Volume 9 (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

The Fifth Child is the ninth release of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's manga for Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Overview
Kaworu Nagisa is introduced as a new Evangelion pilot, but Shinji immediately hates him after Kaworu kills a stray kitten. Meanwhile, Asuka has problems synching with Unit-02 after suffering continuous defeat against the Angels; her fragile confidence is shaken when she must fight an Angel alone when Unit-02 is the only Evangelion ready for battle. However, the Angel invades Asuka's mind and makes remembers her past until she collapses from trauma, leaving Rei to throw the Spear of Longinus into space to destroy the Angel. With Asuka left comatose, Kaworu is assigned to be the pilot of Unit-02. Soon afterward, another Angel attacks Tokyo-3, but Shinji, Rei, and Kaworu's efforts are fruitless and Unit-00 is infected by the attacking Angel.

Stage 57: The Fifth Child
Asuka reminiscents the day she was selected to be an Evangelion pilot, and runs to her mother, but found her holding her doll thinking it is Asuka. Asuka counts her work in Unit-02 against the Angels, and that she only defeated one of them, and the next one was with Shinji, and the one after it, all three pilots were sent to defeat it, but the last two have defeated her flawlessly, the thing that made her self-confidence shatters, effecting her sychro ratio and making it drop. Misato tells Shinji to go to school, but he doesn't have the will to go, be decided to go at last. Shinji brakes on his way on some ruins where he found a stray cat, and hears a piano from somewhere inside the ruins. He followed the sound, and found a boy there, who asked him to lead him to the junior high school, because he is lost. The boy asked him why he is holding a cat, and Shinji let go of it, but it still wants to follow him, and then the boy killed the cat, saying that killing it now was kinder that leaving it starve to death. Shinji feels that this boy feels like Ayanami when he first met her, and the boy introduced himself as Kaworu Nagisa, the Fifth Child.

Stage 58: Rejection
Kensuke wonders about the pilots absence, and if Hikari knows why Toji never came to school. Hikari got surprised to see Shinji come to school, and noticed some else with him. Shinji noticed that Hikari and Kensuke are looking at him, and ran off, and Kaworu followed him. Kaworu tells Shinji to lead him to NERV Headquarters see his Eva, and since he hasn't been assigned officialy yet. Meanwhile, Asuka is still getting worse results in the synchronization, so much that she is barely above the startup index. Ritsuko thinks that they may rewrite the Core of Unit-02, since the Fifth Child will arrive soon. Shinji is looking for Kaworu after they arrived at NERV HQ, while Asuka is still tired and says that she doesn't want to have children anymore, when she noticed Kaworu in the women's toilet. Asuka got mad because of his words that she can't synch with her heart closed, and Shinji got there before Asuka could get in some trouble. Misato noticed that Shinji, Asuka and Kaworu are in the toilet, when suddenly Asuka fainted. Misato takes Asuka and tells Shinji to take him, while she is questioning herself about Kaworu, only one thing is known about him: His birthday is the same as the day of Second Impact. Asuka wakes up and demands on Misato to let her go, when the alarm was declared: Another Angel has appeared. The new Angel appeared in the low-earth orbit, as a multi-winged creature made of intense light.

Stage 59: Pride
Kaworu and Shinji heard the emergency declarance, and Shinji is ordered to standby. Misato orders to send Rei to face it and Asuka as her backup, but Asuka got angry being backup for Rei, and launches in Unit-02 alone. Shinji goes to the command center to ask about himself being in standby and the only pilot not fighting, and Misato told about the Commander's orders. At the surface, Asuka in Unit-02 tries to focus on the Angel, but it won't come down, but attacks from above with its light beam which started to penetrate her psyche. Asuka tries to shoot at it but none reached the target, and the Angel starts to mentally contaminate her mind.

Stage 60: A Doll
The Angel continues to penetrate Asuka's mind, as she suffers, begging him to stop, but that was useless, as the Angel made her remember her past, and her mother trying to poison Asuka against her ex-husband's daughter. Misato orders her to return to the base, but Asuka refuses to return, prefering death over retreat. Meanwhile, Rei in Unit-00 is readied to fire with the Positron Rifle, and the shot hit the Angel's A.T. Field, but it wasn't strong enough to neutralize it even at its maximum power, due to the extreme range and power limitation. Ritsuko understood that the Angel is examining the human soul. Asuka reminiscents her mother's funeral and her mother taking care of a doll thinking it is Asuka. Asuka tries to talk with her, but instead got strangled by her, and lastly, remembers her mother's suicide, and falls unconscious, and Unit-02 has shut down.

Stage 61: The Spear Of Longinus
The Angel is still stable at its location, and Asuka is suffering because of her shocking meomries. Shinji insists on Misato to go save her in Unit-01, but both Kaworu and Gendo said it is useless, and then Gendo orders Rei to retrieve the Spear of Longinus from Terminal Dogma, the thing that both Fuyutsuki and Misato complained about using it, although with different reasons. Unit-00 reached Terminal Dogma and removed the Spear from Lilith's torso. Fuyutsuki argues with Gendo about using it, but Gendo replies that this would be their chance since SEELE started constructing the Mass Production Evas. Rei reached the surface in Unit-00 with the Spear in its arms, and prepares to throw it. The Spear succeeded in destroying the Angel, but it escaped Earth's gravity, eventually landing on the moon. Shinji goes to see Asuka, but NERV was too late in saving her, leading her to fall in coma. Misato goes to tell Kaworu that he was officially assigned to NERV, and is going to pilot Unit-02.

Stage 62: Distance
SEELE is reproaching Gendo because of using the Spear of Longinus, which is irrecoverable by them now, since the Eva series haven't reached the scheduled number. Gendo replied by the excuse that destroying the Angel took priority, and said that continuing the discussion is of no use, and leaves, but not before Keel Lorenz warns him he may not have seat next time. After Gendo leaves, SEELE talks with Tabris/Kaworu and tell him to inform them about any thing that Gendo does. Kaworu says that humans are such interesting creatures, and he cannot get tired of watching them, although SEELE agrees with that, but they also replied as soon as the Project is completed, the mankind will be freed of this onerous troubles.

Shinji goes to visit the comatose Asuka, and sighs for not being able to help her but only watch. Rei was watching Shinji and then left, and shortly after meets Kaworu for the first time. He tells her they are the same, but she denies that. The three pilots go to the Sychro test, and, to NERV's surprise, Kaworu has got a very high ratio even though the Core wasn't rewritten. After the test, Shinji goes to take a shower, but Kaworu goes to ask Shinji to give him a soap. Shinji got disturbed of Kaworu's actions, and asks him to stay away and then leaves the shower. Shinji sees Rei and talk with her, while wondering if the distance between the two of them will shrink even more than it is.

Hyuga tells Misato about Marduk Institute's on Kaworu, but his files were classified, and while driving, noticed a flying plasmid-like Angel about to attack the city.

Stage 63: Returning Fire
The new Angel has fixed over Owakudani, and Units 00 and 02 were sent against it, while Unit-01 is still under the freeze status in the Cage. This time, Kaworu is piloting Unit-02. Shinji sighs for his situation, though he hated fighting before, but what happened last fight changed his mind. Misato orders Rei to observe its status, but it was too late, since the Angel began attacking with changing its shape to thread-like and charges at the Evas. The rifles haven't done any damage, and NERV sent the dual saw to Unit-02. Kaworu has shown very amazing piloting skills, which lead Ritsuko to say "Asuka was also good... but he is even better." Kaworu attacked the Angel with the saw, but the other side of the Angel charged at Rei, surprising her, and the Angel's thread end splitted into multiple ends, and penetrated Unit-00 and the dual saw of Unit-02.