Overwatch 2’s latest Kiriko story deeply connects her to the game’s cast

Blizzard has delivered a new piece of Overwatch 2 lore in the form of a short story for Kiriko.

The short story, titled Yōkai, takes place at some point in Kiriko’s past and explores her relationship with her hometown of Kanezaka. In the story, her friends decide to take revenge against the villainous Hashimoto clan, who has been terrorizing Kanezaka’s residence following the abrupt fall of their predecessors, the Shimada clan. Eagle-eyed fans will recognize Shimada as the last name of Hanzo and Genji, both of whom make brief appearances in the story as childhood friends of Kiriko’s.

Over the course of the story, Kiriko and her friends plan to disrupt a shipment of weapons that the Hashimoto are having delivered to a warehouse. With the help of her kunai and her fox spirit companion, Kiriko is able to cross the rooftops and take out the security cameras—and guards—that would otherwise disrupt her friends. At the end, her friend Ryōta wants to blow up the warehouse to send a message to the Hashimoto clan, but Kiriko stops him, reminding him of the importance of preserving the city and its residents.

The story tightens the bond between Kiriko, Hanzo, and Genji, the latter of whom seems to be good friends with Kiriko. (She mentions in the story that he would slip her candy from the Shimada Castle kitchen when the staff wasn’t looking.) Kanezaka, which is in the first Overwatch as an Arcade mode map, serves as the hometown for all three heroes and is almost a character itself in the way that Yōkai author Christie Golden describes it.

Overwatch 2 launches in early access on Oct. 4.