pillar man 2.0

Chapter 33: The Perfect Spy, Nobunaga

After his bath, Huitzi clarified some thoughts and formulated his new plan.

'I can't contact the general's family right now. Muzan is surely on my tail. I doubt he doesn't have a spy following me. But how do you shake off a spy when you don't even know where they are or if they're spying on you? Muzan's stupidity can't be underestimated,' Huitzi pondered for a while on how to deal with a spy that might not even exist.

'If Muzan really did put a spy on me, it must be a demon, right?' Huitzi thought as a scheming smile appeared on his face.

"Kokushibo, I'm going out. Take care of Soloctis in the meantime. I'll leave instructions for his feeding. In your free time, try to find a noble or samurai with many books. They'll soon be necessary," Huitzi said to Kokushibo while writing down Soloctis' diet on a piece of paper.

"Yes, Lord Nosferatu," Kokushibo replied in his usual tone.

Huitzi then gave one last look at Soloctis before leaving the room with his cloak and hat.

Huitzi walked for a long time. The sun was already high in the sky, probably close to noon.

'If I want to beat this spy, I just need to go to a place they can't reach—near wisteria flowers,' Huitzi thought as he finally arrived at his desired location, a nearly abandoned mountain.

'This place will do. Now I just need my computer.'

Climbing the mountain to explore and see if anyone was living there, Huitzi found a cabin in the middle of the forest.

Huitzi approached the cabin slowly. He knocked on the door, but no one answered.

'Is there no one here?' Huitzi wondered as he checked the surroundings. There were signs of recent human activity, so someone must be living there.

'Well, if there's no one to invite me in, I'll invite myself,' Huitzi broke the wooden door and invaded the house.

Nobunaga's Point of View

I woke up early today, had my breakfast, consisting of dried fish and tea.

After eating, I left the house and went to chop wood. This has been my routine since I came to live here.

There's no specific reason for this. Life in the village was very dull. Maybe I just wanted to be alone with nature for a while. Of course, I didn't completely isolate myself. I go to the village to sell wood and buy a few things, nothing special.

After 8 hours, I managed to cut down a tree.

"Panting, I think I'll have lunch and then turn this into firewood," when I was getting close to my house, I saw it—my door was broken down.

I gripped my axe tighter and slowly walked to the entrance. When I reached the door, I burst in, looking all around.

The house was dark, and a young figure was sitting at the table.

Huitzi's Point of View

When I entered, I went to the window and closed the shutter to darken the house. Then I sat at the table and waited.

Shortly after, a man entered the house. His hands were full of calluses, and his body was robust.

"Who are you? You know what, it doesn't matter. Get out of my house now."

"How rude, I haven't even introduced myself yet. My name is Nosferatu, a pleasure."

"It's a displeasure to meet you, Mr. Nosferatu. Now get out of my house."

"Calm down, you premature one. I'm here to make you an offer you can't refuse."

"I'm not interested."

"Hahaha, you don't understand what 'irrefusable' means. Well, the offer is this: are you interested in becoming something more than human?"

"Something more than human?"

"Yes, a vampire!"

"No, now get out before I—" the man was interrupted before he could finish speaking by a flesh bud that entered his body. But this one was different from the usual; it implanted information into the man's brain—all the information about demon slayers, demons, and vampires.

"So, are you still going to refuse my offer?"

"What did you do to me?"

"I implanted memories in you, to save time. So, what will it be? Do you want it or not?"

"Why do you want to turn me into a vampire?"

"Because I need a comput— I mean, a servant who can spy on many people and gather information."

"Why me?"

"You were closest to where I wanted to build the information base, so there's nothing particularly special about you."

"Hahaha, why did I think there would be something special? Well, it doesn't matter. My name is Nobunaga, and I'm willing to become a vampire," Nobunaga said with determination.

'Why did I accept this? I don't know. Maybe the monotonous life tired me. Maybe I want to be special in the end. Maybe I don't want to die at the hands of this vampire or a demon. None of that matters. I want this. This adventure is calling me, and it might never come my way again,' Nobunaga thought, a whirlwind of thoughts racing through his mind.

"Great! But before turning you into a vampire, I want you to know—you won't be an ordinary vampire. Your body won't be the same; you'll become a being full of tentacles. That's for efficiency in your work," Huitzi said while removing a stone mask from his body.

"And what will be my job?"

"You're already familiar with the flesh bud technique. You'll use it on urban pests like rats and pigeons to become the perfect spy. You'll gather information from all over Japan—wealthy families, possible revolutionary groups, establishments, and especially demons and slayers!" The grandeur of Huitzi's words captivated Nobunaga.

"Besides that, we'll start a news company, using the information you gather as the basis for the newspaper."

"If that's your plan, then I believe in it," (🎵 and I will help you create a perfect world 🎵).

"Now that you've agreed, let's create a secret base for you," Huitzi said as he put his hat back on and set out to find a cave with Nobunaga. They found a small cave near the mountain's peak. Huitzi dug the cave to create more space inside, and Nobunaga carried wooden planks to create camouflage.

Leaving the wood near the entrance, Nobunaga entered the cave. It was already getting dark.

"Let's begin then," Huitzi said as he took out a modified stone mask. Unlike normal masks, this one had nothing on the face—it was smooth, without eyes, mouth, eyebrows, nothing.

"Is this what will turn me into a vampire?"

"Yes, this is called a stone mask. You just put it on, and it's done."

"Okay, I'm ready. Let's start."

When Huitzi heard that, he slowly approached and placed the mask on Nobunaga's face. He made the muscle fibers rupture without stopping the bleeding. The blood then flowed from his hand to the mask, and something magical happened.

The blood began to spread in a very strange pattern, resembling an electronic circuit. When this pattern covered the entire mask, it closed.

When it closed, Nobunaga's skin began to peel, and veins, along with part of his nervous system, escaped from his body. The veins and nervous system merged with flesh and blood to create tentacles. A dozen tentacles formed, causing his body to shrink. He was so thin that his bones were clearly protruding. The skin grew back, much whiter than before—now Nobunaga looked almost like an albino, so white was he.

The process wasn't over yet. Nobunaga began to tremble as if having a stroke. Soon his body stopped, and he came back to life.

"Hahaha," Nobunaga was panting, his clothes now all torn and stained with blood.

"Welcome back, Nobunaga. Now you're a vampire," Huitzi congratulated Nobunaga once he had calmed down.

"Why didn't you tell me it would hurt so much?"

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise."

Nobunaga looked at Huitzi with disbelief and anger, then returned his gaze to his new body, specifically to the tentacles.

"Why am I different from a normal vampire?"

"You're going to be the perfect spy, so of course, you wouldn't be normal."

Nobunaga's tentacles began to move without his control.

"Lord Nosferatu, what's happening?" Nobunaga asked, desperate.

"Oh, that. Your tentacles have a neural network in them, so they have a certain degree of autonomy. This will help you since you won't need to actively control them to perform some tasks. Isn't that great?"

"No."

"How ungrateful! I did this especially for you so you could focus on your work, and you didn't like it. Anyway, let's put the plans into action," Huitzi said with a playful look. Then he picked up a rat and said, "Use your flesh bud on it." Nobunaga did so as if it were instinct.

"Wow, I can see and hear everything the rat sees and hears," Nobunaga exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course, that's what makes you the perfect spy. No one would notice a little rat spying on them."

"Incredible!"

"Yes, it is incredible. Now let's camouflage the entrance so no one notices it," Huitzi said as he covered the entrance to the cave with Nobunaga still inside. After covering it with wood, he threw dirt and finished with moss on top. It didn't even look like there had been a cave there before.

Huitzi began descending the mountain toward the yadoya where Kokushibo and Soloctis were.

"I still don't understand why my body needs to stay hidden in that cave," Nobunaga said through the flesh bud that Huitzi left on him while using the rat's senses to look around and hear the answer to his question.

"You're a spy, so you can't be revealed. Our enemies are keeping an eye on me every day; we can't expose you after all the effort to hide you."

"That makes sense."

Author's Note

Hello, dear readers, I want to let you know that from now on, I no longer have 100% control over the book. This works as follows: when it comes to a situation where the protagonist has no control over the outcome, I ask a question and roll a die. 1, 2, 3 means no, and 4, 5, 6 means yes, and from that, the fate is influenced.

I used this with Nobunaga when deciding if there would be someone living on the mountain. I rolled a 5, so there was someone. If he had a family, the result was 3 = no. And if he was there alone by choice, it was 6, so he was there by his own will.

another thing, nobunaga's mask is an "imperfect" mask, what does that mean?, well the huitzi stone mask is a perfect mask because it covers all the strengths of a vampire equally, an imperfect mask doesn't do that, it decreases one attribute in order to improve another, in the case of nobunaga it decreases strength and regeneration to improve brain capacity and body control.

End of chapter.