At least more happens in volume 7 of RG Veda, but not with our main characters. Ashura, Yasha, and the rest end up staying with Shara, a nice human woman who turns out to be Rasetsu's wife. CLAMP spent most of volume 7 trying to hide her identity, but it wasn't very effective because it was revealed in the next-volume preview of volume 6. I hate when people do that. I wonder if that was a Tokyopop decision or if it was in the original text.
Ashura bonds with Shara and asks questions about what it means to be a family and protect the people you love. Yasha lets Ashura do whatever he wants. Finally, we get an explanation for that: Because the Shura sword will lead them to the six stars, and because the Shura sword is inside of Ashura, Yasha figures the best option is to follow Ashura's whims. It's not a bad reason to wander around randomly. Eventually, the fire god Aguni attacks and there's some fighting that is interrupted when Karura finally shows up.
Meanwhile, we spend quite a bit of time in the castle. Queen Shashi plots to have her son Tenou replace Taishakuten as God King, which she feels will put herself into power. Prince Tenou, Ashura's brother, attempts to hit on Kendappa, who is clearly oblivious and uninterested. Kendappa again swears her allegiance to Taishakuten, but simultaneously hides the fact that she knows that Karura is alive. General Zouchouten, the guy who stopped Taishakuten from killing Karura, also knows that she is alive, but refuses to say anything. Taishakuten speaks of the one thing that he wants to protect, which he'll give up everything for.
There are a couple of experimental wordless passages here that depict battles. The first one is a flashback to the battle between Taishakuten and the former God King. The second is a demonstration battle between Tenou and Zouchouten. They're really effective sections, showing just how skilled the artwork is. It's clearly the artwork that drew in the audience for RG Veda, because the story just isn't there. But the art is absolutely stunning.
Finally, the volume ends with a confusing flashback to Lord Ashura (our Ashura's father) in the past. He speaks of his "sin" and confronts a fellow pointy-eared individual who is wrapped up in some sort of machine. He knows that there is some destiny that he does not want to happen, so he speaks to Yasha and tells him to protect the thing that he finds precious. He mentions his child, so it's clear that he's referring to our Ashura, but I can't tell if speaking to Yasha about protecting Ashura was Lord Ashura's crime, or if there was some other crime involved.
Throughout the chapter, there's a theme of how fighting your destiny makes you a sinner because you're going against the laws of the universe, but I don't think CLAMP believes that. In fact, most CLAMP characters manage to work within their destiny to do good. It's just not clear enough what Lord Ashura knew, what he did to try to prevent it, or why it matters.
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