Hijikata folded his arms in front of himself, his body language closed off and defensive, though not over the top about it -- he rarely was, about anything. He watched Alric coolly, impassively, pausing to reconfigure his approach before he replied.

"Being overfocused can get as much in your way as being unfocused can," he said, shying away again from overt discussion of emotions and their state. "It's putting you off balance."

Or, to phrase it as anyone else might, he was concerned that Alric was channeling his feelings into his training enough to be detrimental to both.