Stage 57 - Fifth Children

Cover: Asuka sitting in a swimsuit with her back toward the keyboard of a rather beat-up piano

Scene: Flashback -- Young Asuka running
Young Asuka: Mama! Mama, listen! I've been chosen! An elite pilot to protect humankind! I was
chosen from among so many (candidates)! I'm special! Just like you wanted! (arrives at mother's
sickroom and looks in through window to see her mother in bed holding a doll) So Mama -- look at
me! Mama! (End flashback)

Scene: Asuka lying on her bed in the dark, clutching her pillow
Asuka: I only beat one Angel by myself... (Gaghiel flashback) and even that was with the
cooperation of the Pacific Fleet... I could not have beaten the next Angel (Israfel flashback)
without Shinji, and the next Angel (Sahaquiel flashback) was the three of us including First.
All I did was just carry out orders. And I was completely helpless against the next two Angels
(Bardiel and Zeruel flashbacks). Both of those were beaten by the invincible Shinji... (closes
eyes and clutches pillow tighter) Am I really special...? Tell me, mother, Kaji...

Scene: Nerv HQ -- Asuka's Synchro test
Ritsuko: Can you hear me, Asuka? Just proceed like normal and try not to think about unnecessary
things.
Asuka (spacing in plug): ..... (then angry) I am doing it! Just like normal!
Maya: ...What's wrong with Asuka? She doesn't seem herself.
Ritsuko: And that's not good -- not in these harried times. I guess we should place priority on
Rei's Eva-0. We don't have the resources to repair both at the same time right now.

Scene: Misato's apartment -- Misato putting on Nerv jacket and getting ready to leave
Misato: Shinji, how much longer are you going to stay home from school?
Shinji (feeding Pen^2): Huh?
Misato: Physically you're okay, right? But you haven't been to school for months now.
Shinji: Um, well... do I have to go?
Misato: ..... I know it's hard for you to go, but your job is not just to pilot Eva. Studying is
also part of your work. And further, making you go to school is also my job.
Shinji: But what about Asuka? She's still sleeping...
Misato: Asuka is a college graduate so she doesn't have to go! You should worry about yourself
instead of others.
Shinji (averting eyes): But...
Misato: Shinji, it's not hard just for you. It's hard for everyone, but they're working and
doing the best they can.
Shinji: I know...

Scene: Shinji in school uniform, sitting absently on some rubble in a heavily damaged part of
the city
Shinji (thinking): Sure Misato can say that, but there's no way I can go to school. I killed
Touji... so how can I ever face Kensuke and the Class Rep?
(A white kitten appears and meows at Shinji, who picks it up in surprise)
Shinji: A cat? Wow, you're a tiny little thing, aren't you? (meow) Did you get separated from
your mother? (meow) You can rub up against me, but I don't have anything to give you. If I only
had some bread or something...
(Shinji hears music and looks around in surprise)
Shinji (thinking): A piano...
(Still holding the kitten, Shinji moves toward the sound -- toward a destroyed church)
Shinji (thinking): Why in this place...?
(Shinji enters the ruined church and sees a boy playing a grand piano in the remains of a great
hall with sun rays streaming in through the windows of a still standing wall. The boy finishes
playing and speaks.)
Kaworu: Do you know it? this song?
Shinji: What?
Kaworu: I heard it while walking through the city earlier. Do you know what song it is?
Shinji: Beethoven's 9th... (thinking) I think...
Kaworu: Hmmm... (looks at Shinji) That uniform is from the 1st Junior High School, right?
Shinji: Uh... yes.
Kaworu (gets up from piano bench): Take me there.
Shinji: Huh?
Kaworu: I got lost. I wasn't supposed to come here.
Shinji: Are you... a transfer?
Kaworu: Something like that. What about you? Why are you here? Are you lost, too?
Shinji: Ah, no, I... um...
Kaworu: And why are you holding a cat?
(The kitten meows -- Shinji puts it down and turns to leave)
Shinji (to kitten): Go along now.
(The kitten meows again and follows Shinji)
Shinji (to kitten): I can't take you with me. I can't keep you.
(The kitten meows again and keeps following Shinji)
Shinji (flustered): I said go!
(Kaworu reaches down without speaking and picks up the kitten. Then, as Shinji watches in
surprise (and then shock), Kaworu squeezes the kitten and breaks its neck.)
Shinji (clutching at Kaworu's sleeve): Stop it!
Kaworu (looks at Shinji, expressionless): It's already dead.
(Kaworu nonchalantly tosses the kitten's body into the grass at the side of the path.)
Shinji (still clutching at Kaworu's sleeve): Why... why did you do such a thing...
Kaworu: You said yourself that you couldn't take it with you, right?
Shinji (shouting): That doesn't mean you had to kill it!
Kaworu (calm): But this cat would have died anyway had you left it. (Shinji stops in shock) It
had no mother and no food. No one but you and me would come to this type of place, so it would
have starved and died a slow and painful death. (Kaworu smiles slightly) So it was better that I
killed it now.
(Shinji stares dumbfounded in shock)
Shinji (thinking): What is it... this feeling... I've felt it before. Yes, that's it -- like
Ayanami when I first met her...
Shinji: Who... who are you?
Kaworu (smiling slightly): I'm Nagisa Kaworu, the Fifth Children. Didn't they tell you, Ikari
Shinji?

- End Stage 57