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The woman shouldn’t interest Meruem. Humans are to Chimera Ants as cattle are to humans — inconsequential, livestock, and boring at best (insufferable at worst). Since his birth, he has been destined to outclass humans in everything. It is not a boast or lack of humility, but simply his reality.
But he cannot defeat her in Gungi.
Komugi is a prodigy. Her frail human stature — frailer than most humans, somehow — belies the inherent genius slumbering within her, only to wake when a Gungi board is placed before her. She barely remembers to breathe when he addresses her, and yet her mind is an intricate, unfathomable maze of impeccable strategy. Komugi is nothing like the rest of the humans he had faced in other games, the supposed “masters” of games like chess, shogi, and go; masters who had crumbled within minutes due to fear and stress and human weakness.
She, on the other hand, seems to enter a state beyond fear when she plays Gungi, her stamina and abilities surpassing what even the strongest of humans should be able to achieve. It is without question that Meruem is the strongest and smartest being currently living on Earth’s surface, because that is the weight of the title King. He is a being borne from trial and error, from refining and perfecting his species over generations. His power is incomparable; his intelligence is incomparable.
And yet.
This fragile and sniveling creature, who bleats like a sheep and can barely stand on her own, has bested him repeatedly. It is not a series of flukes that has carried Komugi to victory, but some inherent strength, genius even, that sleeps within her, only to awaken when she lifts the first Gungi piece with careful fingertips.
“S-supreme — ? Supreme Leader — ?”
Meruem flinches (how had this bumbling human managed to sneak up on him? ) and turns to face Komugi. What he sees startles him, and his surprise fills him with confusion, because with surprise comes an emotion that’s not apathy. Not quite empathy, and not quite worry, — no, perhaps it’s both of those things, and that's why it's startling.
There’s a line of blood dripping down Komugi’s face, from the tip of her hairline to the bridge of her stuffy nose. Immediately Meruem moves to stand by her, pushing the hair away from her bushy eyebrows and discovering a gash in her forehead, much to his dismay. His act is gentle, but it reminds him again how easy it would be to pierce through her skin with hardly any effort. One pointed flick of his finger and there would be nothing left of her face at all.
Rather than fill Meruem with satisfaction of his affirmed power, the mental image of the woman’s ravaged body does not sit well with him.
“Did something happen?”
“I — I’m so — I’m sorrrrrrrrry!!!”
Unsurprisingly, Komugi bursts into tears, and Meruem finds himself flinching away from the soggy outburst. But though he leans back to avoid the full-blown torrent of her tears, his hand resting on her forehead still drifts down to settle on her shoulder; he does not leave, and he does not scoff at her wailing, but waits patiently for her sobs to settle into quiet shakes.
“Why are you apologizing?” Meruem says, a bit too softly for his own liking. “...Your injury, are you in pain?”
Komugi sniffles. “You’re — you’re the Supreme Leader, and I’m inconveniencing you like this…! Because I can’t take care of myself…” Sniff. Sniiiiiiffff. “You were so kind to let me stay here, and I still… I’m still bothering you…”
“Tell me what happened!” Meruem demands, a bit sharper.
She trails off, then takes a shuddering, snotty breath. “I r-rolled out of the bed you so graciously provided for me,” she admits timidly, “and I — I hit my head on the bed frame, and I was afraid I would bleed all over your sheets, and it would be impolite. U-um, I just wanted to ask if — if there are bandages anywhere, and I can put one on myself — I don’t want to inconvenience you, I just —”
“Silence.”
With a melodramatic inhalation of breath, Komugi clamps her mouth shut.
Hopefully this time she remembers to breathe...
“You are my esteemed guest,” Meruem states, and the words sound so foreign directed towards a human, but it still feels right somehow. “And I have unfinished business with you in Gungi. Your injury is —” An inconvenience to me, he almost says, but the words feel too harsh, too detached. (Why? ) “...Easily remedied. My Royal Guard is proficient in medical procedures, and they can administer painless stitches if need be.”
Komugi’s lip wobbles, and Meruem braces himself for the second coming of the flood of tears. But rather than cry, she flashes an uncertain, toothy grin, even as she continues to sniffle. “S-supreme Leader, you are so kind… so — so forgiving, and to someone like me…!”
What kind of ‘someone’ is that? Meruem thinks. Your performance in Gungi is more interesting than anything I have encountered in the human species thus far. Out of all the rabble, you alone deserve this treatment.
...Deserve…?
“I fully expect you to perform at your best once your wound has been tended to,” Meruem says sternly. “I will not be pleased if you squander this kindness. ”
Komugi nods so vigorously that for a ridiculous moment Meruem worries that her head might pop off her brittle neck. “Of course. I never slack off when it comes to Gungi.” It is only then that her voice has any semblance of confidence, and Meruem experiences what can only be called a thrill at the thought of the impending challenge.
She takes a step forward as if to follow him, but her legs are shaking, and her body stalls as the bridge of her nose scrunches with obvious pain. Never before had Meruem ever understood the instinct to nurture and protect, and yet now his body moves on its own, leaning forward to scoop the woman into his arms. She is so light, so doll-like. Again he thinks of how easy it would be to end her life, and again he roils at the thought.
“U-um... Supreme Leader…?”
“If you stumble and fall on the way to treatment, that will be more work for my Royal Guard,” Meruem says, but his voice is strained and his movements a bit stalled — isn’t he supposed to be the paragon of intelligence? Of informed decisions? Despite it all, his body had acted without logic, taking this helpless, mortal creature into his hands. He can feel the fluttering of her heart against his chest, the faint trembling of her fatigued body in his hands, and rather than recoil in disgust at her weakness, he wants to — to — ?
...I do not know what it is that I want.
“Th-thank you,” Komugi squeaks in a voice so quiet it could be blown away by a mere gust of wind, but Meruem can hear the words in every fiber of his body, as though it is the only sound on Earth.
And though Meruem does not know exactly what he wants, he wonders if he might be just a bit closer to figuring it out.