Wow. I was initially drawn to this because of the name, wondering how overt the fighting game references would be, but was blown away by the actual story here. It really reminds me of those types of sci-fi short stories you read as a kid/teen that just stay with you, in the back of your head, for the rest of your life.
I'm going to be turning it over in my head in a similar way as I regularly think back to The Veldt or The Jaunt.
Thinking about the name and meaning. How once you hold down the buttons for a negative edge move, you're *committed* to doing something, and that something is probably going to hurt you or your opponent. But the pressing of the button isn't what actually unleashes the attack. It's when you release the button that the attack finally goes off.
And tying that to the story and themes here is really chef's kiss. I wondered if you'd explicitly explain negative edge mechanics in the work, but I selfishly like the decision not to. The story mentions that Saffron uses fighting games for escapist purposes, which I think is enough to indicate "the name is intentional", even before we see the specific words that get colored differently. The lack of hand holding makes me feel like I'm doing A Literary Analysis, which is why I selfishly am glad you made that call.