Chapter Text
Even before his feet met the rooftop gravel, Meruem sensed the change. It rippled through the air. It whispered in the tremors of the building as it settled and stilled. It was something old, ancient even.
"Santa Claus. You're late."
Out of the darkness of the penthouse, the King stepped into the moonlight. Youpi’s tailoring was impeccable. The red suit clung to Meruem’s frame as if grown from it, the white trim brilliant against his emerald chitin. No beard. Just the hat. It sat perfectly centered with its single bell that chimed with every step.
Santa merely smiled. "I have all night. You're in a hurry."
"I operate on a schedule of efficiency," Meruem said. "I have already calculated my route, and I have already prepared the gifts. I do not require your assistance."
"You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the job."
"I understand it better than you." He paused, surveying the rooftop in full for the first time. Cracked stone and debris remained where the runners of Santa's sleigh had landed. Still smoking, though the sleigh and its reindeer were nowhere to be found.
"You've taken out my guards," Meruem said, mildly.
"Not a creature was stirring. Not even a mouse. Or perhaps a butterfly and cat, if you prefer."
Meruem's eyes narrowed. He came to a stop, the table and chairs with their festive ribbon standing between them.
"Why do you do it?"
"Hm? Do what? I am here to deliver presents. And, as I see it, to correct a misunderstanding."
"You have no chance of true success," Meruem declared. "Your methods are flawed and the execution is burdened by this farce of human consumption. Your entire enterprise is inefficient and rooted in inequality."
Santa gestured to the chairs. He settled himself onto one and gave his lap a little pat. "I believe you and I need to have a little chat."
Meruem's expression remained placid. He was not going to sit on the fat man's lap like the rest of mankind. "You misunderstand. At first I believed you to be nothing more than a delusion, or a symbolic figurehead used to placate the masses."
He took a step forward. Rubble from the battle that must've ensued between his Guard and Santa's forces twinkled and crunched underfoot.
"I've come to learn there are humans who stand above the rest. I have found them to be exceptional. And like you, I once believed I was fit to sequester and judge these humans, just as you do with your 'lists' instead of offering true equality. Though your methods may not be as efficient, I can respect the power you wield." Another step. "But I can surpass your efforts and provide the perfect Christmas."
Santa raised a fluffy eyebrow. His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.
"It is not a competition, Meruem." The name sounded natural on Santa's lips. "And if you think my job is about power, you've missed the most important part of it all."
"I have missed nothing," the King countered. "I understand the rules. You provide goods to humans who have adhered to a predetermined set of behaviors. I will simply improve upon the model. It is a far more productive use of resources. But more importantly, I seek to abolish your system of greed and inequality and instill a new one in its place."
"Efficiency is the virtue of a machine. Goodwill is the virtue of a soul. It seems to me you have the former in spades, but still have much to learn about the latter."
"You know I am right. I am faster and stronger. I can assess humans for their 'naughty' and 'nice' qualities with better accuracy. I can deliver gifts in less than an hour to every home in the world. Every home. Even those in impoverished territories."
He locked eyes with Santa, and the thought of Komugi's casual dismissal of her own poverty burned bright within him. "Even a hut in a forgotten mountain village."
Santa was silent.
"I will tear down your unjust distribution system and erect one where no one is forgotten. Where all are equal. Where a person's value is judged by their essence, not their station. I've learned, since achieving peace with humanity, that my power can be used for the betterment of all."
Meruem dragged out the second chair at the table and sat opposite Santa.
"I finally understand what Isaac Netero aimed to teach me with this holiday assignment he tasked us all with. And it is what I will achieve, tonight."
"A system where no one is forgotten," Santa said softly. "If only it could be so easy."
The man stood from his seat, then seemingly withdrew a large sack from nowhere. It was easily twice his size, yet Santa hoisted it with ease. He set it on the ground between them with a heavy thud.
Santa’s hands moved.
It was a motion that defied the physics for a man his size. He moved in a graceful sweep of red felt and white fur, so blindingly fast that Meruem’s pupils didn't even have time to contract. A pair of smartly polished boots materialized and encased the King's bare feet before he could even process the trajectory. The fit was perfect. The support was unparalleled. Meruem tensed in surprise at the unexpected display.
Nen?
No. It didn't have the same quality Nen usually had. But the energy rolling off Santa in waves was anything but normal. So if not Nen, what then?
Jolly laughter filled the air. "I must commend you for making an effort to wear pants this Christmas Eve. But you cannot be Santa Claus without the proper boots, little Ant."
"Do you mean to insult me?"
"I said I had gifts to deliver, didn't I?" He reached back into the sack. "Walking around with bare soles is a safety hazard. Not to mention, it’s a poor look for the brand. A leader should be grounded and protected. I aim to gift what you need, not necessarily what you believe you want."
The next gift appeared in Santa’s hands. A small, leather-bound book. Meruem made no motion to take it, swatting it away like a petulant child.
"Ho ho! Up next is a journal. Somewhere for you to write down all those deep thoughts and nascent realizations about humanity. A King should have a record of his journey, not just a list of tasks. Try to remember the why, not just the what."
Again and again, Santa revisited the bottomless abyss of his sack and returned with something different. A warm pair of gloves with four fingers each. A book on diplomatic etiquette. A sampler gift basket with seven different types of popular snacks. A set of tiny, intricately designed puzzles. All gifts that Meruem might not necessarily want but were perfectly tailored to his needs.
"You see now?" Santa's hands were flying as his next gift (a pair of pants in just the right length with just enough room for Meruem's muscular thighs) emerged. "If things were as simple as you believe them to be, would you be able to do what I can do? This isn't about the presents, it's about the thought behind them."
"Are you finished? These gifts are meaningless."
"Meaningless?"
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry! Santa's lips curled upwards into a knowing smile. "Don't you wish to know what Komugi asked for her gift?"
Meruem's own eyes narrowed to sharp flints of violet.
It was bait. A cheap gambit.
But it worked.
"Ho ho ho! She came to visit me at the mall. Sat right here on my lap and asked - as sweet as can be - for something very specific. She had some friends in tow who heard the whole thing, but I imagine by now they're quite busy with their own celebrations for the season."
One hand thoughtfully stroked through the thick white beard before resting over his rotund abdomen. "If you can manage to match my holiday spirit...I may feel like telling you."
The thought of Komugi harboring secrets from him needled at Meruem in an unfamiliar fashion. She should want for nothing. He'd offered her whatever her heart desired. She had refused, always, as if she somehow felt she didn't deserve it. Yet she told this...this fat human what she wanted? On his lap?
"Very well." Meruem rose from his seat and mirrored Santa's stance, one hand pressed against his perfectly chiseled abdomen that absolutely did not jiggle like a bowl full of jelly. "I will prove my worth. And then you will tell me."
"That's more like it. You've almost got it. The spirit of Christmas isn't about worth or proving anything. It's about giving!"
"You speak as if you have already won, Santa Claus. You believe that by presenting me with these trinkets, you have demonstrated what you consider 'holiday spirit,' but it is mere consumerism."
"Hoho! I know when you've been sleeping. I know when you're awake. I’ve demonstrated I also know how to pick out a good pair of boots. But if you want to know the truth about that girl’s heart, you’re going to have to work for it."
Meruem didn't waste another breath. In the time it took for the bell on his hat to jingle once, the King had closed the distance. His arm curved in a perfect arc, diving towards the sack. Yet before it could connect, a flash of gold and silver burst between them as tinsel shot out, followed by countless strings of lights and garland that propelled upwards like a rocket. The force knocked Meruem back as his new boots left shallow gouges in the layer of frost atop the roof.
"Ho ho ho!"
Garland, greenery, and lights writhed and spun together. Towering behind Santa they loomed, a dazzling display of color stretching high into the sky. Twisting and twining, the amalgamation of decorations shaped and morphed into something like the branches of a magnificent tree with twelve massive branches and countless smaller ones.
"Hark! The Twelve Days of Christmas!" Santa boomed.
From each 'branch' hung a different symbolic tool. A clock, a star, a lump of coal, a silver bell. The pressure was immense as it bore down overhead. Meruem felt himself facing the weight of a billion expectations.
This must be what it feels like, meeting the wishes and dreams of every human each holiday season, he reasoned coolly. Not too different from serving the people as King.
Meruem lunged again. He was a master of patterns after countless games of Gungi. The gleaming lights did nothing to distract him. He saw the opening in a microsecond of lag between the movement of the 'First Day' branch and the 'Second.'
The branch holding the silver bell swung. Meruem twisted in mid-air, his tail lashing out to parry, but the bell didn't hit him. It rang. And the vibration struck him so hard that for a moment, even his perfectly sculpted abs might've jiggled just a little bit. Like the tiniest bowl full of jelly.
Then everything melted away.
Meruem stood in the center of a balcony, staring down at an all-too-familiar courtyard lined with trees covered in fleshy growths. The expansive grounds of East Gorteau's Royal Palace stretched out before him, the very place from which he had launched his campaign to subjugate humanity.
He swiveled around, finding himself face-to-face with a single, unassuming woman perched atop a cushion. A woman whose face he knew better than any other. A face he'd sat across from more times than he could count.
A spray of blue blood splashed across that familiar face in flecks.
"What is this?" Meruem said, the illusion wavering for a fraction of a second.
"A gift from the Ghost of Christmas Past." Santa's voice came from somewhere beyond. "Though I suppose for you, it's more like... Ghost of Six Months Ago."
But the vision held, and Meruem stood frozen as the woman whimpered in confusion, hands trembling as she raised them to her cheeks.
Santa's deep, disembodied voice began to sing.
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..."
The vision dissolved like dust. Meruem blinked, and he found himself back on the rooftop.
"Ho ho ho! What gift did you give on that first day?"
"My left arm." Meruem said flatly.
"Don't split my beard hairs, you little rascal."
Santa laughed and laughed and laughed. The volume of it was dangerous in itself, but the Ant King refused to be cowed.
He began to circle like a hungry predator, his mind whirring. Santa was unlike any opponent he'd faced before. He radiated a life force that defied all logic. Not Nen, nor sheer strength. Could such an entity even be considered human? Meruem knew there was no point deluding himself in thinking this was any ordinary human, or even a rare Nen user.
Still, in spite of that, he searched for the crack. Every technique had a flaw.
Meruem attacked again. And again. He tried the flank. He tried a direct overhead assault. Each time he was swatted away by a branch of ice or a lash of garland. Each 'day' of Christmas brought a new form of assault. Turtledoves that swooped and pecked. Golden rings that ricocheted as fast as bullets, followed by geese that dropped more than just eggs. And the swans—
There were a lot of birds. Meruem had newfound anger at the feathery assault Komugi must have faced that night in the tower.
The bell chimed again. Its vibrations rattled through Meruem as he propelled his body forward, but it wasn't enough to escape. A power beyond his reckoning swept over him in a blinding light. When the spots cleared from his vision, the rooftop had vanished.
Now he stood in the middle of a busy street. Cars honked. People hurried past, wrapped in coats and scarves. A child dropped a candy cane and its mother scolded it gently.
"Hm."
Meruem took a few experimental paces forward. No one paid him any attention. Which was rather impressive, given that he was a green humanoid Chimera Ant dressed as Santa Claus. He stood directly in front of an oncoming bus with a steely stare, only to watch it phase through his body.
This was not a memory like the last vision, though he recognized this street as one near the penthouse. Next Meruem stepped onto the sidewalk where a couple walked straight through him, hand-in-hand as they wandered under an archway.
"Master Knov, look!" The woman giggled, pointing at the greenery tied with a red ribbon hanging above them.
"What about it, Palm?"
"It's mistletoe! We're supposed to kiss now! Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I know you don't like to be so upfront in public, it's just...it's a tradition!"
Hm. So that's what that was for. Meruem filed that detail away for later.
The Ant King folded his arms. "And what is this supposed to be? Another of your tricks?" His words vanished into the noise of the street. "I've become well-read in human courtship rituals, and this tradition of public affection seems indirect and frankly, a bit forced. What is the point?"
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Meruem's heart jumped at the familiar sound. The crowd parted as Komugi shuffled by, her face pinched with worry as her cane tapped against the pavement. She was alone.
"Miss Palm? Are you there? I... I seem to have gotten turned around. I can't find my way back..."
She stumbled. Meruem moved to catch her, but his arms passed through her body as if she were smoke. Before he could get a chance to process the sickening feeling that bloomed in his chest, Palm and Knov had already appeared and were gently steering Komugi away.
"It's alright," Knov's calm voice said. "We're right here."
"I'm sorry. It's my fault," Palm fretted with a guilty glance at Knov. "I got distracted. But we were right there! Right under the mistletoe! We didn't even—"
"You got her something to eat, didn't you?" Knov interrupted.
They guided Komugi down the street. She offered a sheepish grin that made her nose look redder and wetter in the cold air. "The Chairman said I should eat a lot of fried chicken, but the lines were so long. We decided to get some chestnuts from a street vendor instead. They were really good! Are we heading back now?"
Her head turned, and for a second, she angled it in the direction of Meruem's immaterial form, as if she sensed him there. "I hope Meruem is having a good Christmas Eve. He seemed so busy, we didn't even get to play Gungi yet today..."
A pang that felt too sharp and complex to dissect coiled in his stomach. Meruem continued to trail along behind her, but scene dissolved again. The King stood on the rooftop once more, facing the ever-smiling Santa.
"Ho ho ho!"
Meruem ignored him. "Am I to assume this is happening right now?"
"Ghosts of Christmas Present. A fitting name for a vision that is presently happening, while we're discussing presents." Santa chuckled again.
He should have been with her.
He should have been escorting her.
He could have bypassed that entire line and obtained as much fried chicken as she desired.
They should have been playing Gungi.
It was Meruem's turn to chuckle.
"You aim to torment me."
He wiped a smear of frost off his cheek, flashing a smile full of teeth. For the first time, he noticed his breath steaming in hot puffs against the cold air. "My past actions carved the path to this moment. I regret nothing. Every choice led me to Komugi, to this place of peace and growth. These ghosts and their visions don't haunt me. I am empowered."
"Oho! But what to my wondering eyes did appear? You're having fun, aren't you! That in itself is a gift, Meruem."
"I am...grateful for the stimulation. It has been a long time since I felt my heart race for any reason other than a riveting Gungi move."
"Now now, Santa's always watching. So be good for goodness' sake and don't lie."
The great, shimmering tree above them flashed in synchronous patterns. Meruem knew the timing and predicted the right opening to swipe through with his tail, severing the electrical wire and plunging one branch into darkness.
"I see it now," Meruem snapped his tail back. "Your 'Twelve Days' is not a random assortment of seasonal icons like I thought, but instead a system."
Tradition. Nostalgia. Ritual. Tenants of Santa's system that had been born by the human tendency to cling to the past and dwell in the present. But through the lens of this holiday it was now propped up by farcical consumption and excess.
The King took a confident step forward, the disabled branch's tinsel uselessly lashing the air behind him. Before Komugi, such emotional nuance would have escaped him entirely. But she had taught him the power of sentiment. She showed him how a single Gungi move could carry the weight of memory and how routines could be more than mere strategy. Just as she cherished her Kokoriko, he now grasped the emotional resonance behind the meaning. He saw the emotional core of Santa's power now, and he was ready to exploit it.
He slashed through wires and garland. Sparks flew, more numerous than any human eye could hope to count when finally, Meruem's hand slipped through a gap in the wall of tinsel and plunged deep into the sack of gifts.
His fingers closed around something flat and smooth, and he yanked it free.
A brand new Gungi board spilled out, its shiny red ribbon catching the light. Despite Santa's claims about the sack providing only necessities, here was proof of excess: another board when Meruem already possessed perfectly functional ones. The irony wasn't lost on him and confirmed his suspicions. This holiday was rooted in excess and materialism, so of course Santa's power would be built upon the very same principles.
This system, as Meruem had predicted, was based on desire.
He held up the new board to the portly man. "With this, you must be satisfied. I have grasped your system and the true nature behind it. The game is mine. Quite literally. Now, tell me what Komugi wished for."
Santa answered not with words, but with the Twelfth Day.
The final branch lit up. Twelve Drummers Drumming thundered in response, and the rooftop began to shudder.
The cumulative height of the Twelve Day. An amassed force of holiday spirit that envelopes the target in percussive sound, suffocating them with a potent combination of nostalgia and obligation until they are fully immersed.
Meruem met the assault with a wild, exhilarated grin, timing his movements to the brutal rhythm. He became a dancer, his body weaving between blows of sound that threatened to consume him. The very ground was a weapon now. It buckled and split under the sheer percussive force.
Santa stood at the center as the drumbeats dissipated as quickly as they began. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.
Meruem's new boots were scuffed. Small puffs of condensation escaped his lips as he spoke words of praise.
"An incredible attack. But your power is finite, Santa Claus. You are reliant on impulse and greed, and your existence is rooted in the need for a singular, paternal figure to validate humanity's existence once a year.
"Your hierarchy of 'Naughty' and 'Nice' is as arbitrary as the borders humans draw in the dirt. I am the peak of evolution. I do not require a sack of magic to know worth. I will not merely be a 'Santa' who visits once a year. I will be the infrastructure of their joy.
"You may keep your station at the shopping complex. It serves as a necessary outlet for the smaller humans to vent their irrational desires. But tonight, the sky belongs to me."
His steps never once faltered as he crossed the roof.
"Do not make me repeat myself again." Meruem said. "Tell me her wish."
Santa simply smiled and gave a belly-shaking laugh.
"HO HO HO! You know nothing of the bottomless generosity of the human heart!"
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, pierced the King directly with uncanny dread.
And laying his finger aside of his nose, color blossomed across the apples of his cheeks, red as a rose—
The silver bell chimed.
Meruem felt his consciousness being pulled through a needle’s eye.
For a terrifying instant, the world was a pinprick of light before expanding into a vast, starless void. He stood in a sea of blackness so complete it felt tangible and solid.
He knew, instinctively, that this was his Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. A vision of the future.
He'd expected war. Or something equally foreboding. Some sort of literal depiction intended to cow him into submission that spoke of foreboding and catastrophe.
Yet here he was. Floating. Adrift in a sea of nothing.
One step backwards was met with a crack. Fragments of wood splintered under the heel of one of his new boots. The King looked down.
Gungi tiles.
Shards of a board.
They were the only things glinting in the darkness of this void.
"Komugi?"
The name came out as a whisper. He hadn't even realized he'd spoken aloud. Then, with more emotion, "Are you there?"
No response came.
He was truly, utterly alone.
Meruem swiped one hand through the dark void, encountering no resistance. He pressed his palm against his face, feeling the solidity of his own skin against the absolute emptiness surrounding him.
He saw nothing.
Withdrawing his hand, he looked around again. His eyes only found the shards and tiles.
Was this truly how Komugi experienced the world? This suffocating nothingness?
Impossible.
The Komugi he knew burned with an inner light too brilliant to be contained by darkness. This bleak wasteland could never capture her essence. Where he saw emptiness, she would see entire paths unfolding.
So what was this? What future was this meant to be?
Perhaps this vision wasn't about what might happen if he failed to deliver on his plans for the night.
Perhaps this was about showing him what he was giving up by chasing a hollow crown.
Santa's entire system, as he'd so smugly diagnosed it, had nothing to do with distribution. Or even materialism. The truth was more ephemeral, he realized: Connecting with others.
Human connections he was just beginning to understand himself and had begun to forge, only to risk nearly throwing it all away. He had been on the verge of destroying the fragile bond he'd created with Komugi, all for a competition that meant nothing.
The game had been lost from the start.
What had this all been for?
The moment he'd decided to challenge this Santa - no, the moment he insisted he was better than him - he had lost sight of the true meaning of the holiday altogether.
A shadow washed over the King and concealed his face.
He had been so consumed with being 'Santa Claus' that he had forgotten that he was Meruem. And Meruem was the only one who could be by Komugi's side.
He had perfected the system, and in doing so, he had become a ghost even to the one person who truly saw him.
Meruem knelt amidst the wreckage of the broken game. Pushing aside scraps of wood, he sought to find any visible remnants he might be able to see and salvage when something thick and woolen brushed against his knuckles.
He traced a path of red.
Youpi's scarf glittered faintly in the darkness. He had almost missed it, but it was just as visible as the shards and tiles once he spotted it.
He wrapped it around his neck and felt a warmth that seemed to whisper Gungi formations in his ear.
I don’t want to be Santa Claus.
I want to play with Komugi.
Meruem's aura flared with an intensity that shattered the void.