everything comes with a price

Chapter 17: A Champion Tells It Like It Is

The Seigaku regulars gritted their teeth when they found out about Ryoma's property and riches, and according to the research done, all they found out was he had a total personal worth which included real estate property and the palace's art collection, which added up to more than a hundred billion dollars (thanks to Philips's skills in technology). Darn it! They didn't know he was powerful and rich. Also, they were intrigued when they found out Pakura was the castle's princess. They did agree they have to come up with a plan using her, though Fuji asked if he could still have her after their plan is accomplished because he had taken a liking to her. Well, who didn't? She is very attractive, tall and curvaceous and she is smart and athletic. They said yes, of course....provided if they could think up of a good plan to sabotage Ryoma first.

Meanwhile, the champions (except Pakura) met as usual for breakfast. They were about to get ready for training, when one of the servers came with a note that said training is cancelled for the day because the coaches are going to be busy preparing the plans for the light version of the ITM. It will resume two days later, which means they will end the camp two days later as well. In a way, this is bad news because they wanted to see Seigaku go down earlier. But oh well, what can they do? Christopher had an idea and said, "Hey, I know! Why don't we film an episode of my show here?" All of them did not need to think hard to know what he meant. Christopher had his own TV show called "A champion tells it like it is". It used to be a public access show, which for one episode, Chris already had to pay $200 (American money) if you include the cost of tape and all. The champions usually helped him with his show. The previous episode, which was filmed before they came to Japan, was a spoof of the movie, The Blair Witch Project, which was about some kids who went out into the woods and end up disappearing. All that's found of them is film footage and some piles of sticks. Only instead of the Blair Witch Project, Chris' was called the Green Witch Project. He took a hand held camera down to Washington Square Park with William and filmed the tourists who went up to them and asked if they knew how to get to Green Witch Village (It's actually Greenwich Village-you're not supposed to pronounce the w in Greenwich. But people from out of town always pronounce it wrong). Anyway, as tourists came up and ask them which way to Green Witch Village, they started screaming and ran away in terror. All that was left of them was a pile of MetroCards (which Pakura locked them in the dungeon for a week out of anger because they used her cards without permission and they were dirtied by the ground.)

Of course, because the show was so popular, the show is now on a proper channel network, and he didn't need to pay at all to film the show. The people running the channel company actually paid HIM. His show is as highly rated as Sixty Minutes. The champions do help him film the show, sometimes even appearing in a few episodes, but ever since Pakura first appeared in his show (It was around episode 7. He started his own show after he won the ITM), there was a guy named Terry calling in and telling Chris to ask Pakura to take off her clothing....ON AIR! He sent stuff to his care of the show, CDs and stuffed animals and things like that, and writes that there'll be more where that came from if Chris can get his vice-captain to strip on air. So what Pakura does is, (or what Chris told her to do, because she nearly broke down when he told her) she does take it off alright, but then she throws a blanket over herself and kicks her feet under it and goes, "Look, Terry, you freak, I've taken off my clothing! Chris thanks you for the CDs, sucker!"

That angered Terry so much he started wandering around the Village looking for Chris. Everyone knew Chris lives (before he joined the Chess Pieces) in the Village, since he once filmed a popular episode where he interviewed Ryoma for his recent popularity in school. One day, a few weeks ago, Terry actually found Pakura and Ryoma in the park and started chasing them around, waving twenty dollar bills and trying to get Pakura to take off her clothing. This was very entertaining (to Ryoma at least), and hardly scary at all, especially because they just ran right up to Washington Square South and Thompson Street, where the Sixth Precinct has been parking the enormous trailer so they can secretly spy on drug dealers. Ryoma told the police that this weird guy was assaulting them, and you should see it: About twenty undercover guys (even a guy they thought was an old homeless man asleep on the bench) jumped on Terry and dragged him, screaming, off to the mental ward!