The Goddess of Dobugaoka

Basic Knowledge of Dobugaoka

The imaginary polluted city of "Dobugaoka" is a city filled with mystery, pollution, and hopeless people that was popular for a time among the surrealist Twitter cluster. For more details, please refer to the link below.

The Goddess of Dobugaoka

As the evening sun began to shine, she woke up in her shack on the edge of a cliff, which was a relatively good living environment in Dobugaoka. Empty cans, liquor bottles, and cigarette butts were scattered around her permanent futon. Ah, is it already this time? She slowly rose from the futon. It was probably too late for day labor now. Fortunately, her coin purse contained two 1,000-yen bills and about 1,000 "Dobu-ken" local currency notes, each worth 2 yen per 5-note set. Thinking about whether the usual standing bar was open, she got up, moving sluggishly. She combed her messy hair with her hands, threw on a dirty blouson, and crawled out of her sleeping quarters.

The Sake-Soaked Goddess

She slid open the door of the standing bar with a rattle. The shop was a very old wooden structure, showing signs of wear and tear here and there, but it was kept clean for Dobugaoka. Even the vomit was cleaned up nicely. The goddess always drank at this shop. The shop was run by a single, unfriendly old woman who must have been over 80 years old. Today, it seemed there had been day labor work, as none of the usual crowd was there.

"Hey, old lady, you're open, right? Give me some Daigoro. And an ashtray."

The goddess slammed all the money she had onto the counter and sat heavily on a chair made from a liquor crate. When the liquor arrived, she poured it to the brim into a glass that had been a promotional gift from Kirin Beer.

"Whoops."

She almost spilled the liquor, hurriedly put her mouth to it, and sipped the distilled spirit. The intoxication finally rushed back into her body, which had been drained of alcohol. She felt a sense of exhilaration that blew away the bad mood of having wasted another day.

Looking out the window, she could see the Keio Sagamihara Line running in the distance. Resting her elbows on the counter, the goddess sipped her drink and suddenly fell into deep thought. Memories of days gone by, which had been pushed to the back of her mind by the intoxication, surfaced.

The Goddess of Days Gone By

The goddess was an ancient deity who had been worshipped in Mizu-Afure-Kubikiri-Dani since long ago. Even calling it worship was a stretch; she was enshrined in a small shrine that wasn't even a proper Shinto shrine, and she was not a deity of any great significance. Her divine powers were not even clear. She had forgotten whether she was an Amatsukami or a Kunitsukami. She was just an ordinary goddess who watched over the people living in this bad land. No matter how hard she tried, this land would never become a land of abundance. She could only watch.

After a great war, people with machines came to this land. They developed this place, which had no advantages other than being "close to Tokyo," in a disorderly fashion. They built factories, mercilessly dumped waste into the valley, and eventually, the place came to be called "Dobugaoka." The powerless goddess could do nothing. She could only watch what the humans were doing while sipping her offering of sake.

Eventually, this land became completely isolated from its surroundings. People in the city, fearing that the bad things from this town would leak into Tokyo, erected a barrier. That barrier mercilessly weakened her divine powers. In the depths of the mud where the forgotten drift, she was no longer even a "worshipped god." Yet, she could not become a "yokai" or a "monster." When she looked at herself again—a "god-like thing just staying by people's side" with no god-like powers whatsoever—she had no choice but to escape into alcohol. If she didn't escape into alcohol, the only path left was madness.

"I am no longer a god... I have no power... No, I can certainly turn a girl into a magical girl on a whim, but other than that, there is nothing god-like about me..."

Without crying or lamenting, she muttered to herself. The old woman running the shop ignored her as a matter of course.

The Goddess's Divine Power

While the goddess was lost in thought, the night breeze began to blow outside, and by the time the Daigoro on the table had been reduced to just a little bit, a few of the usual middle-aged men came rattling through the door.

"Yo, Goddess. You're working a late shift today, huh?"

“Sometimes there are days like this.”

The goddess retorted with a light remark, but she sensed something unusual about the middle-aged man who had spoken to her.

“Hey, Hachi. Did anything strange happen to you today?”

“Ah... you caught me. Actually, I twisted my ankle at the site. I fell into what looked like an old well. Don't worry, it hurts a bit, but it'll be healed by tomorrow.”

The man called Hachi said, looking embarrassed.

“Never mind that, let me see it.”

The goddess urged the man with a stern look in her eyes. The man seemed embarrassed, but pressured by the goddess's intensity, he timidly took off his rubber boot and showed his dirty foot. It was quite swollen. It was possible that a bone was broken somewhere. Even if it wasn't broken, this foot would surely hinder his work.

“I see... this is...”

The goddess took the remaining sake in her glass into her mouth and sprayed it forcefully onto the man's foot. It was a magnificent spray of sake, reminiscent of the legendary professional wrestler, The Great Kabuki.

“Cold!? What are you doing!?”

For a moment, particles of light seemed to wrap around the affected area. It was not the light emitted by the particles of sake.

The man looked at the affected area with a puzzled expression.

“Oh, I just disinfected it for you. Well, take care of yourself. I'm going home now. I'm out of money, so I have to work tomorrow if I want to drink.”

Having said that, the goddess rolled the empty Daigoro bottle and left the shop.

The men remained behind, and before long, they began to drink again. After a while, Hachi, who had been there earlier, suddenly muttered.

“That's strange. The swelling in my foot, which hurt so much, has completely gone down...”