Kuma is in denial, but the writing is on the wall when it comes to Heihachi's fate. We should also mention that this clearly isn't just a case of Heihachi lying low considering Kuma's Tekken 8 biography. That turned out to be true with Jun's return in Tekken 8, so that probably means that Harada is being truthful when he says that Heihachi is now 'completely dead.' It's also worth noting that Harada had been hinting for years that Jun Kazama was still alive despite it being implied that Ogre had killed her before the events of Tekken 3. 'Heihachi has been dead so many times, you have to make sure it's convincing this time', and we were like, 'you told us to make sure he's dead, right?!'' added Murray. 'Heihachi had failed to actually convert the devil gene, and he doesn't have it so there's no way he can revive like Kazuya or Jin can.' 'He looked pretty dead to me,' said Harada back in late March. Michael Murray also added that it was intended to make the fighter's death be convincing this time. Of course, this isn't the first time that Harada has stated that Heihachi was killed at the end of Tekken 7. Some degree of skepticism is to be expected considering that the character was believed dead after the events of Tekken 1 where Kazuya threw him off a cliff, and during the events of Tekken 5 where he was caught in an explosion.
