Sano was not hyperventilating.  No matter what Jou-chan and the weasel girl said.  He wasn't.  He was just … worried.  It was perfectly rational for him to be worried, after all.  Katsu had been gone all day yesterday, and hadn't come back in the night, and he didn't have anywhere else to be because Katsu had no friends, so something had obviously happened to him and best case scenario was that he was lying naked in a gutter somewhere after being beaten and robbed by a group of thugs, and that was only if he was lucky, oh god he was probably unconscious face down in the mud somewhere bleeding to death because no one could help him because the only person in the world who wanted to help him was currently being physically restrained in the house of his so-called "friends" because they thought he was hyperventilating!

Which he obviously wasn't.  It was just –

"Ah, Sano?  I have some information you may want to hear, that you might.  About Tsukioka-san."

Sano whirled around sharply, not even noticing that Aoshi had let go of him and stepped forward at the same time he had.  "Kenshin?"

The words were remarkably calm, coming out of Kenshin's mouth.  Sano knew that that was alright, that Kenshin didn't know Katsu very well, that Katsu preferred it that way, that Kenshin had no personal stake in it besides the welfare of a friend of a friend, that he shouldn't mind so much.  He did anyways.

"Some people saw him in the market, that they did.  They saw a large man come up to him, about so much taller than you Sano," Kenshin held his hands about five inches apart, and Sano frowned.  Kenshin continued, "He acted very friendly, and accused Tsukioka-san of drunkenness, that he did..  The man reached Tuskioka-san, and a few moments later he – Tsukioka san – collapsed onto him – drunk, it seemed.  No one paid much attention after that, that they did not.

"That's bullshit!"  Sano clenched his fist and tried hard not to punch any holes in anything.  "Katsu doesn't get drunk – a bit tipsy, once or twice a year, maybe, but he never gets drunk!  Not enough to pass out in the middle of the street.  And he .." Sano hissed.  "Shit, this sounds really bad, but he doesn't have any other friends besides me, either.  Contacts, and people who owe him money, yeah, but not any other friends – he just doesn't!"

By now Sano was gnawing his lip and pacing, agitation clear in every line of his body.  He didn't even notice that neither Jou-chan nor Aoshi had said a word since Kenshin had come in and, in the case of the ninja, hadn't moved either.  Sano spun around again and looked at Kenshin with agony in his eyes.

"Something bad happened to him, Kenshin – is happening to him.  Something real bad.  I … I think he was just kidnapped."

"I think I might have an idea who did it."

Aoshi's voice was so sudden, so unexpected in the somber silence that had fallen after Sano's proclamation that both Sano and Kaoru started before turning to him – Kaoru's eyes wide with surprise, Sano's narrowing into suspicion.  Aoshi ignored it.

"Katsuhiro has given me enough reason to believe this might be the work of a woman named Tatamitsu Kijou …"

AND THE TRUTH COMES OUT.  maniacal laughter

ahem  Yes, well, anyways.

16 chapters left.