"Nine of Hearts, Part 9" (ハートの 9 パート 9, Hāto no 9, Pāto 9) is the fourth chapter of the second volume and the ninth chapter overall of the Alice in Borderland RETRY manga, written and illustrated by Haro Aso.
Summary[]
Kitou walks into Hall 5, shocking Arisu and Himari who expected Onoue to survive instead. He refuses to disclose how he avoided dying but confidently claims that he has found a foolproof way of staying alive. Arisu is terrified, as he realizes his inability to win against Kitou. He is convinced that there is a simple and obvious explanation, so he forces himself to search for one.
Having analyzed the whole game from the beginning, Arisu comes to the conclusion that the answer has been in their phones all along: since the cards can be given only to those who have not died from an alien invasion, the dead body at the start of the game can still receive cards. Moreover, the phone in his hands is still active, which means it can give "LIFE" cards as well.
A flashback reveals the actual conclusion of Onoue's storyline: she saw that Kitou had two phones, and Kitou explained that he had collected the second one from the corpse before the beginning of the game. According to Kitou, the body was a carefully made replica, not a real person, and using the corpse's phone would mean the participant was still considered to be alive. Onoue realized that instead of sharing "LIFE" cards with her directly, Kitou had been using a circle between Onoue, himself, and the corpse, giving her cards from the dead man's phone. Kitou claimed that he did not have a "LIFE" card to give her anymore, then opened a shelter and hid from the alien invasion.
Since Arisu has seen though Kitou's plan, Kitou transfers a "DEATH" card to him and explains that Arisu has no way of surviving.