UPDATE:

today I took out a tuggy razor (shavable but it pulled). with 1 layer of tape (it has it's bevel set that way). honed it on my tried and true cnat: first with slurry then with plain water. Until the razor was touched up for comfortable shaves. No HHT, did not sever the hair without ANY feedback or pull. shaving leg hair: If I move the razor very slowly, I could still feel the pull of the blade on the hair . I could feel the pull but barely.

at this point I took out the Ozuku and wetted the surface. I decided to do very very light strokes to give it a good finish. did 20 "negative pressure" x strokes and a couple light strops (as Alex suggested to remove any possible burr) and dried the blade. did the same test got the same result.

did another 20 x strokes. still no change. at this point I wetted the stone again (only a few drops) and did light circles and some strop strokes. I did this for longer but was not counting because I was convinced the edge changing is very slow (if there is any change at all). at the end I dried the blade and tested. no change. stropped on steerhide, no tangible change.

lesson 1 learned: super light x strokes on a few drops of water probably wont change the edge if I came off the cnat.