Souichi's Diary of Delights is volume five in the Horror World of Junji Ito series. It was originally published in 1997. To date, none of the works in this volume have been officially translated into English. Fans have unoficially completed the English translation.
The stories in this collection focus on Tsujii Souichi , a young boy who is obsessed with curses and the occult, much to the annoyance of his typical Japanese family. Souichi tends to not only make trouble for other people with his strange and mischevious behavior, but he also gets himself into hot water as well.
Characters
Souichi Tsujii
A troublemaking 5th grader. He was raised primarily by his grandmother, and is the black sheep of his family. Due to a lack of iron in his blood, he sucks on nails and holds them in his mouth. He also has the ability to shoot them out of his mouth like darts.
Kouichi Tsujii
Souichi's older brother, who is 15 years old. He is kind and level-headed. He tries to take care of Souichi, but is frustrated with his strange actions like the rest of his family.
Sayuri Tsujii
Elder sister to Souichi, and younger to Kouichi. She is in the seventh grade.
Michina and Yuusuke Hirose
Souichi's second cousins that come to visit Souichi's family.
Chapters
Chapter 1: Fun Summer Vacation
Yuusuke and Michina visit their extended family in the countryside. While sharing shaved ice with the rest of their family, Yuusuke asks about Souici's whereabouts. Kouichi, Souichi's brother, says that Souichi is very Later Michina and Yuusuke go to greet Souichi and hear talking through the door. They see the boy apparently talking to some dolls. When he notices them, he spits a nail from his mouth to scare them off. Kouichi says that Souichi is anemic and sucks on nails to compensate for his low iron levels in his blood. When he finds out that Souichi spit a nail at them, Kouichi scolds him.
Souichi hangs around his cousins and siblings but never participates in whatever they are doing. He is invited to play cards, but says that it's an idiotic thing to do. But he is frustrated that Michina will not look him in the eyes.
In the middle of the night Michina's stomach starts to hurt and she heads to the bathroom, but stumbles upon Souichi nailing a doll to a post in the storage room, shouting "Michina, suffer!" and laughing. She tries to tell Yuusuke but he doesn't believe her. The next day she chooses to stay in bed instead of going out with them, and is visited by Souichi holding another doll. She ignores him, so he plunges it into a fishtank. Shortly after Souichi's sister, Sayuri barges in, and Michina finds out that Yuusuke nearly drowned at the pool. He says that he was walking along the edge of the pool and was pushed in, but there was no one there to push him.
Later that night Michina tries again to tell Yuusuke that it was Souichi's doing, but he seems to ignore her. Souichi creeps on their room and says that because he doesn't have enough blood, he has to sneak into the streets and get it from other people. He bares "fangs" of nails and lunges at Michina who slaps him away, which causes the nails to pierce through the side of his cheek.
Michina and Yuusuke finally depart from their family vacation. Souichi even shows up to see them off, daring them to return.