "game day" for all ages where they could come and play various board and video games with others to meet new people and make friends. As fun as it sounded for Johnny, he had too much to focus on. He couldn't enjoy that when he had a test to study for! Not to mention an employee review around the corner for his job that could hit on any shift. 

The noise eventually proved to be too much, and if Johnny stayed at the library, he would barely be able to get anything done. Maybe out in the quad, he would be able to get the quiet he needed. He picked up his book and left the library, finding a bench outside near the water fountain and sitting down there. 

However, this only invited more distractions, with the ducks waddling around in the fountain along with a few walking over to Johnny in hopes that he might have had food to feed them with. Johnny did his best to ignore them all and focus on his studying, but the noises they were making were just as distracting as the ones in the library. 

With a sigh, Johnny decided to cut his losses and head back home. That was where the most distractions were, but at this point, he may as well be getting distracted in the comfort of his own home rather than out and about! When he arrived, he just threw his book on the counter and turned the television on. There was too much going through his head to focus anyway. 

While viewing, Johnny did get a commercial for a new meditation app. He had never thought about using meditation before, but with how much was going on in his head, finding a way to clear it would be nice to at the very least have some moments of calm. Perhaps he could use meditation to clear his head enough to make it easier to him to study. 

Johnny figured it was worth a shot, and gave the app a download. There were a few different options, from "rainy day" to "peaceful forest." Johnny didn't really know where to start, and opted to just select the "random" option to keep things simple. The app told him to put the phone to the side, and close his eyes, focusing on nothing but the sound that would come from the phone's speakers. 

"Here goes nothing...maybe I can focus on one thing by focusing on nothing..." Johnny muttered to himself with a soft chuckle, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. Surprisingly, he felt his worries start to melt away, and the cluttered thoughts in his head all vanishing. The stress, anxiety, and nervousness were all gone in favor of tranquil peace as if there was nothing there. It was a strange calm that fell over Johnny, one that hadn't been felt in years. Still, it was something he wasn't going to take for granted, he may have just found his new "thing!" As Johnny meditated, everything from his mind to his nerves relaxed, as if everything came to a standstill. In Johnny's "trance," he was a bit too empty-headed, as he didn't realize exactly what was happening to both himself and the world around him. 

All of Johnny's head, white feathers began to form and bury his skin underneath it. This covered most of his head, with the exception at the top and center where instead a streak of black feathers formed. A thin line of black feathers also formed around his eyes and moved towards the sides of his head and down the sides of his neck as well while white feathers surrounded it. All of Johnny's hair became condensed at the center of it, becoming thin and long while taking on a black color, becoming a long, straight ponytail.

Johnny's mouth and nose fused into one, extending outward greatly while turning a black color. His nose became nothing more than small nostrils at the base of his new beak. At the sides of his head, Johnny's ears shrank until they weren't even visible anymore, now just tiny holes buried underneath his feathers - though still perfectly capable of being able to hear. The length of Johnny's head became longer while it became thinner in width. His eyes moved a bit further apart to rest more on the sides of his head rather than at the front, all while the coloration turned yellow. The length of his eyelashes became a bit longer and more noticeable, especially closer to the edges of his eyes to give a bit more of a feminine look to his face.

Johnny's neck practically tripled in length, becoming much, much longer. The black feathers on the sides of Johnny's face continued their growth, going down the sides of his neck in a thin line all the way down to his shoulders. As for the rest of Johnny's neck, it was covered in more white feathers instead. The lump inside Johnny's throat became much smaller, causing his voice to jump up a few octaves and becoming softer overall. His figure altered along with his species, with Johnny's broad shoulders becoming more narrow and his arms more slender. At his chest, it became a bit more puffed out, a modest set of breasts finding a new home there. On the opposite end of his body, Johnny's back pushed into a permanent indent to leave an arch in his figure, all while the sides of his body did the same, giving his figure a slight bit of curvature to it. 

Spreading over Johnny's upper body would be more white feathers. This was the primary color, although some streaks of black found themselves forming into feathers along with some spots of blue. The feathers grew down his arms up to his elbows, where the growth of feathers stopped for his upper body. On the underside of Johnny's arms, long pieces of white feathers extended that were about as long as his torso itself. This gave him a set of flowing wings under his arms that would allow him to fly if he wanted. As for the rest of Johnny's arms down to his hands, the skin hardened, turning yellow with thin lines forming in it to give it a slightly more segmented look. At his hands, Johnny would lose his pinky, leaving only four digits behind, of which became noticeably longer. The nails at the fingertips would become sharper and more cylindrical, turning gray as they became of sharp talons. 

Below the belt, the white feathers would finish growing. Around his rear and hips, feathers sprouted as well as down his legs, stopping once they reached his knees not too unlike what happened at his arms. Like his arms, more extra feathers formed, this time at the base of his spine. A thin layer of white, rectangular feathers emerged out that was only a few inches long, Johnny now sporting a petite ruffle of tailfeathers behind him. As for Johnny's legs, like his arms, they became hard and yellow. One of the toes would move to the back of his foot while losing another to leave only four digits, three on the front and one in the back. They became longer and a bit more jagged and curved downward, nails turning into avian talons. 

Johnny's thighs enlarged, becoming much stronger in the process that would allow him to hang off of most surfaces with just his new avian feet gripping onto it. His hips expanded outward, becoming wider and giving Johnny a modest hourglass figure underneath the feathers. Between his legs, his manhood became a thing of the past as well as his old species, causing his sex to swap and leaving Johnny as a human man no more, but an anthropomorphic crane bird woman. 

The clothing that Johnny was wearing altered drastically. His shirt and pants fused into one garment, a layered set of blue robes with various shades of blue across it. There were also white cloud patterns scattered around, along with golden lining and streaks in various places, primarily near the bottom half. There were no sleeves to it, allowing Johnny's new wings to not be confined within sleeves and allowing them to breathe. Around Johnny's hands, fingerless blue gloves formed that had red bracelets around the wrists that the gloves were tucked into. Over his legs, short white pants formed, stopping before the yellow part of his legs began. Lastly, a red bead formed halfway down Johnny's hair, while a golden cloth belt formed around the waist along with a set of ruby beads, completing Johnny's new look. 

Mentally, Johnny's mind was altering too. His head was completely clear from the meditation, which made it trivially easy for a new personality to load into it. Johnny wasn't Johnny anymore, but Xho Cai. She was a very good user of magic with a natural talent for mastering many ways of the monasteries she trained in, but constantly switched styles, unable to find one that suited her. It made her weaker in combat due to her indecisiveness, struggling to think of what the best magic was to use. That was, until she decided to start pulling from the unknown. 

However, in her meditation, she was struck with a realization - the art of the unknown! If she pulled magic from where she didn't know, she could use the element of surprise to her advantage. She would be just as surprised as her opponent, but since she knew to expect something unexpected, she would be able to recover herself mentally much quicker than her opponents. Xho was fast, so her quick reflexes would be able to quickly conjure something from the unknown. The fighting style would be far from orthodox, and it's one that no one would even attempt to fight with due to its inconsistency, but there was one thing the fighting style was. 

It was Xho's. This was her own path, her own way. Her mentor had told her to find something uniquely hers, and after this mediation, she had finally found it. 

Her eyes opened, the world much different from when Johnny closed them. Now, she was in a monastery, modern technologies gone, with tons of new totems and shrines scattered about. Xho pushed herself up to her feet, confidence in her face. 

"The Xho Cai style. It has a nice ring to it." Xho said to herself with a smirk. "But, better test it out before taking it out in the wild. Let's see what it can do." the aven said, walking out of the meditation room into the training chambers where there was fox man in there already punching some of the training bags. 

"Xho Cai, didn't expect to see you here today. I'm surprised you didn't leave like you always do." he said to her, pausing his routine to talk with the crane. 

"I wouldn't have to keep leaving if you had better things to teach, Aki." Xho snapped back quickly. "But I'll give you credit, the meditation here opened my eyes." 

"So you've finally settled on a Jeskai art? Aki raised an eyebrow. 

"No, if I had, I'd still be wandering between the monasteries aimlessly. I'm done with that." she got into a ready stance. "May I introduce you to the Xho Cai style?" 

"You have to earn the right to name your style, you know that? Or do you care so little of the Jeskai's ways?" the fox got into his own stance. 

"Then I best show you why it's named after me. You could spend eons preparing and wouldn't be ready for the first strike. Come at me with everything you got!" she shouted. 

"Very well, here we go!" Aki said, charging at Xho, who felt her body access the magic surrounding them, pulling from it without even taking a second to examine it. Her wings emitted a heavenly blue glow, and as Aki went for a strike, Xho moved her arm in front of herself to block, when the fist of Aki struck them, there was a ripple through Xho's wings, catching Aki off guard. 

"Wh-what the...?" he muttered out before suddenly a large force burst out from the wings, sending a blast of energy back into Aki, sending him flying across the room, his back hitting one of the punching bags as he fell down to the ground. 

Xho was surprised at just how powerful that counterattack was, all the energy from Aki's punch sent back at him as well as the energy within Xho herself. She had no idea how she did that, and wouldn't spend time figuring it out - that was the Xho Cai style. If she spent time trying to figure it out, she'd just get distracted and be back at square one of her training. 

"H-how did you do that...?" Aki said, bringing himself up to his knees and panting. 

"I don't know." Xho answered with a smirk as her wings ceased glowing - the sparring over as quickly as it began. 

"W-what do you mean you don't know!? You just used it!" 

"That doesn't mean I know where I pulled the attack from, try to keep up." Xho quipped. "The Xho Cai style is no style and every style at once, pulling from what's around you and using it without thinking. I'm just as surprised as you are at what it did."

"How do you expect to use that in practice? You were lucky here, that doesn't mean you'll be lucky elsewhere!" 

"Perhaps, but I wasn't a star combatant beforehand either. I spent too much time thinking, with this, I don't have to think about what to use, simply use it. Now, I feel I can finally be a formidable combatant." 

"I think you're crazy, but if you've found what works for you, it works for you." Aki pushed himself up to his feet. "Will you be staying?" 

"No, I don't think I will. This bird doesn't want to make a nest anywhere." Xho shook her head. "I'll still be around to spar with others, same with the other monasteries, but I think I've learned everything I can from the Jeskai, now I can only learn me." she gave a bow. "Thank you for having me, and you're welcome for not beating you in front of any of your students." 

"Sarcastic as always, even in grace." Aki chuckled. "Even in enlightenment, you never change, do you?" 

"The Xho Cai style may change every battle, but Xho Cai herself isn't ever going to be changing again." Xho said with a smirk, turning to leave the monastery. "I'll leave you to your way, I must continue finding my own." she gave a wave, leaving. A vagabond of the Jeskai, the aven exploring what the Xho Cai style was capable of every step of the way.