A/N: Well, I didn't get anything hunting today! But I am going out to try again tomorrow! The weather sucked today! It was snowing and raining...with some hail...and wind. So I hope it will be nicer for tomorrow since I about froze to death today! Please enjoy this chapter!

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There was a slight audible intake of air and at least two soft gasps at the comment Naru made after what seemed like hours of silence. He of course knew this to be true since he saw it himself, but he couldn't tell them that. "She bound herself to the scroll so that she would still have a way back after she died." He finished trying to sound as if he just figured out the fact.

"That would explain her current condition." Yasuhara looked to Madoka and back to Naru. "She can't wake up until the seal has been broken."

"So, you are saying she bound herself to that scroll…" Bou-san seemed to be putting the pieces together in his head, "she…"

"…bound herself to the demon" John finished. "That is why there is nothing at the house anymore…she dragged it with her when she died."

"You mean it was bound to the house and Mai re-cast that contract thing there" Ayako shifted her glance to the scroll "to put herself on the line all the while sealing the spirit to her life so that when she died it died?"

"That seems to be the case." Lin answered already knowing it to be so. "As a life line she must have scribbled that mark on the scroll, so now the question is how do we bring her back using this?" He looked up at Madoka and Yasuhara.

"Well" Madoka started but went silent before finishing.

"We didn't find anything that corresponds to this situation in the least." Yasuhara glanced at the older female researcher as she reaffirmed his statement with a nod. "I suppose it should be similar to a normal sealing though only using a body rather than some inanimate object."

"Meaning that somewhere on her body should be the same mark…if that is truly the case."

The statement made more than one eyebrow lift especially from the male occupants of the room who were undoubtedly thinking strange and obscure things.

"Jeeze…boys" Ayako huffed as she stood and quickly pulled the blanket covering Mai's body down to her waist. "We won't know unless we look." With ease the Miko carefully pulled open the hospital issue gown revealing a bandaged and discolored torso.

"What if it is covered by a bandage?" Bou-san was leaning over and looking at the slightly stained gauze pads covering a multitude of cuts. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the critical glare of Naru looking over every inch of Mai's exposed skin with almost frightening intensity.

"There" Naru suddenly said causing everyone's attention to focus on him. He pointed to a small blood colored mark on the far side of her left breast. "It is worn and smudged but that is the symbol."

"You're right, that is the mark alright." Bou-san confirmed. "So, now what do we do with it?" He, including the rest of the room, turned expectant gazes on the two people standing at the front of the room.

After a great deal of bantering back and forth about options of what to do with the mark, it seemed as if they were right back where they started. Madoka and Yasuhara had not come across any reference that even came close to the situation they were currently in.

The seal had been used to trap things within objects like boulders and shrines…not people's souls…

"Well, how was the seal normally broken in those cases?" A weary Bou-san asked the female researcher. "It can't be that much different from what was done then…"

Madoka looked down at her papers once again, "Only someone with strong spiritual sense could break the seal. Even then the seal was difficult to actually dissolve."

"In some cases the seal would be degraded either by natural causes like wind and rain or by people in which case they tried to break the seal by purifying it or burning it…but it lists that even if the symbol was gone…the seal had not in actuality been broken." Yasuhara passed the packet of information to the monk.

"So how was it broken then?" John asked looked over at the printed document, "if the symbol is no longer there…then what broke it?"

"This" Madoka help up a copy of a page that looked to be very tattered and worn. The writing on it was smudged and blurry. It didn't help that the language couldn't be made out. "From what we can tell this symbol here" she pointed to a crudely drawn mark in the center of the page, "has the power to break seals made by this symbol." She held up another page similar to the first but it displayed the mark in question.

"According to what we read this symbol must be drawn with blood by someone with high spiritual power over the seal mark, or where the mark was presumed to be, and then it is to be purified in one way or another. Once that is completed, according to the references, the seal should be broken." Yasuhara handed another packet to Naru who quickly skimmed the information re-reading the information just presented.

"How is that going to work since we have two seals to break?" Ayako asked while looking at the scroll. "Are we going to have to break them at the same time?"

"It would be wise to break them at the same time." Lin interjected, "if this is what is holding Mai here in any way then we want to make sure there is no way for her to get lost due to this process."

"If we break it, same time or not, wouldn't we be in effect cutting off her life line?" Masako spoke for the first time. She truly looked like she was in thought, given the situation and predicament her full and undivided attention.

Everyone paused. That probably would be the case, even though no one wanted to admit it…but it was either that or having her trapped in a coma in which she could never return until she eventually wasted away and died. No, they needed to take the chance to bring her back…even if it meant risking her life.

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A/N: Please review! Only two more chapters after this one!